Off to Arizona

It was great to hear about all the other projects that the other fellows did this summer. Only one other was kind of similar to mine. A woman was learning how to combine music and justice and part of her project involved writing music for a very specific community with which she spent some time.

My presentation of my project went well; I did a quick slide show of what I considered the major catagories of community art that I encountered: interactive art that requires no skill, collaborative art that makes use of the skills people already have, art that serves to create a sense of place, art in which the content is determined by the audience/community and then constructed by professional artists, and Theatre of the Oppressed.

Also, I got chance to lead another interactive theatre project with the group (it turns out that one of the fellows has an M.A. in theatre and used to do this type of work all the time but never thought to bring it into her ministry). The mood was very different this time around as the occasion was the fair-well session for a cohort which has become close friends. It was tough to get people to focus and there was an interesting dynamic in that the group was very comfortable and familiar with eachother, but not with the type of activities that we were doing. But with a few modifications to the activities that usually go into ensamble building, we were able to explore some interesting emotions and ideas about ourselves as a group and have a fun time doing it.

Now I'm off to Arizona to begin my year-long internship at Desert Cross Lutheran Church.