Blocks to Bridges
education - Community engagement - event planning
How can artists use real world experiences and infuse them into their characters in a way that is respectful, authentic, and powerful?
During my tenure at Young at Arts, I spearheaded and led the Blocks to Bridges initiative: a series of culturally immersive experiences for high school artists. Each installment was set in a NYC neighborhood thematically linked to their current artistic endeavors. We brought students down to Washington Heights and El Barrio to prepare them for their production of In The Heights.
Blocks to Bridges: El Barrio
A group of 30 high schoolers went down to El Barrio (aka Spanish Harlem) for the first of two Blocks to Bridges events during it’s first semester. The day began with a walking tour that challenged the students to think about topics including the role of artists, gentrification, and the relationship between culture and neighborhoods. The students visited local businesses, public murals, and community gardens. The tour was in collaboration with El Museo del Barrio.
After taking a tour of the neighborhood, the students joined El Museo’s teen program for an exchange. The exchange was developed to build bridges that would inform the students’ current artistic endeavors: podcasting for the teens at El Museo and character development for the Stars. After several rounds of rapid-fire questions, an actor’s meditation, and a performance of ‘96,000’ from In the Heights, the students were quickly sharing Instagram handles and asking to connect in the future!
During the final part of the day, the Stars went into a character development workshop that I led. The students reflected on a central question: How can artists use real world experiences and infuse them into their characters in a way that is respectful, authentic, and powerful? Using diaries, the students wrote reflections as their characters and then put together scenes in small groups, flexing their improv muscles.
Blocks to Bridges: Washington Heights
For the second edition of Blocks to Bridges, the high schoolers visited Washington Heights, experiencing the backdrop of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights. While strolling uptown via Broadway, the Stars viewed community murals, visited Malcom X’s memorial, and stopped to perform in various public parks. The students found a Piragua cart and indulged in the Puerto Rican frozen treat. Josh, who plays the role of the Piragua Guy in the show, got to watch the process and take a picture behind the cart!
During the second half of their trip to the Heights, the young artists broke up into small groups to source props and set-dressing for their theatrical production. The students visited local bodegas, salons, botanicas, and street vendors to gather items to populate the set. This firsthand experience helps these young actors and actresses make better sense of their on-stage environment. It also helps them better develop a background for their characters and build empathy for the community they are portraying.
One freshman reflected on the Blocks to Bridges experiences, “Before the tours, [my character] had no background, no destination, no motive, and not even a name. But because of the activities we did, I was able to create a story and a goal for my character. I was able to feel like a person who actually lived in El Barrio…”
Youth Arts Education
education - Community engagement - creative
While at Young at Arts, a performing arts educational organization, I taught three classes spanning elementary, middle, and high school students.
