Planting Seeds of Peace bears Fruits of Hope in Youth

Education is an equal partner in the mission of the Providence Black Repertory Company. Originally designed to compensate for budget cuts in the arts throughout public schools, the Education and Public Programs of the PBRC continues to impact hundreds of young lives across areas in Rhode Island that may be deemed “culturally-underserved.”

In 2002-03, PBRC ArtistEducators provided youth and afterschool workshops that spanned many themes and addressed a gamut of topics; ranging from peace and reconciliation, hope for the future, the current state of hip hop culture, drug prevention and gang violence, and many more.

Matching those themes with a handful of arts and performance-based skills of teaching, such as; poetry, storytelling, music-composition, original writing, etc., made for another outstanding year of solid partnerships with local schools, educators, young people, and their communities.

These programs were conducted in several key locations: Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School, CSI/Pawtucket, and the Textron Chamber Academy this year. The partnership with the Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Continuing Education at the University of RI Providence Campus, began in 2001 and was facilitated by both PBRC Education Staff and Mr. Steven Pennell, who is the artist-in-residence at CCE/URI.

The “S.E.E.D.S. of Peace/Hope” Poetry Project provides Saturday workshops for young people between the ages of 8-14, and has been running in sessions since 2001. The Project will embark upon its fifth session in the fall of 2003.

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