TOP 50 IN THE COUNTRY!

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In February, AfA applied for the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, and once again we have been recognized as having one of the top 50 youth arts programs in the country. More info here: www.artfromashes.org/about/community-awards-and-honors.

The NAHYP is a program of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities™—in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services™—to showcase cultural excellence and enhance the availability of out-of-school arts and humanities programs to children and young people.

Since AfA has consistently been recognized by this prestigious organization, we received a letter from the National Endowment for the Humanities encouraging us to apply for their Challenge Grant. After several conversations with the federal agency and over 100 hours of work on behalf of several members of the grant team, we applied for a two-year federal grant in May.

2017 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award Finalists Announced

Recover Your Creative Genius Gala

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On June 9 Art from Ashes, guest artists, and more than 50 supportive donors gathered at the Grant-Humphreys Mansion in Denver to celebrate the importance of creativity in substance-abuse prevention and recovery.

The gala fundraiser, Recover Your Creative Genius, grew out of AfA’s success working addiction and substance abuse prevention and intervention. It was organized in large part by Liz Kane of Centennial Peaks Hospital, Rourke Weaver of Red Rock Recovery Center, with support from Wesley Hooks of Sandstone Care. Many of the young people we serve have been affected by substance abuse, and our youth empowerment programs demonstrate the importance of creative expression for personal transformation.

Keynote speaker Austin Eubanks spoke about his journey from Columbine survivor through addiction to his current work as an addiction expert. Guest artists Sur Ellz and Kid Astronavt joined AfA youth poet Savannah Ray Arterburn to provide an incredibly moving performance. Boss Sauce provided appetizers and a lavish three-course meal, and AfA board members, volunteers and staff contributed wine.

AfA Board President Lewis Lease and Executive Director Catherine O’Neill Thorn discussed the importance of AfA in our community and also thanked the attendees for supporting our programs with their generosity.

Corporate sponsors included Centennial Peaks Hospital, Red Rock Recovery Center, Sandstone Care, The Recovery Village at Palmer Lake, Dominion Diagnostics, and True Value of Woodville.

Young AmeriTowne

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On May 23, Art from Ashes was one of six charities chosen by the Young AmeriTowne youth board members to receive a donation at a lovely ceremony at Young American’s Bank in Lakewood. Over the course of the year, everyone was invited to donate personal funds or business profits at the donation station. The Community First Foundation agreed to match $.10 to each AmeriTowne dollar donated. We are especially grateful to the incredible youth from Young AmeriTowne for choosing our organization!

Young AmeriTowne is an organization that offers teachers of 4th and 5th graders a program that helps students learn about business, economics, and free enterprise. Every year they choose six new charities to receive AmeriTowne dollars, a play currency used to represent real money. Young AmeriTowne has over 11,000 youth participating at the Belmar location and over 25,000 students overall in their flagship program.

Noon Whistle Fund provides a much-needed breath of fresh air

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We are incredibly excited to announce that we have received a significant donation from the Noon Whistle Fund! The Noon Whistle Fund is a family foundation whose members came all the way from Chicago this month to visit our office here in Denver. We ran through our Love Synesthesia prompt together, showing them how transformative our curriculum is for young people. Not only did they provide us with our requested amount, but they informed us a few days after their visit that they were so impressed with our program, they would be increasing it by 72% to provide additional staff support!

The Noon Whistle created their donor-advised fund in order to give back to many communities, wherever they may be. They do not have a website and don’t want to provide any contact information. The family members who comprise the foundation are kind and caring people, and we are so very thankful for their generosity. Because of support like this, we can all breathe more deeply, the load a little lighter.

Adult Workshop Poem-Ginny Threefoot

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A What-the-Workshop-Was-Like-for-Me Collage

1.
Every meeting was a gift –
presents of words and gifts of presence.
A multiplicity of selves, each with her voice.
The beauty of listening.

2.
My heart wants to know if we are on speaking terms.
I say to my heart: we are birds of a feather. We depend on each other.
I taught my heart how to lay down a stone.

3.
The Art and Power of Story Making:
It’s time you spoke….
Lost in the art of words, I am found.
I am now free to look within for answers.
I compose myself.
(Homewords lead me homeward.)

4.
Three Minute Gifts
The minutes pass without my counting them.
I am, I am, I am….
I am one who studies shadows, wondering.
I am free to hear god humming in the leaves,
to laugh and laugh.

5.
Minor (life-saving) surgery: Left-brain Bypass

6.
Transformations/Alchemy
What is near can be seen anew.
What is far can be called upon.
Burdens into offerings. Curses into blessings.
Fears into kindnesses.
Here is this day. Here is this gift.
Here is my gratitude.

Granted A Great Honor

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by Jessica Jarrard

Art from Ashes (AfA) is grateful to have an amazing team of volunteer grant writers, editors, and researchers who donate their time and talents to help AfA generate funding for our creative youth empowerment programs. This year, the volunteer grant team has applied for seven grants from a variety of funders including state, federal, nonprofit, and foundation grantors. AfA has already received four grant awards so far this year AND a great honor:

  • Denver Active 20-30 Children’s Foundation
  • Office of Children’s Affairs Healthy Lifestyles for Youth
  • The Tony Grampsas Youth Services Award (TGYS)
  • Arts in Society (a new funder for us)

In February, AfA applied for the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award and once again, we have been recognized as one of the top 50 youth arts organizations in the country. The NAHYP is a program of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities™—in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services™—to showcase cultural excellence and enhance the availability of out-of-school arts and humanities programs to children and young people. Since AfA has consistently been recognized by this prestigious organization, we received a letter from the National Endowment for the Humanities encouraging us to apply for their Challenge Grant. After several conversations with the federal agency and over 100 hours of work on behalf of several members of the grant team, we applied for a two-year federal grant in May.

Thank you to the dedicated members of the AfA grant team, and many thanks to community sponsors, like SCFD, 2A, TGYS, and Arts in Society, who allow us to continue providing creative youth empowerment programs for the youth in our community!

Rachel Icolari, youth representative to the board, and Catherine O’Neill Thorn, executive director, accept the award from Denver Active 20-30 Children’s Foundation.

The awards reception was held at Ralph Schomp BMW!

2017 Mayor’s Youth Award

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Rachel Icolari, 18, a long-time Art from Ashes workshop participant, facilitator-in-training, and youth representative to the agency’s board of directors, was presented the 2017 Mayor’s Youth Award on March 17. Each year, the City of Denver asks individuals in the community to submit nominations for the award. AfA staff and board members were eager to nominate Rachel, an amazing youth who discovered AfA while in residential treatment. Rachel regularly attends the Wednesday drop-in workshops at AfA’s location in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and helps facilitate the First Friday workshops.

“Art from Ashes has completely changed my life,” Rachel says. “I was thinking of dropping out of school, but after I started going to the workshops every week, I decided that wasn’t a good idea because I was shown that I have a future.” Rachel no longer wants to drop out of school after experiencing connection, expression, and transformation at AfA. Instead, Rachel says “I am going to college after I graduate and will be majoring in special education with a minor in creative writing.”

Rachel met the Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock during the awards ceremony and was recognized for numerous personal achievements. Way to go, Rachel!
Watch the Video! (at 43:06)

 

Orphan-Xexal

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Orphan
By Xexal, 19

I am the first-born child in my family
Meaning, my parents planned to have me
But were worried when I was born
Because an instruction manual
Didn’t follow after me from the womb…
They were forced to learn to love me
Like they were supposed to…
Meaning, they were as lost as I was

Without a mouth to talk and two legs to walk
I’m not saying that I didn’t have a good childhood
Up until when I started to cocoon into myself
To birth who I felt I wanted to be

It was smooth sailing
It was only after I took an Etch-a-Sketch to their final project
That was deemed as a job well done
See, I learned from kid Icarus
Not to fly too close to the sun
So I stopped going to church every Sunday
That maybe my parents would see my insubordination
As free will instead of rebellion

The unknown—
You always fear what you don’t understand
But there’s a choice that comes after
Fight or flight
Run back to the 3-story house you call a home
Or throw me a lifeline and trudge with me
Through my grit and grime
Maybe that Chrysler 300 can turn on a dime
But I can’t seem to get your time of day
‘Cause you see me walking down a long and lonesome road
But tell me to get off of it
To follow the yellow brick road to Jesus
And I’ll live in Emerald City with the Great and Powerful Oz
But these lies are locked like the boot of a car
For too many unpaid parking tickets
And maybe I don’t have a heart filled with courage
Or a head full of knowledge
So I’m left to the Wicked Witch
Of the path that I’m on right now

And it’s not like you can’t learn to love me
That’s not it, you did it before
But now it’s a little harder to love me
It’s… uncomfortable…
You see me as a rose in your garden
But don’t pick me ‘cause I come with a couple thorns on the side
As if to say the scars you left me with
Aren’t a signature from your own thorns

I mean I hate to break it to you
But sometimes you make me feel like an orphan
One in reverse order of natural adoptions
First you saw me, didn’t quite know how to love me
But knew deep down in your virgin hearts that I was yours to claim

And as time went on, you did love me
Like I came right from your womb

And as time went on, you had a serious loathing
For my unconformity to your portrait family picture
You grew distant… cold…

So I ran farther, hoping my trail would go cold, too
Every action has an equal but opposite reaction
I hope you’ve learned from my pain
Because no child should ever feel like an orphan

Xexal: Warrior Poet

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“I fell in love the first day,” Xexal said with a smile. “I was meant to be here.”

After being kicked out of her parent’s house for being transgender, Xexal had nowhere to go, and at 19, found herself at Urban Peak, Denver’s homeless youth shelter. A few of Xexal’s fellow Peak-mates had been coming to AfA’s weekly drop-in workshops. Curious, Xexal decided to check it out for herself.

“It was really cool to see there are free youth programs like this that let people vent their emotions.” She said she loves the structure of the curriculum and how the writing prompts offer topics and channels that access a writer’s creativity and allow for a safe space to express feelings.

No stranger to using writing as a tool, Xexal has been creating poetry since the age of 10, when she was being bullied by her peers in school. “I realized that my words had power,” she said, and through writing she was able to connect to her life instead of lashing out and “doing stupid things because I wasn’t feeling good.”

While things still aren’t perfect or always easy, she takes pride in the fact that she does not pressure herself with a specific path as to what life should look like. Rather, she focuses on being happy and cherishes the strong network of support through AfA.

Although Xexal has suffered from depression and even thoughts of suicide in some of her lowest times, she says that has changed. She now finds connection and hope through the workshops and the relationships she has formed at AfA. “I honestly consider myself a bit of a warrior, because I’ve been through a lot but I’m still here and kicking it.”