Creative Transformation Camp-Littles

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PLEASE NOTE: DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION IS THIS SATURDAY, JULY 2!!

artclassesThe Art from Ashes Creative Transformation Camp is a week-long half-day camp using our award-winning methods for creative transformation. The camp will feature  yoga/meditation; Drawing on Air visual art; Wingspan dance/movement; Phoenix Rising poetry/spoken word; and Casting Shadows creative play and theater—all designed to support your child’s awareness, creative expression, and power to create the story of their life.

Each week will be Mon-Fri from 9.30 am to 1 pm.

The first week will be for “Littles” age 9 to 12, July 11 through 15.

The second week will be for youth age 12 to 15, July 18 through 22.

Only 12 spots are available at $175; we are asking families wishing to support an indigent youth to add an extra $25.


Register



For more information, contact Director of Programs Courtney Chandler

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Yoga & Poetry 2016

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Yoga & Poetry

Join us for a 60-minute ALL levels vinyasa yoga class led by Courtney Chandler, followed by a 30-minute poetry workshop, with writing prompts focusing on creative empowerment.

Requested donation is $20, which will go straight toward funding Art from Ashes youth programs!

This blissful vinyasa class/workshop focuses on creating harmony in the body, mind, and spirit, to explore and encourage inner creativity and self-expression. You will pair breath to movement as you flow mindfully for a 60-minute all-levels vinyasa. A 30-minute poetry workshop will be facilitated immediately following the yoga asana, allowing opportunity for a deeper exploration of self-expression to unfold. This class will have you moving, breathing, writing, and creating a personally meaningful artistic expression! Don’t miss it!

Youngest Youth Poet

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by Noa Stroop, volunteer

ChristianOn a warm Tuesday afternoon, Christian sat taping his knuckles for boxing practice. At 11 years old, he likes playing football, walking around the neighborhood, and playing computer games. And like many boys his age, Christian just wasn’t big on poetry.
After hearing how much fun the art of expression was from buzz at school, Christian, always open-minded, started attending Art from Ashes workshops in November of 2015. What he was looking for was undetermined, but what he found was connection. He walked in the door and immediately began making friends, some of whom attended his school, unbeknownst to him at the time. He began using pen and paper to understand the value of expression, explaining “It help get rid of the bad vibes!” And according to his mom, the workshops also improved his social skills tremendously.
But the most significant of the values Christian has learned from AfA is, as he explains, “All kids’ lives are different, but we are all raw equals.” That’s a pretty perceptive statement for an 11-year-old. Or anyone, for that matter!
Not only has AfA inspired a new appreciation for fine arts in the young athlete, these workshops have opened Christian’s eyes to a concept that youth and adults seem to struggle with: We are all human. We are all different. Yet, we have more in common than we know.

Drawing on Air

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megan-DOHSArt from Ashes has hit the ground running this year with the official launch of a new program offering Drawing on Air.
Created as an extension of AfA’s signature Phoenix Rising curriculum, Drawing on Air utilizes visual and tactile art prompts in addition to poetry and spoken word.
This art and poetry hybrid curriculum has been under construction for the past couple of years (and let’s not forget the months of testing, training, and refining that went into the final stages of program development!), so we are ecstatic to finally announce its completion.
Drawing on Air is currently being offered weekly at Denver Online High School. Over the past several weeks (since the eight-week workshop series began on April 14th), youth participants have been exploring new ways to express their creative genius, visualizing and verbalizing their powerful stories through art. In addition to pen and paper, Drawing on Air provides youth with a wide variety of artistic mediums to form their visual metaphors — pastel, watercolor, acrylic paint, crayon, collage, sculpture and clay (just to name a few). The youth at Denver Online High School have created dozens of powerful metaphors during their time in our workshops, and it has been a true honor witnessing their transformation.
Drop by and check it out! You’ll find Drawing on Air workshops at AfA’s FREE drop-in workshops (for youth 24 and younger) every first Wednesday of the month, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
We are so excited to continue to grow and expand our program offerings that facilitate health and hope through creative expression, connection and transformation. Art from Ashes is truly grateful for your support. This is all possible because of YOU! Thank you!!
Courtney Chandler, Program Director

Staff Updates

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Ashley_Courtney Photo
Spring is here, and so are new beginnings. We’ve launched Drawing on Air, our youth empowerment through visual art program, are introducing a new Director of Operations, are saying goodbye to a wonderful staff member, and are excited to promote our long-time volunteer, program manager and Drawing on Air facilitator to Director of Programs.
Ashley Cornelius has done so much for our agency. Thanks in part to funding from El Pomar, in her one-year tenure as Director of Programs (formerly program manager as an intern), Ashley increased the number of workshops contracted by 80%, has helped start our two new weekly drop-in youth workshops, has increased our presence in the community, and has proven herself to be an accomplished performance poet. We’re sad to see her leave, but the world stage awaits as she attends DU to get her graduate degree in International Psychology. What an amazing future awaits this young human!
 
Courtney-yogaCourtney Chandler has taken over from Ashely as Director of Programs, and we couldn’t wish for a more delightful and competent replacement. Courtney began her journey with AfA as a volunteer more than three years ago as a volunteer, then became an intern because of her studies in treating substance addiction through art, and for the past year has been the Phoenix Rising Program Manager. After Courtney took an adult workshop (which she describes as “life changing”) for part of her training as a facilitator, she understood better than ever the potential for healing that our program provides youth. Because she is an accomplished artist, Courtney helped develop Drawing on Air, based on the award-winning Phoenix Rising poetry and spoken word curriculum, but using visual and tactile art. Courtney also is a yoga/fitness instructor and an all-around amazing individual. Check her out at the Denver Chalk Art Festival on June 4th and 5th!

Read Courtney’s bio here.

Welcome to Sophia Cocas, our new Director of Operations! Ask anyone at the agency and they will tell you that Sophia brings a light to the organization, and we are all about basking in that light. Sophia is a mother of three, an artist, and a grad student criminology at Regis. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice with a Minor in Sociology from Metropolitan State University of Denver, graduating with honors. Sophia brings her passion for youth, sociology, the criminal justice system, and art into our agency in order to help us reach more youth and do it in an organized and well-managed way (Look out world!). Sophia is committed to taking our mission even further, and helping us reach youth throughout Colorado!

Read Sophia’s bio here.

Manila Aityahia

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3-Minute Poem by Manila, 15

Raindrops trickle
down the page
Flowing, falling slowly
Like brush strokes
As the sky changes color
So does my piece
A vibrancy of color
Dark then light
With a long trunk, I sketch
With big ears, I hear
The sounds I want to incorporate
Brush strokes, lines, pictures
They all come from memory
Transferred onto paper
Cool and concentrated
Flowing like a river
Blue
I work
Blue
I flow
Branches stretch
Touching different things
Taking those things
And messing them into one
I reach out, take what I desire
Branches swaying
I lose my leaves
Putting them out for the world
To see

Love Synesthesia

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Love is the color gray, faded and old
But still strong
Love moves like a sloth Slow, without a care
Gently moving through life
Love is a sapling
Small and springy
Barely starting to grow

– Ryan Huitt, 14

The color of love is white
It’s a blank slate to
Be filled
With colors
Of every kind
To be written
Sweet little notes on
Love would be the treScreen Shot 2016-05-14 at 11.01.37 PMe trunk
You carve hearts in
With her name
Leaving a memory

– Savi Younker, 16

The color of love is a sunrise
Love moves like warm melted chocolate
Love is a vast, growing tree

– Megan Q, 16

The color of love is both black and white
Like a yin and yang symbol
Turning in one’s perspective and
The motion to see a bird fly
Loving the vast views of the world and
Feeling as if you can never wish to stop
Loving the beauty

– Yesina Hernandez, 15

The color of love is gray
If love moved it would move like a river
If love was a part of nature it would be a tree
Because it keeps growing

– Ryan Gemkow, 15

2016 NAHYP National Recognition

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A'te-aunesEach year, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and its cultural partners — the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services —  recognizes 50 outstanding programs all over the country for their work in providing excellent arts and humanities learning opportunities to young people. This is the third time AfA has been recognized as having one of the top 50 youth arts programs in the country: the Phoenix Rising youth empowerment program using poetry and spoken word.

The committee sent the following letter to Art from Ashes announcing our award:

Congratulations! Your program’s work has been chosen for recognition as a 2016 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award (NAHYP) Finalist by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and its partner agencies, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

We are highly impressed with the successful work your organization and the other Finalists have accomplished in youth after-school and out-of-school arts and humanities learning.

Your program’s selection as one of the 50 Finalists distinguishes it as one of the top arts- and humanities-based programs in the country.

Art from Ashes could not experience these great successes without the support of our community, donors and volunteers. Thank you so much!

See the other finalists here.

3rd Friday Open Mic

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blissfestJoin us every Third Friday at Tenn Street Coffee for an open mic that also features performances by Art from Ashes youth poets and a guest performer from the community!

Hosted by BlissFest