Art Options - Chicago/Tanzania International Exchange

Urban Gateways’ Art Options program is a summer art apprenticeship for at-risk middle and high school students that culminates in a community-based arts project.  For summer 2009, we added a global twist – sending Urban Gateways teaching artist Amanda Lichtenstein to a rural village in Tanzania to teach theater and creative writing. Meanwhile, Urban Gateways welcomed Tanzanian theater artist Grace Gachocha (pictured on left) to Chicago, where she taught alongside literary artist Maia Morgan and Digital Sound artist Shawn Wallace in the Auburn-Gresham community. 

Watch a video about Art Options 2009 in Chicago>>

See a slideshow from the Tanzania Art Options Project>>

This marked Urban Gateways’ first-ever international artist exchange; and it was made possible through an International Connections Fund grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in partnership with the International Theater and Literacy Project (ITLP), a New York City-based organization founded in 2005 to provide rural African communities with youth education through theater, and the Greater Auburn Gresham Community Development Corporation. 

On both continents, the teaching artists worked with students to develop and perform a play that dealt with issues facing their communities.  In Tanzania, Amanda and her students created a play about HIV/AIDS, as she shared with us via email while in Africa:

We decided we’d do a play about HIV/AIDS… but it is also going to be about questions and about a journey, and about being lost in a sea of misinformation, about the desire to be healthy and be loved. We are pushing to make this story personal, as when we asked if any knew someone living with HIV/AIDS, all raised their hands.  It’s a lot to take on in 2 weeks, but students are up for the challenge.

Read more of Amanda’s email from Tanzania>>

For a first-hand look at Amanda's trip to Tanzania, check out the slideshow below:

Meanwhile, teaching artists Grace, Maia and Shawn worked with 23 students in Chicago’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood.  The play they created was entitled “You Feel Me?: A show about community”; the play’s program summarized the students’ hard work: 

This summer we asked what it means to be an individual in a community… This group of 23 students, 3 teaching artists and many other behind-the-scenes supporters became a community.  We had to rely on one another to face challenges together, to bridge differences and to find common ground.  This show is the result of our collaboration.

Below is the video documentary on the creation of "You Feel Me?", which was performed by the students on July 29, 2009 at Oglesby Elementary School in Chicago.