An Interview with coLAB Arts Teaching Assistants / Una entrevista con los asistentes educativos de coLAB Arts

This month, coLAB Arts’ marketing intern Shaila Joshi took some time to interview coLAB Arts’ various summer teaching assistants who also started with the organization as interns and students. Shaila got a glimpse into what it means to assist in coLAB Arts’ education workshops and community facilitation. She shares some of her reflections and highlights from those interviews here.

As someone with a deep love for art, Rediet Mereke loved the murals she’d seen driving through New Brunswick. When she realized these murals had been commissioned by coLAB Arts, she knew she wanted to be part of the organization while participating in the Rutgers Scarlet Service Internship Program. Like Rediet, Ana Camacho loved music and dance, and chose to join coLAB Arts as an intern in RSSI. Her experience encouraged her younger brother, Daniel, to join the team as a kitchen aid in the Esperanza Summer Institute. Meanwhile, Adriana Morales, a long time participant of coLAB Arts’ summer programs, describes the organization as a “staple” in her life.

Ana, a life-long resident of New Brunswick, shared how her relationship with her hometown has evolved, saying, “For the longest time, I felt very stuck on how to feel about my town. And I think as time has passed, and because of the Esperanza neighborhood and so many others, I have learned how to be a more active member of the community, and for that I will always be grateful.” In contrast, while Rediet had already been at Rutgers University-New Brunswick for two years by the time she began working with coLAB Arts, she admits she was unfamiliar with the city. When she began her internship, she spent a lot of time with fellow intern Ana, who helped Rediet learn to have a deep appreciation for the city she grew up in. Like Ana, Adriana has grown up in New Brunswick and has been grateful to be part of a tight-knit and diverse community. Adriana says the Esperanza neighborhood has provided her family with countless opportunities, saying “it’s one of the most wonderful communities I could be a part of.” 

Rediet’s favorite part of being a teaching assistant was giving kids the opportunity to find their confidence through art. She says, “It was really cool to see how the kids were able to create something really incredible once they got rid of the barrier, the idea, that they couldn’t be creative.” Ana’s time as a teaching assistant in coLAB Arts’ Creative Cities Design Institute solidified her love for children, saying that the ability to watch her students grow out of their shells has been a real privilege for her. She says that these programs have created an amazing safe space for kids, helping the “children of New Brunswick see that they have as much potential as any other kid.” Daniel has loved being part of a fun environment as a teaching assistant in coLAB Arts’ theater workshops, and working with leaders like Marisol Rosa-Shapiro, the director for Teatro Esperanza’s upcoming production, has enriched those experiences for him. Like Daniel, Adriana has also grown as a teaching assistant, saying that everything is presented like a learning opportunity for both her and her students. She says that through her experience, she has learned to be a better community leader, with skills that she will carry into her future roles.

Este mes, la practicante de mercadeo de coLAB Arts, Shaila Joshi, dedicó un tiempo a entrevistar a varios asistentes educativos de verano de coLAB Arts, quienes también iniciaron su trayectoria en la organización como practicantes y estudiantes. Shaila tuvo la oportunidad de conocer de cerca lo que significa ser asistente en los talleres educativos y en la facilitación comunitaria de coLAB Arts. A continuación, comparte algunas de sus reflexiones y momentos destacados de esas entrevistas.

Debido a su profundo amor por el arte, a Rediet Mereke le encantaban los murales que veía al conducir por New Brunswick. Cuando descubrió que esos murales habían sido comisionados por coLAB Arts, supo que quería formar parte de la organización mientras participaba en el Rutgers Scarlet Service Internship Program (RSSI). Similar a Rediet, Ana Camacho, amante de la música y la danza, eligió coLAB Arts para realizar su internado del RSSI. Su experiencia motivó a su hermano menor, Daniel, a unirse al equipo como ayudante de cocina en el Esperanza Summer Institute. Mientras tanto, Adriana Morales, una participante habitual de los programas de verano de coLAB Arts, describe a la organización como un “pilar” de su vida. 

Ana, residente de toda la vida de New Brunswick, compartió cómo ha evolucionado su relación con su ciudad natal: “Durante mucho tiempo, me sentía muy estancada respecto a cómo mi ciudad me hacía sentir. Y creo que, a medida que ha pasado el tiempo, y gracias al vecindario Esperanza y muchos otros, he aprendido a ser un miembro más activo de la comunidad, y por ello, siempre me sentiré agradecida”. En contraste, aun cuando Rediet ya llevaba dos años en Rutgers University-New Brunswick cuando comenzó a trabajar con coLAB Arts, admite que la ciudad le resultaba desconocida. Cuando comenzó su internado, compartió mucho tiempo con su colega practicante Ana, quien ayudó a Rediet a desarrollar un profundo aprecio por la ciudad que la vio crecer. Al igual que Ana, Adriana se había criado en New Brunswick y se siente agradecida de ser parte de una comunidad tan unida y diversa. Adriana dice que el vecindario Esperanza ha provisto a su familia innumerables oportunidades: “Es una de las comunidades más maravillosas de las que podría formar parte”.

Lo que más le gusta a Rediet de ser asistente educativa es ofrecer a los niños la oportunidad de desarrollar su confianza a través del arte. “Fue genial ver cómo los niños fueron capaces de crear algo realmente increíble una vez superaron la barrera, la idea de que no podían ser creativos”, dice. El trayecto de Ana como asistente educativa del Creative Cities Design Institute de coLAB Arts ha solidificado su amor por los niños, y así lo manifiesta al decir que ha sido un verdadero privilegio ver a sus estudiantes salir de sus caparazones. Añade que estos programas han creado un espacio seguro y maravilloso para los niños, ayudando “a los niños de New Brunswick a entender que tienen tanto potencial como cualquier otro niño”. A Daniel le ha encantado formar parte de un entorno tan divertido como asistente educativo de los talleres de teatro de coLAB Arts, y trabajar junto a líderes como Marisol Rosa-Shapiro, la directora de la próxima producción de Teatro Esperanza, ha enriquecido la experiencia para él. Al igual que Daniel, Adriana también ha crecido como asistente educativa, expresando que todo se presenta como una oportunidad de aprendizaje para ella y para sus estudiantes. Agrega que, a través de su experiencia, ha aprendido a ser una mejor líder comunitaria, con destrezas que aplicará en sus futuros roles.

coLAB Arts Winter 2021 Annual Appeal

To the Artists, Audience, and Community member of coLAB Arts:

Thank you so much for your continued enthusiasm and support for coLAB Arts’ mission to engage artists, social advocates, and communities to create transformative new work. In these trying times, we are reminded of the importance of community, both in our connection with one another, and our individual responsibility towards mutual well-being. This year, we are asking you to consider doubling your intended contribution. Here’s why:

coLAB Arts is excited to be starting a participatory budgeting process as part of our efforts to address issues of systemic racism and inequity in our community and in our own organizational structure. We hope you will consider donating to our newly created participatory budgeting fund, as well as to coLAB Arts’ general fund. Here’s what you need to know:

• What is participatory budgeting? Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend part of an organizational or public budget. It gives people real power over real money.

• Why is coLAB Arts implementing PB? In the wake of the unjust killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and others, and the subsequent protests against police brutality and systemic racism, coLAB Arts has been compelled to examine the ways in which we are actively working to dismantle white supremacy, as well as the ways in which we have been complicit in upholding systems that harm and marginalize people of color. PB is a way for us to put our money where our mouth is, taking our racial and economic justice work a step further by not just including the community in our work, but granting them real power and ownership over this artistic process, from start to finish.

• What does PB look like at coLAB Arts? We’ve developed an exciting process for participatory budgeting that involves a lot of creative thinking, teamwork, and conversation. We invite you to check out the infographic included in this mailing to learn more about how this will work!

• Why should you support PB? We at coLAB Arts believe in the power of the arts to effect positive change, and we’re guessing you do, too. So, it’s our responsibility to support movements that seek to restore justice to communities that have long been marginalized and silenced. We know that art can be a powerful tool in achieving this goal, and participatory budgeting is a way to make that art truly by and for the people—all the people—in our community. 

This has not been a typical year. We have all been forced to reckon with the inequities in our society, and to decide what we are going to do to address them. As 2020 comes to a close, we hope that you will support justice through the arts by making a charitable gift both to coLAB Arts and to our participatory budgeting fund. We will be in touch over the coming months with updates on this work, and we welcome you to reach out to us if you have any questions or would like to have a conversation. We’re in this together, and we would love to have you along for the ride.

Sincerely,

Dan Swern, Producing Director
John Keller, Director of Education

coLAB Arts ANNOUNCES 2021 COHORT FOR NEW BRUNSWICK ARTIST RESIDENCY

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - coLAB Arts is proud to announce the 2021 cohort for its New Brunswick Artist Residency. These incredible social practice and socially-engaged artists will be working over the next year with and in service to local organizations and communities through oral history, workshop facilitation, studio practice, and socially engaged art making. Artist and organization pairings include: Daniela Ochoa-Bravo and Susana Plotts-Pineda in collaboration with Unity Square Neighborhood Revitalization Project and Rutgers University, Osimiri Sprowal in collaboration with SHELTER (shelternj.org) and Mercado Esperanza (mercadoesperanzanb.org), Ashley Teague and Notch Theatre Company (www.notchtheatre.org) in collaboration with Reformed Church of Highland Park - Affordable Housing Corporation (RCHP-AHC), and Jody Wood in collaboration with Elijah’s Promise. These residencies are supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and a Rutgers University Research Council grant.

Social practice artists Ashley Teague and Jody Wood are each the recipients of a $20,000 nine-month residency and will be developing new sustainable artist positions for their respective community partners. Teague will be creating original theater pieces with the diverse refugee community served by RCHP-AHC, in an effort to share the story of how their mutual aid service work transforms lives. Wood is developing a “Health Hub” with guests of Elijah’s Promise’s community kitchen, documenting the stories, rituals, and personal health practices of those who are largely unhoused or housing precarious New Brunswick community members. 

Osimiri Sprowal, in a shared residency between the Mercado Esperanza food justice collaborative (Elijah’s Promise, New Brunswick Tomorrow, and coLAB Arts), and the SHELTER pandemic recovery collaborative (Rutgers University, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, Reformed Church of Highland Park - Affordable Housing Corporation, and coLAB Arts) will be facilitating creative workshops for unhoused and housing precarious community members of the greater New Brunswick area and producing a digital archive of their creative output in conversation with artwork from commissioned professional artists.

Daniela Ochoa-Bravo and Susana Plotts-Pineda will be producing an original comic book in response to the oral histories and experiences of the Latino immigrant urban gardener community from New Brunswick’s Landers Garden and Feaster Park, managed by Unity Square. The collaboration is supported by Dr. Mary Nucci from the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Daniela Ochoa-Bravo is a mixed-media artist, writer, and researcher based in Brooklyn, born in Bogotá. In her work, she often explores immigration, family structures, and the evolution of grief, often in the form of homage to Colombia, and her own family. She is the co-founder and co-editor of Egg y Pan Magazine, a publication that is dedicated to fostering a community between Latinx & POC writers and artists. She pursued a B.A. in Global Studies and minored in Ethnicity and Race at The New School. She was the 2019 Social Science Fellow at The New School, which allowed her to work for a civics education NGO, Generation Citizen, under the Director of Impact. Her undergraduate thesis, Of Youth During Sin: The Legacy of Peacemaking Practices in Colombia, was a two-year-long research project that she carried out under the mentorship of Chris London and Alexandra Delano. Currently, she is working on an oral history-based comic-book piece with CoLAB Arts, an organization based out of New Brunswick, NJ, that uses arts as a method for engaging artists and thinkers with larger themes of social justice, equity, and oral-archive preservation and creation. Some of her previous publications include 12th Street Journal, Lumina Journal, and The New Context.

Susana Plotts-Pineda is a Mexican-American theatre-maker, multi-media artist, performer, and writer, who grew up in Puebla, Boston, Bogotá, and Brooklyn. Her work is as dedicated to the careful crafting of dreamscapes as much as it is to exploring historical memory and social reality. She deals with themes of cultural identity, fragmentation, and revolution, delving into archive as much as utopian imaginings. Susana attended The Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU, where she wrote and directed The Alien Drift, a science-fiction exploration of cultural alienation and homage to Chavela Vargas. Her documentary solo play La Caravana de los Misterios, was initially workshopped at a Performance Studies International Conference in Calgary and later staged at Emerging Artists Theatre’s New Works Series. Framed within a life-sized shadow box, La Caravana uses the sensibility of the miniature to reconstruct a history of American intervention during the drug war and trace its impact on the current situation at the border. An article about the piece is currently under review for publication in Global Performance Studies. She is also the co-founder of Egg y Pan Magazine, a project created to highlight the voices of Latinx artists and artists of color. Susana has worked with Colombian artist’s laboratory Mapa Teatro, New York-based dance-theatre company Noche Flamenca and Mexico City-based theatre company for the Deaf, Seña y Verbo. Most recently, her short film Belmont or These Kinds of Dreams, which she developed as a fellow at the Hemispheric Insitute’s EmergeNYC program, premiered at the 2020 OC Film Fiesta. 

Osimiri Sprowal is an international slam champion poet, author, workshop facilitator, creative director, and budding photographer born and raised in Philadelphia. They are an alumnus of the Philly Youth Poetry Movement (PYPM), Babel Poetry Collective, and the founder of deadname.arts, Philly’s only exclusively trans and gender-expansive art collective. Osimiri was the Philly Youth Grand Slam Champion in 2015, and a 2018 College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) Semi-Finalist, where they received the Best Love Poem Award for their poem “Genesis”.

They were a 2018 Till Arts Emerging Trans Artist Fellow, and curated their first ever visual exhibition, inviting other QTPOC to “mask” as various Afro/Indigenous divinities to highlight the fallacy that queerness is antithetical to God and spirituality. They were the 2019 Feminine Empowerment Slam (FEMS) International Individual Slam Champion. They were a winner of the 2019 Shockwire Micro Chapbook Contest for their book Gemini:Duality of Self, a testament to their experiences of intergenerational trauma and the intricacies of being both Black and Trans in America. They founded deadname.arts in 2019, in response to the dearth of trans affirming spaces in their artistic community and their own experiences of transphobia in slam poetry.

They have hosted workshops at University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Arizona-Tucson, and Temple University, and have performed there as well as: Bowery Poetry in New York, George Washington University, The University of Gettysburg, Boston University, the 2019 True Colors Impact Summit, among many other locations. Most recently, they served on the planning committee of the Phreak N Queer Virtual Arts Festival, a virtual celebration of Queer artistry in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic.

Ashley Teague is the founding Artistic Director of Notch Theatre Company (www.notchtheatre.org) and recipient of the Embark Award for Social Innovation in Entrepreneurship. Notch creates community-responsive theatre to drive change around the pressing issues of our time, offering communities nationwide a platform to tell their stories on stage and be their own change makers. Notch is currently producing Wild Home, which takes an odyssey across rural America to tell personal stories about threatened wilderness spaces and the communities that depend on them. Wild Home has been featured on Howlround and Broadway World and awarded an NEA ArtWorks grant. Additionally, Teague is a participating partner on Remember2019: an effort to make space for the congregation of Black communities in the Arkansas Delta, by supporting and facilitating local artistic practices of self-determination, memory and reflection as directly related to the mass lynching of 1919, the lasting effects of racial terror and the current and future health of these communities. Remember2019 is the recipient of a Map Fund grant and has been featured by the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, Monument Lab, and HowlRound. Teague co-created FIT, a play about the American eugenics movement of the 20th century that partners with the Intellectually Disabled Community and features actors with Down Syndrome. While with Cornerstone Theater Company, Teague developed and produced Talk It Out, which travels California creating community-engaged theater to change public policy around the school-to-prison pipeline crisis. As a creative content producer, she worked on such films as Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls, Gus Van Sant's Promised Land, Paul Haggis’ Next Three Days, and Tina Chism’s Peeples. Recent directing credits include: Voices from a Pandemic (Chautauqua Theatre Company), Anna Karenina: a riff (The Flea Theater, NYC; HB Studio, NYC; White Heron Theater, MA), Generation25 (Collaborative Arts Ensemble, Kigali, Rwanda), Gruesome Playground Injuries (Asolo Rep/FSU, FL), Capsized (Cherry Lane, NYC), Twelfth Night (Gallery Players, NYC), Wild Home (Live@Jacks; Delicious Orchards, CO), FIT (La Mama Studios, NYC; Spectrum Theatre/Trinity Rep, RI; White Heron Theater, MA), The Language Archive (UNC/Playmakers Rep), The Rehearsal (Asolo Rep/FSU, FL), CHQ Project (Chautauqua Theatre Co, NY), Scapegoat (Delta Cultural Center, AR), Willful (California State Capitol). Teague's work has received numerous awards including Broadway World awards for Best Director / Choreographer, Best Musical and Best Ensemble Cast, to name a few. ashteague.com

Jody Wood is an artist working in mediums of social practice, video, photography, and performance. Her recent work re-imagines routines in poverty support agencies, aiming to shift power dynamics and resist stigmas surrounding poverty. Her community-based work has been supported by prestigious institutions including A Blade of Grass, Esopus Foundation, Rema Hort Mann Foundation, an ArtPlace America Initiative at McColl Center for Art + Innovation, and through residencies at Headlands Center for the Arts, Yaddo, and Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been exhibited internationally at Manchester School of Art, UK; Parrish Museum of Art in Water Mill, NY; and FIVAC in Camaguey, Cuba and has been featured in publications such as The Atlantic, Hyperallergic, The Art Newspaper, and MSNBC.

PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS

coLAB Arts engages artists, social advocates, and communities to create transformative new work. coLAB Arts facilitates creative conversation through innovative programs and artist infrastructure, connects artists with community partners and mentors, and executes productions that challenge perceptions and inspire action.  www.colab-arts.org | @colabarts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Elijah’s Promise harnesses the power of food to break the cycle of poverty, alleviate hunger, and change lives. We fight to end hunger through serving good food for all at our community soup kitchen, providing education and jobs in the food industry through our Promise Culinary School, a community garden, community advocacy, and creating social enterprise food businesses that further social good. We envision a community where no one goes hungry for lack of food or funds; where a good meal is a nutritious meal; where our community learns to steward natural and financial resources wisely; and where we make opportunity available to those who seek it. www.elijahspromise.org | @elijahspromise on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Reformed Church of Highland Park-Affordable Housing Corporation (RCHP-AHC) provides affordable housing, supportive services, and connection to meaningful community to low-income individuals and families in central New Jersey. RCHP-AHC owns 20 properties in seven different municipalities in central NJ that house diverse low-income tenants, including veterans, women aging out of foster care, developmentally disabled adults, homeless youth, chronically homeless individuals, and others with significant life challenges. We also rent an additional 30 units and serve as a temporary intermediary for families – including refugees and asylum seekers – who would otherwise be unable to secure an apartment rental due to poor (or no) credit history, temporary unemployment, or other factors. https://rchp-ahc.org/ |@reformedchurchofhighlandpark on Facebook

Unity Square Neighborhood Revitalization Project is a community organizing and social concerns initiative of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen that works to empower community members and catalyze change in the poorest residential neighborhood of New Brunswick, NJ. In doing so, Unity Square addresses a diverse set of issues, including economic development, employment, civic participation, crime and safety, immigrants’ rights, and tenants’ rights.

Unity Square’s efforts focus on a target neighborhood of about 6,000 low-income residents.  Most neighborhood families are working poor, and have young children. Most of the adults are Spanish-speaking immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Unity Square operates out of a newly renovated Community Center at 81 Remsen Avenue. Once an active fire house, the Community Center hosts Unity Square staff offices, as well as space for community meetings and programs.

Led by community leaders, Unity Square works closely with partner organizations, city officials, and other stakeholders to achieve its goals. Among its accomplishments are New Brunswick’s only bilingual Crime Watch group; the passage a first-of-its-kind city ordinance aimed at preventing wage theft; the hosting of a bilingual candidate forum for the New Brunswick School Board elections; the maintenance of a growing system of community gardens; and education and outreach to over 2,000 residents on tenant rights issues. https://www.ccdom.org/USQ | @unitysq on Facebook

Mercado Esperanza is a community-led initiative sponsored by Elijah’s Promise, New Brunswick Tomorrow, and coLAB Arts. Building on previous work in the areas of healthy food access, neighborhood development, and creative placemaking, the three partners embarked on a planning process in 2016 – with support from the Kresge Foundation’s FreshLo initiative – to determine how to integrate and scale up these efforts for greater community impact.

The Mercado Esperanza was born in late 2017 after a year of planning and dialogue with local residents and other stakeholders, and embarked on the first full season in 2018. Along the way, the Friends of the Mercado group was created with resident leaders from New Brunswick Tomorrow’s Esperanza Neighborhood Project to act as a project steering committee. They, together with our core vendors group, continue to give direction to the project and work alongside organizational staff to continually make our collective vision of the Mercado Esperanza a reality: a vibrant community gathering place, a springboard for local entrepreneurial success, and a creative cultural celebration. www.mercadoesperanzanb.org | @mercadoesperanzanb on Facebook

SHELTER: Thanks to generous support from the Henry Luce Foundation, New Brunswick Theological Seminary (NBTS), in partnership with Reformed Church of Highland Park Affordable Housing Corporation (RCHP-AHC) and Rutgers University-New Brunswick, has launched a project to address the problem of housing insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic.  This new initiative offers a rapid response to a pressing question for some of the most vulnerable people in the wider community: In an age of pandemic, what does it mean to shelter in place when you have no shelter?

Through its Theology Program, the Luce Foundation has awarded $150,000 to NBTS for the immediate launch of the SHELTER project. Seventy-five percent of the awarded funds will be directed to RCHP-AHC to rapidly secure housing and provide ongoing wrap-around services for families and individuals whose housing and other basic needs, such as the purchasing of food and medicine, have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. These individuals and families are variously experiencing challenges related to undocumented or immigration status, recent release from parole or incarceration, HIV and other medical needs, and other social services needs that make them especially vulnerable during the COVID crisis. www.shelternj.org

New Perspectives on Art

New Perspectives on Art

by Alyssa Fox

I never thought my perspective on art could shift so much before I became apart of coLAB Arts. I have had a love for the theatre and performing since I was in the third grade as well as an overwhelming urge to make an impact on my community, and I never knew how to combine the two as I was growing up. But this all changed when I first had the pleasure of meeting John Keller in my sophomore year at Rutgers University and he was the professor for my Global Theatre lecture. His passion for theatre and its capability for social development was palpable and drew me in immediately. It was almost like a lightbulb when off in my head saying, “this is it, this is how I can combine the two things I love most”.

John inspired me to consider the impact theatre truly has on society and the changes that can come from a purposeful, distinguished piece of art. I love performing and providing meaningful content for an audience and this organization brought me closer to the purpose of public work, especially with the incorporation of the local community. I took part in John’s class called Theatre for Social Development and had the honor of having site visits at their central location once a week with one fellow classmate to discuss a plethora of old and new art for social development coLAB was working on.

This experience further expanded and deepened my knowledge of how art can play a role in connecting and transforming a community through studies of local oral histories and art collaborations they were working on. At first, the thought of pursuing an internship with this incredible group of people felt daunting considering my lack of knowledge in advocacy and community engagement. But the comforting, engaging, and creative environment the coLAB office provided motivated me to inquire about my current education internship position.

As soon as the internship began I knew this was going to become not only an educational experience for myself and fellow interns, but a transformative one. I was overwhelmed with the feeling that I was apart of something much bigger than myself. Performing was no longer something I considered purely for entertainment, there was a specific purpose and aid we were going to be providing. I have been invited to synergetic meetings held by John and his partner in crime Dan, as well as a plethora of collaborators and influential art makers in the New Brunswick community and throughout Middlesex County. I was unclear about how I would be able to assist with such accomplished individuals, having still been enrolled at Rutgers.

Watching and assisting the organization complete ongoing transformative art involving underserved and underrepresented communities and being able to further the creation of these projects has been an invigorating adventure that I continuously grow from. coLAB has given me the inside scoop and hands-on experience into what making purposeful, transformative art truly means while never failing to provide an educational and inspiriting environment.

Since the start of my time with coLAB, I have been motivated to pursue my acting and educational career even further. However, coLAB has opened my eyes to the power of theatre and its message. This organization has motivated me to continuously strive for the enlightening of audiences and the creation of illuminative work for the greater good of my immediate community and society as a whole. 

Alyssa Fox is a graduating Rutgers University Theater Major who worked with coLAB Arts as an Education Intern during the Spring 2020 semester.

A Reflection On My Time At coLAB Arts #ForeverInspired

A Reflection on My Time At coLAB Arts #ForeverInspired

Rafael Lozada

My experience with coLAB began the summer of 2019 when I ran into John Keller, Director of Education and Outreach, while interning for another Rutgers affiliated organization. After catching up a bit, John, who introduced me to Meisner technique in his Fundamentals of Acting 3 years prior, began sharing about his involvement with coLAB and the growing Trueselves project work.. The second installment of the thread, True Love: An Act of Support, was then in the midst of being produced and John was already setting his sight on what came next. In hindsight, I now know that an “ever-evolving” quality is an intrinsic part of coLAB’s identity.

It was clear from day one that John and Dan’s life mission is to serve and, without regards of how cliché it may seem, to leave the world better than they found it through their passion for art and activism. This has left (get ready to hear this again) an ever-evolving impression on me. A memory of mine that embodies their servitude is that of John prompting us to write down our goals both in life and within the company during our intern orientation. One of my answers was to become a voice for the diverse identities who make up who I am, some of which include gender fluid, immigrant and Hispanic. That exercise felt more specific than the regular first day ice breaker and embodies one of the qualities in coLAB’s culture I have loved most. That quality can be summed up in other clichés like “sharing is caring”, “all hands-on deck” and “there is no I in team”. We have consistently been encouraged to share our thoughts, thus sharing some of the idiosyncrasies that make up our identities, to build on the project at hand which in turn has me feel included, valued. It is not lost on me that interns don’t feel that way often.

That sense of inclusion can be an even rarer find for me because of my gender fluid identity. However, the close friends that I have kept in the loop on this experience have have expressed that they feel “this was custom made for you”. That sentiment rings true to me as I have gotten to expand on my knowledge of the history of my trans and gender non-conforming community by reading the Trueselves scripts. Additionally, I have been tasked with diving deeper into policies and historic events mentioned in them and developing annotations for the organizational archive podcast series. Even more, I have gotten to hear fellow LGBTQ+ folk narrate the stories of their lives when transcribing oral histories. I believe this has prompted a stronger sense of self as I have found commonalities in our experiences. My arts related Spanish vocabulary has also expanded through these projects as I have had the opportunity to translate curricula and guides with the purpose of advancing and including more and more members my New Brunswick community. Let it be known that before my time at coLAB words like curricula and symposia were absent from my vocabulary.

While I am currently in the last month of my junior year at Rutgers, I feel reassured that there is value to a theater major and gender studies minor. To put it short, my time at coLAB has helped me hone in on my professional identity. I find this realization similar to the way the Meisner technique John introduced me to, which is characterized by specificity, introspection and sharing of self, has helped me hone in on my personal identity. With the now (here it comes) ever-evolving confidence in my sense of self, the professional skills I’ve been learning and the collaborative approach I have witnessed while at coLAB, I hope to lead a life of service like that of John and Dan. Their brotherhood is the heart and core of what coLAB stands for: a coming together of artists, communities and social advocates with the purpose of social change.

Rafael Lozada is a Rutgers Theater Major and Gender Studies Minor who worked with coLAB Arts during the Spring of 2020.

Update from the Education Building at First Reformed Church

Check out this update from Director of Education John Keller about some February engagement events. The article gives a little glimpse on how coLAB Arts uses the community spaces of the education building at First Reformed Church in New Brunswick.

litLAB Works with Food & Water Watch!!

Check out the most recent original pieces from the litLAB writers group. This quarter litLAB had special advocacy guests from NJ Food & Water Watch and created short stories based on the work of this incredibly organization.

Comic Book Creation with Neighborcorps Reentry Services

Sam Romero has been hard at work creating original comic books that reflect the work of Middlesex County based Neighborcorps Reentry Services, documenting the process of supporting those who are returning to society after incarceration. Check out Sam’s artist blog for the latest updates.

#LookForTheRiver, Jersey Water Works Opening Plenary Speech

Check out Director of Education John Keller’s opening plenary speech to the 2019 Jersey Water Works annual summit.

Teatro Esperanza Updates

Check out Tanaquil Marquez’s residency artist blog for the most recent posts and updates about the coLAB Arts and New Brunswick Tomorrow Teatro Esperanza Projects.

stART: May 2016 Newsletter

Welcome to stART (Share the Art), a program committed to bringing local area high school students closer to all of the professional arts experiences in their own community. We have been working diligently with a committed group of arts organizations, teachers, administrators, and most importantly students - all who are interested in networking with other schools, linking together with other creative people, and experiencing great theater, music, visual art, dance, film, and more.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Saturday May 14, 1pm - 3pm
theSHARE: Part end of year party, part poetry performance workshop, part community gathering. More...

June 4, 6:30pm - 10:00pm
stART goes to see Dirty Little Secrets at George Street Playhouse

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: 

Abigale McNulty, MCVTS Senior and stART Participant

Abigale McNulty

Abigale McNulty, MCVTS Senior and stART Participant

1) What grade are you in and what is your favorite subject at school and why? 

I am currently a Senior in High School and attend MCVTS Vocational and Technical HS East Brunswick with a major in theatre. My favorite academic subject is English. From a young age, I've always enjoyed reading and in that class, I am able to explore classical literature such as Antigone and Ibsen's A Doll House.

2) What was your favorite stART event? 

My favorite stART event is the dress rehearsal of George Sand's Gabriel directed by Christopher Cartmill at Rutgers University. The direction and purposeful casting of the production made me realize that some people to don't feel like they conform to a specific gender through Gabriel's discovery that they are not man or woman, but a person. That is something that has stuck with me since then.

3) Why do you like participating in stART and going to cultural events? 

I like to participate in stART events because you meet so many wonderful people such as other high school students, John Keller, Christopher Cartmill, Ellen Valencia and many more. Then there's the exposure to art that most high schoolers never get to experience like the reimagining of August Strindberg's A Dream Play at Rutgers University and the Wizard of Oz immersive event Behind the Moon, Beyond the Rain. The stART program allows young artists to be exposed and inspired by the art that we have in New Jersey. 

4) What do you want to see stART do more of in the future?

I would like to see more classical pieces. Some people my age haven't had the chance to experience a Shakespeare production. 

COMMUNITY PARTNER SPOTLIGHT:

Dr. Nayna Vyas

Math Teacher at Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools, and stART trip organizer

What I like most about stART is the opportunity they give to students to enjoy theater.  Most of the students in the school I work for do not have the opportunity to see the wonderful theatrical plays, jazz, etc., that we have been enjoying for the past seven to eight months. My students are learning about the different arts, they are learning how they can relate to and may have a future career choices in these areas by exploring them through stART. In the future I would like to see stART open more doors to other school districts and counties and provide access for a wider range of students so they can also enjoy these cultural experiences.