|
|
AHN NEWS: March 2004
This month's news is dedicated to the healing arts of NATIVE WISDOM, such as storytelling and drumming. We feature an interview with Ilene Evans, founder of Voices from the Earth, Inc. We also review the book, Drumming the I Ching, and the audio program, Native Wisdom. And our featured link this month is Voices of the Earth.
|
|
|
|
AHN INTERVIEW: Ilene Evans, founder of Voices from the Earth, Inc.
Ilene Evans is an African, Native American and Celtic storyteller, writer, poet, singer, dancer and choreographer. As founder of Voices from the Earth, Inc., she builds bridges and crosses cultures through the performing arts. She brings a wealth of stories, songs, poems and images to evoke memory, enlighten and heal.
AHN: Do you consider storytelling to be a healing art?
Evans: Storytelling is the most fundamental, user friendly, original form of healing. We tend to live out the stories that we tell ourselves. And that works both at the individual level as the societal level. Because we have lost many of our most binding stories, we are in grave danger not only as a people in our own society, but also as a global community.
AHN: What inspired the creation of Voices from the Earth, Inc?
Evans: Voices from the Earth was born in response to children's loss of access to true ancestor wisdom in story, song, poetry and art. We wanted to keep alive that which was in danger of being lost to the next generations. We saw a need. Our children were missing the stories that give strength, meaning and purpose to life. All we heard was, "School is a drag." We saw that young people, especially in the city, spent less and less time with adults who bothered to listen to them and their struggles. The youth needed the stories that help to untangle the knots of hatred, betrayal, and intolerance in American culture and history.
All these thoughts were percolating when the TV special "Roots" was airing a second time. Then it really struck me. The inner city black kids that I was teaching at the time were identifying with the slave drivers, owners and masters. They saw it a sign of weakness to identify with the black slaves. They did not understand the meaning of their own purchased freedom -- who died and suffered to give it to them. After all, does anyone tell us what our freedom is for? What do we do with freedom once we have it? Why have so many suffered and sacrificed for us to have this gift? Too many students did not understand the meaning of what they saw and how to relate their personal lives to this huge story of courage and struggle. "Roots" was a big enough story to really interact with. It would take that kind of engaging theatre or storytelling to affect young people with more of the message. I knew somehow how that we, as artists, could change that twisted perspective, but it would take a much stronger and bigger and deeply personal look at history, (mystory - ourstory) to effect changeÉhealing.
|
|
 We needed a company that was devoted to the youth. Devoted to their development. Devoted to their humanity. Devoted to community and healing these horrible memories and building bridges instead of walls. We could do that through story.
AHN: Tell me about your Harriet Tubman performance.
Evans: A musician, Lucho Castilllo, and I started to work together on her story. No one was teaching about her in the schools around us. Her courage, her love, her devotion, her faith, and her message were too valuable to leave unheard. Harriet Tubman is an American heroine in the best sense of the terms. I researched her life and times and work and pulled together all I could from letters about her and other sources into an interactive play and study guide to be used in the schools. It was fun and poignant at the same time. It challenged old ways of thinking while giving steps and purpose to new ways. Because the program integrated the arts, it was picked up by one of the arts councils and took off from there.
AHN: And what was the response?
Evans: The impact has been amazing. When I see a gym with the bleachers filled with teenagers who rarely sit for anything, sit for an hour listening to me tell her story - riveted - I know that the work is changing lives. We get letters occasionally telling of life changes. Grown-ups and youth alike thrive in an atmosphere where redemptive story thrives.
|
|
AHN: You do a lot of work with kids in classroom settings. Can you describe a little how you got started there?
Evans: I started working in classrooms in Girl Scouts with my mother teaching others how to sew when I was very young. I am comfortable in the classroom. A classroom is a small community. It is in this setting that we learn about society and how it should work. Successful "Classroom Etiquette" really demands and depends on the goodness of each person there to learn and reach a full potential. It is inclusive and democratic. Private lessons are great too but sometimes we learn more when others are working on similar things along with us. The classroom allows a kind of journey-learning ensemble, a team reaching for the same goals.
 AHN: How did you build connections with schools and teachers?
Evans: It often takes some convincing for many traditional teachers to trust the arts in their classrooms. They are afraid of chaos, losing control and not being able to get it back. A good art teacher understands that balance of opening imagination and then directing it, using the freedom within form and structure to create beautiful, new and sometimes unexpected things.
I found a company in Chicago, Whirlwind Performance Company, that wanted to share the benefits of academy education in the public school realm, where most kids do not have the money to afford the expensive private lessons. We brought art to them instead of waiting for them to come to us. We found that it was easy to connect learning objectives with art projects, be they music, dance, drama or storytelling. We also found that there was a very clear work and community ethic involved in what we were teaching. This ethic was essential to all good learning. Success in the arts was grounded in social skills, listening, kindness, patience, taking turns, sharing attention, practice, understanding, tolerance. The personal discipline underlying the arts was very appropriate in the classroom and much more effective than classic classroom discipline.
AHN: What has been a highlight for you in working with kids?
Evans: Discovery is the highlight for me. We discover amazing things together. Sometimes I share games and songs that are unfamiliar to all the students. If I give them something that is new and they all learn it at the same time, it is like they all got a cool Christmas present and they opened it at the same time and they can keep it and no one will lose it or break it. And it is big enough for everyone to have all they want. We all win! I guess the perk is that we can all play together now. That is a highlight.
|
|
 One of my big motivations is to spread the understanding that we have within us and our own imagination everything we need. Our tool kit is already full and rich. We forget to open it up. Folks have come to think that you have to have a lot of money to have fun or to make something beautiful. I am here to offer a more lively possibility. There are so many games we can play and wonderful things to do to fill our time that make us stronger and smarter and more flexible and able and fun. And they do not cost money. There are stories to tell and learn and make up and act out and props and poems and puppets and music and sounds and images that our own bodies and voices and minds can make. We can even make our own medicine through our play and creations.
AHN: What excites you most about Voices from the Earth, Inc. right now?
Evans: What excites me now is the same thing that excited me when we first started. When I see the students engaged, awake, asking questions, fully participating and making choices. "The Porch Light" that goes on right in front of me. That is a good days work, and I go to sleep in peace with a joyful and thankful heart.
|
|
 There is also the new programming we develop like the underground railroad workshops, where we really go back in time in games, songs, activities and imagination. The most recent is an old time radio show. We take the work of the students interviews and put them in an aural format to present to a live studio audience, including the radio drama, the commercials, recipes, riddles, humor, history, etc.
AHN: What advice do you have for others who wish to use creativity to build community and initiate positive change in our world today?
Evans: Listen to the needs of the community you care to serve. Allow your creativity to respond to that call. Attend what already works and is working. Start to build on what is there with beauty and respect. Start small, work in a way that assures the success of those you wish to serve. Then build on their success.
|
|
We must start with respect, always. Respect for our own craft, others' process and sense of timing. Respect requires that we look again and again, that we do not take our former knowledge for granted. We may not know all that we need to know yet. Look again. There should always be room for wonder and growth no matter how long we have been teaching or how well we know our subject.
Have faith that we can learn and grow and change and create a culture where we all thrive and become our best. Listen, Respect, Love and Believe!
To learn more about Ilene Evans and Voices from the Earth, please visit www.earthsvoices.org
|
|
|
|
FEATURED BOOK
Drumming the I Ching: A Journey to Better Health and Harmony
by Melinda Maxfield
Forward by Angeles Arrien
 "Dr. Maxfield provides us with an important tool for health and well-beingÉThis book is an extraordinary contribution to our ancestors and the future generations to come."
--Angeles Arrien in the introduction to Drumming the I Ching
In this beautifully designed book, Dr. Melinda Maxfield brings together two traditions -- the world-wide tradition of drumming and the Chinese ancient book of wisdom, the I Ching by teaching readers how to drum the trigram patterns of the I Ching. The result is a process that is not only fun, but deeply regenerative. It marks a breakthrough contribution in ethnomusicology, health care, brain research and education.
As Dr. Maxfield explains, ÒDrumming these patterns is a unique way to approach the I Ching as it is a kinesthetic entry. The process is a type of meditation, requiring total concentration. I have taught the I Ching Drumming to thousands of people, nationally and internationally, working with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Dyslexia. The process seems to enhance the life-skills of attention, presence and focus and contributes to team building and community. Often the body seems infused with energy for several hours, resulting in increased stamina and elevated emotional moods.Ó
In addition to the book detailing how to drum the I Ching, the set includes colorful, easy to follow drumming sheets and an instructional CD. No previous drumming experience is necessary, and one can use wooden dowels or click sticks in place of the traditional drum. The whole package is wrapped in an elegant bright red paper case and costs $38.95. For more information or to order a copy, please click here.
Please note all proceeds from the sale of this product support the Angeles Arrien Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research.
|
|
|
|
AUDIO RESOURCE
Native Wisdom: Seven Keys to Health and Happiness
by Ken Cohen
Traditional healer Ken Cohen spent 35 years studying, practicing, and training with Native American, African, Siberian, Aboriginal, and Chinese elder healers.
He shares their teachings in this new program, Native Wisdom: Seven Keys to Health and Happiness.
This audio program includes prayers, meditations, and practical ideas to bring ancient, life-long practices for well-being to contemporary listeners.
For example, Cohen offers prayers to invoke the wisdom of the Great Spirit, teaches the "Pathway of Peace" -- a seven-step meditation for visualizing truth, love, intuition, and other intrinsic values, and outlines a natural approach to nourishing your body based on your ancestry.
This 75-minute program was produced by Sounds True in August 2003 and is available as a CD or audio cassette. To order through Sounds True, click here.
|
|
|
|
FEATURED LINK
 Voices of the Earth
Earthvoices.org
Voices of the Earth (www.earthvoices.org) is a wonderful resource of current native wisdom and storytelling. The site includes passages written by Elders across the globe from Aborgines to the Sioux tribes. All together on line they create a wisdom community, offering reminders on how to live a life more connected to and reverent of the Earth.
Below is an excerpt from Ed White Eagle of the Hopi Tribe written on May 21, 2001.
"The Hopi have a different view of their relationship to the Earth. Because when we look at a tree, a plant or a flower we see our loved ones who have gone. We see our mothers, fathers, grandparents. We see our wives, husbands and children. We see our past alive again."
|
|
|
|
READERS RESPOND
Please send your thoughts and feedback on this month's news page to ahn@artheals.org. We would love to hear from you.
|
|
|
 |
SIGN UP FOR THE ARTS AND HEALING NETWORK E-MAILING LIST
Become part of our e-mailing list and receive a monthly email with information about what's new at artheals.org. To join the e-mailing list, simply send an email to artheals- subscribe@topica.com or go to www.topica.com/lists/artheals/
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
