October is– “Vocational Service Month”
Today the group gathered at our new meeting venue, the North Domingo Baca Multigenerational Center.
Following our board meeting, President Gail called our regular meeting to order at 12 noon and led the membership in the Pledge of Allegiance and the 4-way test, followed by a moment of reflection.
There were no Visiting Rotarians or Guests today.
Just one pin or name tag buck fine was imposed today.
Announcements/Sad-Happy-Brag Bucks:
Pat put in a buck for Fofo’s help in redirecting her to N. Domingo Baca today.
Our Sgt-at-Arms Questions for the day:
Between 2 & 8 October, it’s Rotary Connect Week. So, it’s connections to what? Libby was the closest guess. It’s about connections to Ambassadorial and Peace Scholars, youth fellowships and all other Rotary Alumni.
As per our recent Ghost Tour guide, what’s the difference between major & minor ghosts? The first to give up the correct answer was Marion, who won herself a box of unused toothpicks.
Club, District & R.I. News and Business:
Thanks to Judy & Mollie for arranging our fun Rotary park picnic. The lunch box auction brought $160 into our Club coffers.
Thanks to Pat, a great time was had by all at the ghost walk tour in old town and at the preceding dinner.
Your board of directors is reviewing the Club’s process of donations to worthy causes. Should we budget for donations & for RYLA, etc?
Should the proceeds from our pancake breakfast be dedicated to a specific cause?
Are more fundraisers needed?
Is anyone interested in joining a temporary focus group which will address the above questions? Dave will set up a meeting of this temporary group.
Let’s think about our 31 October meeting… It’s Halloween! Is it party time?
At a meeting BEFORE our Christmas party, we’ll have a “white elephant” gift exchange!
Treasurer Judy reports: The operating account and The Grant Account.
The check for our labors at Bernalillo’s Brew Fest came in today, via Fofo.
There’ll be NO MEETINGS during the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s day.
However, we’ll be having our regular holiday party at Pat’s place. We’ll also be visiting Villa Solano & Hannett House as usual. On a Saturday during the holidays, we could also consider assisting the USPS with sorting & unloading food donations. We’ll check to see which post offices need help & when they’ll need it. We are also considering a workday at The Rock at Noonday.
We’ve provided pins for our Interact Club members and officers.
We’re considering sending representatives (via RailRunner) from our Interact Club to the District 5520 Regional Assembly on Sat, October 28, 10am–4pm at Inn At Santa Fe Hotel, 8376 Cerrillos Rd, Santa Fe, NM 87507, USA (map). If they go, the Interact Club will provide a presentation on their latest quilting project.
Join fellow Rotarians for networking and building bridges in Santa Fe! Special rate at the Inn is $69/night - specify reservation is for the North Action Team Regional Assembly.
District 5520 Regional Assembly Sun, October 29, 10am–3pm 2953 S Broadway St, T or C, NM 87901.
The PolioPlus “spare change” jar made made its usual trip around the room.
Today’s Program: The Working Classroom
Allan introduced Ms. Gabrielle Uballez, executive director of Working Classroom.
Gabrielle is an alumna of Working Classroom where she has participated as a student, public art apprentice and instructor.
Working Classroom (WC) is a multi-ethnic, inter-generational community of student & professional artists, writers, actors and directors with a conscious commitment to supporting new and diverse voices and visions in the arts. The underrepresentation and caricature of historically ignored communities hampers our understanding of who we are as a nation and how we interpret our past and contemplate our future. WC contributes to a more nuanced understanding of American identity by training aspiring artists and actors from historically ignored communities and creating art and theater by, for and about these communities.
In 1987, an English professor spent time at a training project in Nicaragua. At home, she visited a middle school where she told students about the effects of civil war on Nicaraguan children: In addition to fear, hunger, insecurity and violence, they attended schools with no books, pencils or paper. The middle school students, poor immigrants themselves, wanted to help. They suggested collecting pencils or sending old toys. A 12-year old boy raised his hand. “Why not write books?” he asked. From his vision, Working Classroom was born.
Working Classroom prepares students to contribute to a more nuanced definition of our collective identity. To this end, WC recruits the majority of students, board, staff and instructors from ignored communities, nurtures students’ ability to work in their native languages, utilizes formal and informal education to prepare students for professional success and promotes human rights and peace through the arts, seek and nurture international artistic collaboration and do not accept contributions from weapons manufacturers.
Working Classroom has expanded. Students, staff and parents have created an internationally recognized model program that includes a street conservatory where students study art and theater, a bilingual theater company, a student gallery, academic tutoring center and college scholarship fund. Every project and program emphasizes community advocacy and incorporates academic, entrepreneurial and life skills. For example, acting students have written, performed and toured original plays about alcohol and domestic violence, AIDS, immigration and New Mexican history. They have performed across New Mexico and in Columbus, Ohio; represented the United States in Rio de Janeiro and represented New Mexico at the First United Nations Congress on Girls. Art students have written, illustrated and published a comic book about predatory lending and a fotonovela about domestic violence. Their landmark public art brightens homeless shelters, food banks, community art centers and clinics and is anchoring a major cultural tourism project in one of Albuquerque’s poorest neighborhoods.
FACTS ABOUT WORKING CLASSROOM
1. 95 percent of WC’s enrolled students have graduated from high school; 70 percent attend college.
2. WC students and guest artists have created 17 landmark murals in Albuquerque and one in Toronto.
3. WC alumni have graduated from: the College of Santa Fe; Institute of American Indian Arts; Hampshire College; Macalester College; Pitzer College; Pomona College; School of the Art Institute of Chicago; San Francisco Art Institute; Theatre School at DePaul University; New Mexico Highlands; New Mexico State; University of Miami; University of New Mexico.
4. Alumni have earned law degrees.
5. Our first PhD candidate received his doctorate in 2014.
6. WC’s theater company has performed across New Mexico and across the country.
7. WC alumni and brother and sister Gabrielle Uballez and Michael Lopez are collaborating on arts, education and economic development projects in Albuquerque and the south valley.
8. The Institute of International Education designated WC as a model program and host site for its South African Career Development Program.
9. Additional international collaborations include Partners for America (Mexico, Colombia) and artists from France, Thailand, Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, Haiti, China, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
10. WC student authors’ original short stories were published with a press run of 150,000 copies by Houghton Mifflin’s in …elementary school Spanish-language reading series.
11. Alumni brothers David and Victor Meneses each have two careers. David is an award-winning composer with a degree in composition from Montgomery College in Maryland AND a professional magician. Victor is the guitarist with Predator, an internationally touring heavy metal band AND the executive chef at Park Tavern in Delray Beach, FL.
12. WC artistic partners include the National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago), Tectonic Theater Project (New York) and Tamarind Institute of Fine Art Lithography,
13. Guest instructors include faculty at Yale School of Drama, Arizona State University, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
14. WC students participated in the First United Nations Girls Conference.
15. WC students represented New Mexico/ the U.S. at Mexico’s 2nd Annual Youth Congress
16. WC alumna Rebeca Mayorga is the artistic director of ETERneo, an award-winning theater company in Madrid, Spain.
17. Hundreds of students in Nicaragua learned to read with books written and illustrated by WC students and published the Albuquerque Tribune. The Embassy of Nicaragua hosted a formal reception for the young authors.
18. WC students traveled to El Salvador to found Creaciones, an educational theater company for war-traumatized children and teenagers.
19. WC student actors represented the United States at the VII International Festival of Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio de Janeiro.
20. WC student artists created (Hear) By The River, a video mural installation in the Convention Center, commissioned by the City of Albuquerque Public Art Program, depicting Albuquerque’s diverse character and characters.
21. WC student artists wrote and illustrated “Three Months Notice/Tres meses de aviso”, a graphic novel, commissioned by the NM Mortgage Finance Authority, to educate low income consumers about the dangers of predatory lending.
22. WC student artists wrote and illustrated “Hasta que la muerte nos separe”, a fotonovela about domestic violence.
23. WC student actors have performed the Roundhouse Comedy Revue three times at the New Mexico Legislature, where the cast has been joined by over 20 legislators over the past five years.
Working with a $440K yearly budget, their body of 200 students is provided with all of the after school and summer programs. Funds come from the county, city and private donations. College & grad students tutor WC’s student body.
For more information, go to www.WorkingClassroom.org
They’re located at 423 Atlantic Avenue, SW, ABQ. (505) 242-9267
Following today’s talk, President Gail presented Ms. Uballez with a packet of our cards in appreciation of the time that she has spent with us today.
Our thoughts for the day were presented by Libby: “I became an artist because I wanted to be an active participant in the conversation about art.” – Kamand Kojouri
“Music is exciting & easy to enjoy, the rhythm & voice. It does not need interpretation. That is why it is called the universal language.” – Ellen J. Barrier
There being no additional Rotary business, this meeting was concluded at 1:00 PM.
Programs, Happenings and Stuff & Such:
6 Oct ABQ Area Presidents’ Meeting- AM
9 Oct Columbus Day
10 Oct Regular Meeting AT The Event Palace– “Nutrition & You” - Dr. Janet Greger
17 Oct Regular Meeting – The Nuclear Museum - Jim Walther
21 Oct Estancia Rotary’s 22nd Pumpkin Chunkin… Ya just gotta go!
24 Oct Regular Meeting - "The JFK Assassination: A Reporter Reminisces" - Eddie Hughes
24 Oct World Polio day! So, we decided that we’ll throw lots of green stuff into our polio jar.
31 Oct Regular Meeting –
31 Oct Halloween! Will there be a party????
3-4 Nov LG/AG Training
5 Nov Daylight Saving Time ENDS!
7 Nov Board Meeting
7 Nov Regular Meeting –
11 Nov Veterans Day
14 Nov Regular Meeting –
21 Nov NO MEETING !
23 Nov Thanksgiving Day
28 Nov Regular Meeting –
1-3 Mar 2018 PETS & “CATS” in Ruidoso, NM
24 Mar, 2018 District Assembly & OUR CLUB’S Pancake Breakfast
26-29 April, 2018 Save The Date for the District 5520 2018 Conference in Santa Fe – at the Eldorado Hotel. Donna Pedace is the District 5520 conference chairperson.
23-27 June 2018 – Rotary Convention in Toronto, Canada… Got your passport?
Our thanks to all for their continuing assistance with setting up and striking the Club equipment needed to run our meeting.