I Deserve To Be Heard

“The future is uncertain, but like a phoenix, the community can empower Chewstick to rise from the ashes.” -- Gavin Djata Smith

Chewstick is a community arts organization, born out of Bermuda, dedicated to breaking down social barriers by empowering storytelling, creative expression and social justice to enrich youth, arts, culture and community, so to change the world for the better. The Chewstick Culture Hub at 81 Front Street was impacted by the fire that began on Thursday, July 21, 2016 in a nearby alleyway. All equipment, furnishings, instruments, art, and cultural items have been destroyed by fire, heat, smoke, water or structural collapse. The Hub was the primary revenue line to help underwrite general operations of The Chewstick Foundation, subsidize its programming and cover the significant costs incurred with creating a custom-built, multi-purpose performing arts community centre. With the primary revenue stream lost to the fire, and renovation costs that remain outstanding, the Foundation's future will completely depend on the support of the community. We urge all members of the community to donate to this charity that has worked tirelessly over the last 13 years to empower one, and to enrich all.
Please consider donating using one of the below links. You can also stop by Dangelini’s Cafe or Rock Island Coffee to make a donation.
Donate Online: chewstick.org/online-donation/ 
Donate by Bank Transfer: chewstick.org/donate-by-bank-transfer/
For more information visit chewstick.org and social media pages.
-- Read Chewstick to ‘rise from ashes’ on the Royal Gazette
-- Watch What's New With The Chewstick Foundation on PinkSandBermuda

Arts for All

Turnaround Arts presents “Everyday People,” produced by Playing For Change. Thousands of Turnaround Arts students from across the country perform alongside Turnaround Artist mentors including Jack Johnson, Chad Smith, Jason Mraz, Elizabeth Banks, Tim Robbins, Yo-Yo Ma, Keb’ Mo’, Josh Groban, Bernie Williams, Misty Copeland, Paula Abdul, Trombone Shorty, Alfre Woodard, Citizen Cope, Doc Shaw, Frank Gehry, John Lloyd Young, Carla Dirlikov and more. In the video, produced by Playing For Change, students and their artist mentors sing, play and dance to Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People,” making the case that all people deserve to experience the power of arts and music in school. Turnaround Arts, the signature program of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, empowers high-need, low performing schools with innovative arts, dance, theater and music programs, arts integration across subject areas, arts resources, musical instruments, and high-profile artist mentors, as a proven strategy to help address broader school challenges and close the achievement gap. AWESOME.

Let Girls Learn

In March 2015, the President and First Lady Michelle Obama launched Let Girls Learn, a United States government initiative to ensure adolescent girls get the education they deserve. Around the world, girls face complex physical, cultural, and financial barriers in accessing education. Yet educating girls can transform lives, families, communities, and entire countries. When girls are educated, they lead healthier and more productive lives. They gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence to break the cycle of poverty and help strengthen their societies. Unfortunately today, more than 62 million girls around the world are not in school—half of whom are adolescents.
-- Watch First Lady Michelle Obama on Girls' Education

Lead fearlessly, love hard

On Linda Cliatt-Wayman’s first day as principal at a failing high school in North Philadelphia, she was determined to lay down the law. But she soon realized the job was more complex than she thought. With palpable passion, she shares the three principles that helped her turn around three schools labeled “low-performing and persistently dangerous.” Her fearless determination to lead — and to love the students, no matter what — is a model for leaders in all fields.
Linda has been a special education teacher working in low-performing, impoverished Philadelphia schools for years. She has encountered too many neglected children who endured abuse or were left to raise themselves and she has spent her decades-long career demanding that students fight for their future. She strongly believes in the potential of all children.
Her leadership as a high school principal at Strawberry Mansion High School has been featured by TED, ABC World News Tonight, and Nightline.
-- Watch ABC News Report on Strawberry Mansion HS Philadelphia

Learning Through the Arts

The mission of The Royal Conservatory of Music (Canada) – to develop human potential through leadership in music and the arts – is based on the conviction that the arts are humanity's greatest means to achieve personal growth and social cohesion. Advancing the transformative effect that music and the arts have on society lies at the heart of everything The Royal Conservatory does.
Learning Through the Arts® (LTTA) is a proven transformative educational program developed by the RCM that uses arts-based activities to teach the core curriculum by providing teachers with creative tools to engage all students in math, science, language arts, social studies, and more. LTTA brings specially trained artists, certified to help teach curricular requirements, into the classroom to work creatively in partnership with classroom teachers. Together they create lessons that make the core curriculum exciting and relevant to all students and learner types.

The Transformative Power of Music

Founded in 1956 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Chicago Children's Choir is a nonprofit organization committed to peacefully uniting a diverse world through education, musical expression and excellence. Serving more than 4,300 children annually, it empowers singers to bridge cultural divides and become ambassadors of peace in their communities. The Choir has programs in 79 Chicago schools, 10 after-school neighborhood programs, and under President and Artistic Director Josephine Lee, the Choir has undertaken many highly successful national and international tours.
-- Watch them perform "Freedom Train"

Art Ignites Change

"Life tried to bury us but we are the root and the seed"
The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program is the nation’s largest public art program, dedicated to the belief that ART IGNITES CHANGE. For 30 years, Mural Arts has united artists and communities through a collaborative process, rooted in the traditions of mural-making, to create art that transforms public spaces and individual lives.They believe that their process empowers artists to be change agents, stimulates dialogue about critical issues, and builds bridges of connection and understanding. Their work is created in service of a larger movement that values equity, fairness and progress across all of society.
-- Watch TED talk about Philadelphia Mural Arts Program

Fighting Poverty With Classical Music

Music has always provided a back bone to the community of Soweto, South Africa. It was an escape during apartheid, and an outlet for joy when freedom came. As Mathapelo Matabane says, "We sing when we happy, we sing when we sad". But now music is providing liberation in a different way. Started in 1991, Buskaid has been providing underprivileged children with the chance to learn classical music for over 20 years. It has seen it's orchestra travel around the world from New York to Syria and fired many musicians into Classical Music stardom. But for it's founder, Rosemary Nalden, it is more than just a charity project: "There is something going on, and it's sort of much bigger than all of us. It's been hard work, but it just feels literally at a particular point in my life and in their lives and in the life of this country."
-- Watch Rosemary Nalden at TEDxObserver - The stories and songs of the Townships

Education Through Music

Education Through Music partners with New York inner-city schools to provide music education as a core subject for all students in the school. Studies have proven that kids who are involved with the arts have higher grades and are less likely to drop out of school. Similarly kids who play musical instruments are likely to have higher self-esteem, confidence, discipline, concentration, and emotional intelligence than kids who don’t play instruments. Since 1991, Education Through Music has grown into an organization that is reaching thousands of children, giving them the high-quality music education they deserve.

The Future of Learning

Can ICT redefine the way we learn in the Networked Society? Technology has enabled us to interact, innovate and share in whole new ways. This dynamic shift in mindset is creating profound change throughout our society. This short documentary looks at one part of that change, the potential to redefine how we learn and educate. Watch as world renowned experts and educators talk about its potential to shift away from traditional methods of learning based on memorization and repetition to more holistic approaches that focus on individual students' needs and self expression.