I’m a worker

I sweat, bleed, and cry

working in the textile mill for a living

the threads I made run through my life

I stumble through the cracks growing up

but even though I stumble I still get back up

It’s piss poor living with all the rats

I see my fellow immigrants come from different countries

Trying to make the same living that I make

Ireland,  Germany, Russia, Poland, England,

Africa

Brushes, paste, clothing, yarn, ,chains, jewelry, tools

rope, machines, leather ,wool , boats , trains, tracks

Dear Diary,

I heard that  an old lady, Mother Jones,

is coming from the Midwest

to help us organize , to get an education.

I wonder if this isn’t another one of those politicians

Man, life can be a drag, but making a living can be sweeter

A letter to the past

Listen, life can be your partner

Then it can claim that it will always be there for you

threading your past with our future

It is a lesson for us

I learn not to trust it

Life it’s always unpredictable

So I lie through my teeth to keep my pain at bay

You from the past were always grateful for what you had

We are always stingy with what we don’t have

You had little things but you were grateful for them

We’ve got a lot but we want more

Cell phones , iPods , mp3′s , new cars, clothes, shoes

and new tvs

You didn’t  have a chance at education

We were privileged with learning

but we’re not grateful

I  look through a fog to see who is on the other side

I pull the thread to the opposite side to see you

but all I see is me

The big day. Here is the intro text for the museum:

El Centro de Estudiantes  Kensington Art of History Project presents:

Threads of History – A Living Museum of Kensington’s Past and Present

Over the course of the last three months, El Centro students from Mr. Kareem and Mr. Andrew’s advisories have worked with teaching artists to explore the history of the Norris Square neighborhood of Kensington, itself a former city, but, since 1848, a neighborhood of Philadelphia. This exploration has focused been focused on three pursuits:

-Observing, researching, and documenting the physical landscape to reveal how clues from the past can be observed in the houses, factory buildings, and roadways of the present.

-Discovering the different groups and cultures that have inhabited the neighborhood and understanding what brought them to this place.

-Comparing and contrasting the differences in life and livelihood between the young people of today and the young people of the industrial revolution, primarily between the years of 1890-1915.

With the goal of displaying research through art making, students have also been looking critically at photography, painting, dance, and theater, and improving skills in making their own work.  What you see here today is the culmination of this experience.  We hope you enjoy it!

The title “Threads of History” invokes a time when Kensington was one of the textile manufacturing powerhouses of the world.  Over the course of this project, I have been repeatedly reminded of how stories are like single threads in a large and variegated tapestry that forms the local history of the places we inhabit. Be it the story of a person, a building, a park, or a road, each story contributes a texture or a color to the whole.

The textile mills in this part of Philadelphia employed tens of thousands of people (many of them children) at the turn of the 20th century.  The thread and yarn you see in this exhibit has been borrowed from the Thomas Buck Hosiery Factory, bordered by York, Emerald, Front, and Jasper Streets,  just a few blocks from here. The factory was in operation until the mid 1970s, when a fire destroyed the punch-card knitting machines that were invented in the early 1900s.

As the lead project coordinator, I would like to thank Mr. Kareem and Mr. Andrew for approaching this project with such openness and enthusiasm.  It’s been good to see you practice your craft and to learn from you. I would like to thank the teaching artists for bringing the love of your art to this intersection of history and creativity.

But most of all, I would like to thank the students. You are all brave young people, first and foremost, for overcoming life’s challenges and obstacles to come to school and take care of business by completing your education.  But beyond the basics, you talented folks have displayed a tremendous amount of creativity, curiosity, insight, humor, tenacity, and strength through the course of a project that was at times confusing, untraditional, and difficult. We asked a lot of you, and you delivered.  I am so honored and proud to have had the chance to work with all of you.

-Jebney Lewis

_____________________________________________________________

And here’s the video of the final performance, intercut with the video team’s film of interviews and a final photo slideshow of project documentation.

We spent these two weeks preparing work for the final museum exhibit and performance. Students built and painted flat walls, podiums, and projection screens; selected photos; cropped and spray mounted project work; located props and costumes; edited video; made background music on Garage Band; and scrambled to put the whole thing together for the June 11th performances.

We traveled to Old City to visit Christ Church, go on the Independence National Park’s Underground Railroad Tour, and the explore the National Constitution Center.  David Bradley came along with us, and made it possible for the group to see Living News, a play he directed that is performed at the National Constitution Center, exploring  constitutional rights as they apply to modern issues. The students really enjoyed the play and ended up borrowing several key dramatic elements for their final performance.  Here is a link to the Living News website:

http://constitutioncenter.org/livingnews/

Students also looked at a fascinating photo exhibit that paired the work of student photographers from Philadelphia and Afghanistan.  The exhibit was extremely helpful in arranging our final photo presentation.

Today, we broke into groups to do project work for the final museum performance and exhibition.  At the beginning of the day, Jeb took the photo team out to document sites around Norris Square for a series of “then and now” photos.

The performance team worked to tie many themes together for their play.  The video team hit the school hallways and streets to get interviews from individual students, teachers, and community members about their experiences as immigrants. They would later use the footage they captured to make a short film that became part of the final performance.

We traveled to the Annenberg Center at the University of Pennsylvania to see a dance performance from the MOMIX company, entitled “Botanica.” As we had plenty of extra tickets, students from other advisories were able to come with us. Many students had never been to a live performance before.  We were all surprised when our school got a shout out from the stage.  Some students liked the performance, and some thought it was a little bit “corny.” Everyone enjoyed the black light sequence at the beginning of the show.  Here’s a Youtube clip of the show that features the part of the black light dance:

We talked about the Kensington Bible Riots of 1844, when Nativists and Irish Catholics clashed in a former covered market in front of where the Crane Building now stands. We visited the Nexus Gallery and saw the 2010 UPenn MFA show in the Ice Box.

Here are some photos by Yerelis Feliciano, and part of an interview with David Gleason, filmed by Luis Rivera and conducted by Maria Guarana.

our interviews with our  elders.

Anna speaks on about our projects she also talks about how we

can make the performance off of the other groups work .

Makoto and Anna speaks with Carmen about what she likes

and dislikes about the performing piece, Mark talks positive

things about Maria .

Makoto and Anna speak .

The group had a idea to see what other groups are doing.

Kareem speaks about the performing part, and when we

performing the piece in Kensington project.

Makoto wanted to know if the the video group needed  a

narrator  and do we want to use any of their footage in our play

or ask to shoot footage.this is the list of people doing  their part in the project.first we have to co-writers

Tiffany&Mark

Mark – lyrics /Poetry

Tiffany – stories

Javier – dance

Carmen – Historical character

Maria – Narrator /Senior partner /guide

We also talk about the activities we did was miming and acting

also talk about  are project the oldest we know and we had to do a interview with them

we talk about student workers stories  Kensington area

History video gp . narrator

we acted out the jobs we had some of us were counselors ,daycare,flyers,others work at congreso/kids

Historical figure & contempary figure – ghosts