First GHM Event hosted by Celeste in McAllen, TX!
Here are Celeste’s reflections on her experiences: The day of the event, I was nervous, but excited. My event started at 11, so I got to the meeting place at 10:30. At 11 people started showing up, and at 11:30 I said an opening speech that explained how the event will carry out. All 3 adult advocates showed up, but only 6 out of the 15 people who committed to coming actually showed up, so I made 2 teams of 6 out of the people who did come, and I included myself in one of the teams. We had an hour and a half to write haikus; at 1:30 we met back at the cafe. Teams chose their...
Read MoreCeleste G.: A Day in the Life
Agent Celeste takes us through a typical day at her school in McAllen, TX, and her reasons for doing a Guerilla Haiku program in her community: My alarm beeps to wake me up in the morning and I lazily shut it off. I wake up 30 minutes later and jump out of bed, knowing I’m probably still going to be late to school. I wake up my sisters, get ready, and eat a quick microwaveable breakfast. By the time I get to school, I’m rushing to get there on time. As I get to school, I try to remember whether its an A or B day. I remember its an A Day, so I make my...
Read MoreGuerilla Haiku’s San Antonian Residency!!
Artpace is an organization committed to bringing excellent local, national and international artists to San Antonio and giving them space and resources to create new work in the city (and engage the community in their process). They also organize one of the most ambitious community engagement efforts I have yet to experience: Chalk It Up, San Antonio. In this one-day-only event, tens of thousands of San Antonians come together to chalk up one of their major downtown streets. Artists make murals, teams from local schools and organizations create team pieces and everyone is invited to add to...
Read MoreGHM: BeHive After School in Austin
Thanks to the efforts of Alan De Anda, Guerilla Haiku made its way on December 5th, 2012 to Salinas Ave to haiku with a group of 2nd-4th graders at the BeHive Afterschool Program in the Marshall Apartments. We used paper instead of chalk (out of respect for the church property) and left a wake of brightly colored haiku all over the grounds. One young man, Miguel, destined for greatness, was relentless in getting EVERYONE he saw to write haiku with him. His powers of persuasion were impressive indeed. As are the photos of this band of newly-converted Agents of Haiku. To find out more about...
Read MoreGHM: Arlington Public Library Teen Zone
Arlington Library is doing great things with teen programming across the city, and the Teen Zone in Northeast Arlington has created a safe, and supportive environment for their after school youth mainly due to their incredible leader, Veronica, and the dedicated presence of local mom, Maria. When Veronica invited Guerilla Haiku in to do some Haikuing around the library after school, I could not say no, despite the darkening skies. (Even in Texas the night descends sooner in Winter). The result of our 2 hours at the Library was an initially hesitant group of teens writing, drawing and creating...
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