C4 Project: Pieces from the Pandemic
Inspired by personal experiences and the experiences of others, students and teachers create new songs and speeches to express their experiences, elevate the voice of others, and find healing
It is a beautiful thing to teach people to find their voices. Arianna and I have this privilege on a daily basis in our jobs as arts teachers in the Greater New Orleans Area. In the midst of the pandemic and beginning the road to recovery, we challenged our students to use their creativity to create original works of performing art to give voice to the experiences that they and people around them were going though.
The C4 Project: Compose, Collaborate, Communicate, Change
- Creating Art for Explosive Change
Performing Arts students in our community struggled with the void of opportunity created in the wake of COVID restrictions and fears about vocal and instrumental music making. As we observed the emotional distance that grew amid the social distance, we knew there had to be a way for students to close the gap, safely. The C4 Project was the solution. Students and teachers from my music classes and Arianna's theatre classes collaborated and formed an artistic community, a safe place to uncover their struggles and fire their creative capacity again.
"Now we know that regardless of the distance that separates us physically, art can be the tool that brings us together again."
Students created original songs and speeches to express aspects their own journey and that of others. The healing that took place in the midst of this storm was beautiful to behold. The journey is not over yet, but now we know that regardless of the distance that separates us physically, art can be the tool that brings us together again.
