Riding the Wave

Having settled into the comfort of my cat-sitting routine, last weekend felt like the perfect time to dig in an explore a bit more of the the city, and the Aikido scene. Penny helped me with this, as she offered to drive me to the class she was teaching at her dojo, Heart of San Francisco Aikido. For those of you unfamiliar with my ranting adoration about this martial arts form, I'll preface with saying that I have sorely missed practicing regularly while on the road. Having had the chance to attend one training at Portland Aikikai Dojo, I was made keenly aware of some significant rustiness in my practice. Despite this or perhaps because of it I was all to eager to take Penny up on her offer. It was an honor to join Penny Sensei on the mat, learning her dojo's way of bowing, clapping, and general etiquette. I find this etiquette to be one of the many valuable qualities of this martial form, as it both grounds the practice n respect and provides a way to recognize other practitioners as part of a common if not variant tradition. I watched with a deep sense of respect as Penny Sensei demonstrated the spirit I'd witnessed in our brief encounters, moving like a swirling tornado of loveliness, strength and power. She seemed to exude bright energy with all her movements in a profoundly dynamic relationship to others, which frequently ended in a smile. As the forward and backward roles found themselves once again in the shape of my body, I started to feel the familiar centering and glow of good work done within myself and with others. The fellow members of the dojo were kind, welcoming, and helpful in their guidance, and made me so proud to be part of this tradition and community. As class ended, we bowed, and thanked each other for training, news circulated about one of the men's birthdays. We changed out of our belts and white pajamas into more street appropriate clothes and rejoined at a local coffee shop to celebrate him with drinks and cupcakes. As people bantered about life and Aikido I was happy to see the closeness of their dojo, and excited to return home to Aikido of Madison and our own tradition of walnut burgers at the Harmony.

Before the weekend was done, I also wanted to make sure I fulfilled one of the many romantic notions of this trip and got to see some people surfing. Besides on TV. I had never seen this done in person, and something about the seemingly good natured audacity of the sport was calling me. Just my luck, one of the women at the San Fran hostel had told me about a surfing competition going on not far away. So Sunday afternoon I hopped on a bus and made my way through the dips and rolls of the San Francisco neighborhoods to Ocean Beach. A certain kind of hum accompanied the approaching beach, the cumulative buzz of human conversation, gulls chattering and screeching to each other, and the ever-present drumming of waves. I can't remember ever being on a beach quite like that, it was so wide, the water slick so long, and the cliffs at the edge so steep. And then there they were. Like so many water bugs zipping along the surface, up and down, over and across, windsurfers traced their paths with bright kits through the waves. Surfers approaching the water held tightly to their boards and their wind-sail floating high above, already anxiously responding to the wind like a pup at the end of the leash ready to chase a ball. Once in the water somehow they managed to stay up, to not hit each other, and to decide where they wanted to go. I walked the water line in amazement, getting distracted frequently by sand dollars and shells embedded in the beach. I couldn't seem to take pictures that got is all, somehow they didn't capture exactly the way the light was setting on the waves or the vastness of what was happening beyond the windsurfers. I resolved to pick up my oil paints again when I got home, hoping the memory or the sense of the ocean would stay with me that long. With a couple sand dollars in my pocket and sand stuck in the my nest of wind whipped hair, I was deeply satisfied and turned back towards Ms. Annabelle the fluffy socialite, and Ms. Penelope the sturdy companion.

Monday night it was back to work, and I had the chance to meet with Sarah Woodward of the Music Mural Arts Project, an organization committed to serving low-income and disadvantaged youth through the arts. As the Director of the San Francisco chapter of their Health Education Through Art(HEArt) Program, Sarah shared how, why, and what her organization does so well. Getting its start only ten years ago, MMAP seems to have made amazing progress in their short lifespan, making important and lasting inroads with the community to become a unique and significantly valued resource for youth. Serving East Palo Alto and the Bay Area, Sarah explained that they started with their flagship program the Teen Mural Project and have expanded since then to include five programs total. All their programs serve high school aged students, and in addition to this the HEArt program works with middle school aged youth as well. Overall programs offer ways for youth to engage in their own well being and community through the arts. Programs provide a safe and caring place for youth to grow, learn how to make healthy choices for themselves, learn necessary life skills, and develop healthy relationships with other youth and adults. Youth are given chances to develop both their artistic and leadership skills, and to continue to grow creatively in ways well suited for them.

The Teen Mural Project was started in 2001, and was so well received by the community that the demand grew for more extensive programing. The Teen Mural Project employs 30 youth each summer to create a public mural, music, and design for promotion of the project, all focused around a chosen theme. Youth are interviewed for their position in the program, and once accepted work closely as a team to successfully bring together the various parts of the project. These teens are considered the core students of MMAP, and some continue to help with other programs throughout the year based on the student's area of interest and guidance from staff. Throughout the program, MMAP staff works with youth holistically seeing them as individuals with unique abilities and needs. This approach is consistent throughout MMAP's other four programs, the Graffiti Arts Project(GAP), History Through Hip-Hop(HHH), In Schools Elective Program(ICE), and Health Education Through Art(HEArt). During programing and projects youth are regularly engaged in conversations about their thoughts and views on issues in their lives and experiences they are having. In addition to these conversations, the youths' successes are celebrated and shared publicly. There is mural unveiling, gallery exhibits, an album of youth hip-hop that is produced each year, musics performances, and inclusion of parents and community members at all of these events. In this way youth are supported, and a safe place is created for them to realize and celebrate their creativity and value in their community.

With the guidance of professional artists, youth learn and develop their artistic skills in spray painting, brush painting, writing lyrics, composing and mixing music, design, and performance. In addition to this they are constantly building life skills such as showing up and being on time for work, communicating respectfully and openly, working as part of a team, following the direction of a lead adult, and speaking with the public. The majority of teens in the programs experience significant social-economic disadvantages and this skill building can be crucial to the healthy development and success of their academic, personal, home, and community lives.

For this reason, the program has become an important resource to other community organizations and institutions who value this opportunity for youth. The University of Stanford granted the first funds to paint murals in ten area schools, what would later become established as the Teen Mural Project. In addition to funding, Stanford continues to work closely with MMAP to provide important research that guides working philosophies and methodology as well as connecting university students with internships. The school districts in San Francisco and East Palo Alto have also been huge supporters of MMAP, partnering to run after school programing and regularly commissioning artwork In addition to this, the Juvenile Justice System in San Francisco and East Palo Alto have recognized MMAP as an important resource for youth coming through the court system in doing restorative work and community service. Sarah explained that these partnerships are so strong because they are built on shared values. At the core of these partnerships is the view that youth are an important part of the community and part of the solution to barriers they face, rather than a problem to be controlled or fixed.

I was amazed at how quickly MMAP seemed to have established their presence in the community, and the overall flourishing of their programs. When I asked Sarah about the reasons for this success she pointed to the strength of these partnerships as one of the primary sources of success, and being aligned with others who have the same goals and views. She also said that they are constantly getting feedback from the youth about what is working best, and have intentionally built programs keeping this input in mind. In addition to this, they are committed to building a divers and culturally competent staff who genuinely care for the youth. With this inclusively developed programing and dedicated team of artist and youth workers, MMAP has become really good at what they do. In this way they are seen as experts in working with youth and art, and are called upon both by their established partners as well as private businesses to do commissions.

Inspired by both Sarah's professionalism and the clarity and success of both her personal and organizational vision, it was already time to say goodbye. Hopping on the bus to journey back to Burnel Heights, my mind spun around the brilliant achievements of the Mural Music Arts Project. The importance of strong partnerships showed up once again in our conversation, as did the need for a strong and like-minded/dedicated team. I was really encouraged again to see that the Juvenile Justice System had adopted the paradigm shift moving towards restorative justice, recognizing that support and acknowledgment of youths' individual needs is more successful than punitive measures. My heart gladdened to know this resource was available to MMAP youth, and I look forward to checking out more images and sound-clips of their work at their website. Thank you Sarah for your inspiring work, and sharing the mission of your organization with such clear and candid dedication, it is much appreciated.

You can check out their website at www.muralmusicarts.org

More news soon to come about an inspiring conversation with Chad the Program Director of 7 Tepees, another great organization working with youth in the Mission District. Also, I was not wrong about the Mexican pastry, it was super delicious. Hope you are all well!