My Curriculum - A Handbook: How to start a community arts project and no other stories

So one of the purposes of this blog is to create a guide to starting a community project.

And I don't do that. I've mostly been contemplating events. But I think that's part of the process.

The Process:

Step 1: Go out and support your community. I volunteered at 826NYC. I attended events created by my colleagues. I read at events, I met people at events, I followed up with people. I've got a really reliable community of artists who support the work I'm doing and give me a lot of encouragement.

Step 2: Find someone with a lot more experience than you, who believes in your idea, (for me: Tanisha Christie, but you will have to find someone else). Let this person rip apart your first attempt at grant writing. Listen. Learn.

Step 3: Bring the community together and see what happens. Watch. Think. Learn.

Step 4: Don't forget to practice your art. Let the project slide if you've got other things to do and pick it up later. (Obviously don't drop good momentum, but you can do it non-consecutively -- in a way this can help build excitement, at least with Raw Fiction it seems to.)

Step 5: Don't get caught up in the suggestions of other people. Some advisors (and be sure to have several so you can get all sorts of angles and opinions) will ask the perfect questions and others will say confusing things; take it all in, it's all necessary. Figure out your answers for everything, so you can talk about your project in any setting and seem as though you know what you're talking about.

Step 6: Be open to different methodologies. Don't get stuck in a stagnant routine. As in, don't just teach the same stuff all the time. Have a pool of stories, poetry and essay (or a variety of genre for whatever art you're sharing - my focus is postcolonial and I'm flexible within/with that timeframe). Get to know your youth and give them things you think will be exciting specifically to them. Let me choose what they want to read from a bunch of options. And so on. Keep the curriculum full of potential.

This photo of a Romare Bearden piece (on exhibit at Columbia University's gallery through February, check it out) is for the sole purpose of false advertising the true intentions of this blog: