MAAE-RIDE Classroom Resources

Classroom Resources

Materials ready for use with students in the classroom grouped by discipline.

Dance

Music

Multi-Media Arts

1. Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective – has created a series of media productions including podcasts, poetry, music, theatre, books, and dance – generated by artists working collaboratively with 16-24-year-old African American and BIPOC youth whose lives have been touched by violence. The organization uses the arts, experience in nature, and community service in creative youth development.  https://storystitchers.org/

• Good For Your Health  (4:46 minutes) A lively hip-hop song produced by Saint Louis Story Stitchers about making healthy choices with food. Music video was filmed at Winslow’s Farm in Augusta, MO. In Back Story VII Good For Your Health, Story Stitchers youth discuss the creative process and underlying issues of social justice which affect health choices faced by urban residents in underserved areas. https://vimeo.com/434225044  (33 minutes) In-school performances available. https://vimeo.com/382674797 Song lyric paperback book available ($15 plus S+H)

• #KickCovid – 1-minute challenge video out to encourage mask wearing (tag #KickCovid and @storystitchers when you post) – How do you #KickCovid? 

• WADE with Lyrics (5:48 minutes) WADE is an original song produced by Saint Louis Story Stitchers in 2020 as party of the multi-year project, The WHY of MY City, which captures and documents pieces of black history through written word and art while training the next generation to become active, engaged citizens.  In Back Story I: WADE, youth share the creative process and meaning behind the lyrics. (19:52 minutes)

• StitchCast Studio - StitchCast Studio is a youth-led podcast program that focuses on the streets, gun violence, and finding solutions to issues that are coming at our youth hard. The project goal is to gain greater understanding of the needs and desires of the youth served and to give them an amplified voice to create needed changes in society, to support youth in a successful transition to adulthood, and to reduce youth crime in St. Louis. 16-24-year-old youth living in the St. Louis region may apply to be a participant. (Missouri: St. Louis City and County, St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin and in Illinois: St. Clair County) StitchCast Studio is free on Spotify, Apple podcast, Google podcasts, and Podbean. Trailer  (2:57 minutes)  

• Peace in the Prairie - an original presentation exploring the concepts of peace and violence, juxtaposing urban life as experienced by African American people living in the city of St. Louis, Missouri and the state’s endangered prairie lands. 

Is the path towards peace through Missouri’s native prairies? Multiple songs including To The Prairie Song lyric paperback book available ($15 plus S+H), Prairie Therapy, America, and Missouri Waltz, accompany the work. Please contact us if you are interested in holding a screening and discussion in your community. storystitchers@gmail.com

• Who’s Ready? - (4:01 minutes) Music video of original song produced by Saint Louis Story Stitchers in which youth ask their community to join them in putting guns down and building a movement for peace.  Live performance (5:40 minutes)  In Back Story III Who’s Ready? Stitchers youth discuss the creation of the song. https://vimeo.com/422766904  (33:24 minutes)  Social Change through Music (2:07 minutes) 

• Not Another One! A Discussion on Gun Violence – Transcribed youth-led discussion about gun violence and police brutality recorded during the Ferguson protests. Available on Amazon and through Lulu.

• Not Another One! A Play for Peace – Original script produced and staged for high schools by Saint Louis Story Stitchers. Digital copies of the script and curriculum packet available ($100 first copy, script may be reproduced for your classroom.)  Performance Video (52:09 minutes)

Based on this discussion video. School Assembly Teaser. Student Teaser.

• Speak Peace: Word of Wisdom, Work, and Wonder – by Lynette Ford and Sherry Norfolk with a chapter on Saint Louis Story Stitchers by Susan Colangelo. Available on Amazon ($15)

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Theatre

1.  Free Open Source Play Scripts from Idris Goodwin and TYA/USA

http://www.tyausa.org/freeplay/?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Announcing+Idris+Goodwin%27s+FREE+PLAY%3A+Open+Source+Scripts+Toward+an+Antiracist+Tomorrow&utm_campaign=20200612_m158791335_Announcing+FREE+PLAY%3A+Open+Source+Scripts+Toward+an+Antiracist+Tomorrow&utm_term=FREE+PLAY

This link takes you to free open source scripts written for young audiences by playwright Idris Goodwin.  Provided through TYA/USA, they can be downloaded for free.  TYA states, “TYA/USA is honored to provide a platform for award-winning playwright Idris Goodwin to present five short plays to spark conversation and serve as a catalyst for action. Each of these short works, written to be read across the multi-generational spectrum, offer different insights about disconnects in racial conversation and the Black experience in America. Goodwin hopes that this release also provides a model for open-source theater and storytelling, in which the connection between playwright and community is direct.

2.  “All American Boys” as a Resource for Young People & Families

http://www.tyausa.org/allamericanboys/?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=%23BlackLivesMatter+in+TYA%3A+ALL+AMERICAN+BOYS+as+a+resource+for+Young+People+%26+Families&utm_campaign=20200618_m158879330_%23BlackLivesMatter+in+TYA%3A+ALL+AMERICAN+BOYS+as+a+resource+for+Young+People+%26+Families&utm_term=++ALL+AMERICAN+BOYS+Script_2C+Video_2C+and+Resources++

TYA/USA believes that theater can play an important role in helping young people and families explore personal narratives to face hard truths and inspire meaningful change. Last year, TYA/USA kicked off the 2019 Festival & Conference with a reading of a powerful new work that urgently speaks to our current moment. Today, we are making it available to you and your communities as a resource.  We are partnering with Off The Page, The Alliance Theatre, and Playscripts to officially release the script and video recording of the stage adaptation of ALL AMERICAN BOYS (based on the book by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely) as one way to use theater for young audiences as a vehicle to confront systemic racism, police violence, and its impact on young people across this country.

Visual Arts