Arts Alive will welcome award-winning poet and Kennedy Center teaching artist Glenis Redmond to Springfield, Ohio, as part of the 2016-17 Arts Alive season.
"Glenis Redmond is a dynamic performance poet,” said Amy Korpieski, Arts Alive coordinator. “She understands hard times and global culture, and she speaks her story through her poems. I believe she will inspire teachers, students and everyone who hears her to believe in the power of their story."
Clark State has been a partner with Arts Alive for more than 20 years. There are only two Kennedy Center partnerships in the state of Ohio including Arts Alive. “The mission is to support arts integration in school curriculum through teacher training,” said Korpieski.
The Arts Alive program in Springfield is also one of only a few Kennedy Center partnerships which include a visual arts museum. Redmond will deliver her poetry performance in one of the galleries of the Springfield Museum of Art. The backdrop will be an 1850s painting depicting the end of slavery, which lines up with Glenis Redmond’s statement, “Black History for me is 365 days a year not just during the 28 days in February.” The open reading is hosted by the Museum in partnership with The Gammon House.
Redmond's poetry performance is free and open to the public. The event begins at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, October 18, at the Springfield Museum of Art, 107 Cliff Park Road.
While in Springfield, Redmond will also conduct workshops with Project Jericho teens in the after school and juvenile detention center programs. She is also offering a master class for students in the Early Childhood Education program, along with invited Head Start teachers.
“Every year we try to bring a nationally known speaker to work with teachers,” said Korpieski. “Redmond gave the keynote at the Partners in Education annual meeting last February. We thought she was an amazing fit for Springfield.”
Arts Alive is a Partners in Education program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Arts Alive partners are: Clark State Community College, Springfield Arts Council, Springfield City School District, Springfield Museum of Art and Wittenberg University. Arts Alive supports arts integration in the school curriculum.
*This workshop was developed in association with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and is partially underwritten by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Committee for the Performing Arts.