kiss the mist within the drops of rain.
navigate your soul with the wind.
find home in a sky.
now is the greatest time to be alive.
tomorrow is never seen until yesterday is forgotten.
love the life you live, live the life you love
most importantly love the ones you're with, be with the ones you love.
airplane mode, don't be afraid to lock off communication.
freedom
spirit
they call it an epidemic, we know its a pandemic. when mass media turns its blind eye on injustice, even still the numbers don't lie and they see quite a bit. for the call break the walls & free them all, we still missing mainstream info on our political prisoners (former black panthers, young lords etc) - profiling/targeting/attacks on our Muslim brothers and sisters. ahhhhhhh what a ways to travel along this white supremacy road, still i ride for freedom
spirit
http://www.thegrio.com/local/new-york/art-program-changing-the-lives-of-homeless-youth.php
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12:50 PM on 03/15/2012 |
Students of One Mic, a workshop within the ART START non-profit organization. (Photo: ART START)
Amid the skyscrapers, the traffic, and the harsh realities of New York City lies ART START, a nationally recognized, award-winning non-profit organization that uses art to nurture, transform, and save lives. Described as an escape for at-risk and homeless youth, the organization encourages students to immerse themselves in art to find their purpose, and to persevere through obstacles.
Musician Miky Solano, also known as Miky Hustles, is just one of the 11,000 youth who say ART START has changed their lives. He has been involved with ART START for the past three years.
"I never really knew what art was," he told theGrio. "I always thought it was just drawing or painting. Yet once I met some people that started teaching me what art really is, it changed my whole perspective on art. They told me that music is also a form of art and how you could express yourself, so since then it changed my whole perspective about art. I see life in a different way than I thought I would ever see [it]."
Before his involvement in ART START, the 21-year-old Solano said he had been incarcerated and was headed in the wrong direction.
"I was always getting in trouble or doing things that weren't appropriate," Solano said. "I was also always close-minded and never trying to explore or expand my knowledge on different things that were out there."
Once Solano was out of prison, he decided to make a change in his life after talking with one of his friends. "One of my friends had been incarcerated, and after that he was introduced to this program," he continued, "I had also been in the same predicament as my friend, and he knew that I wanted to get involved in music. So he told me to go one day, and I did."
Yet, Solano admitted that he was nervous about creating music since he never really knew how to make a song. However, once he started getting comfortable, he made his first musical piece.
"My first song ever was called H.O.P.E.," he asserted. "[The ART START facilitators] helped me a lot and helped me opened up my mind. I started thinking and talking about things that I had never talked about before, like politics, nature, conspiracies, government, [the] economy, astronomy and more. Through ART START, I've learned that you can speak your mind. I've also learned that there is more stuff out there that you can discover. Knowledge is infinite!"
To Solano, ART START has helped him fulfill his dream of sharing his music with the world. "My art is music," he said, "I've realized that the microphone is a powerful tool, because when I speak it gets recorded and goes into millions of peoples' ears. Whatever I am saying, someone can catch onto it and hopefully they understand what I'm saying, where I'm coming from, and how I see the world or life."
Solano is not the only person who has realized the power of art.
Author and researcher Mariah Buchanan has also discovered its power. In her book Educating Black Youth Moral Principles through Black Art, Buchanan asserts that after conducting a research study, she found that black students develop better morals and life perspectives through critically interpreting works of art created by black artists. Through the study, she found that art helped students gain moral integrity and purpose.
"Art depicts historical facts, cultural differences, and aesthetic values each of us may have," she wrote in her research paper, "Art can also foster a sense of identity through the interaction between the viewer and the work. This study will allow teachers another avenue to direct moral principles, which is a form of character education, by using art as a tool to do so. This study should, I believe, be investigated further because it will contribute to the overwhelming need in America to enhance the lives of black youth, because many are considered at risk."
Indeed, ART START is one organization whose facilitators are teaching art to its at-risk youth to encourage them to create better lives for themselves.
Billy Martin, also known as Spiritchild, is the current director of ART START's music program, One Mic. After being in the position for a year, he said that this is his dream job, as it compliments his life experiences.
"ART START has been an evolution of my life's work," Martin said, "I've always done workshops internationally and throughout the United States. However, through ART START I'm able to not only introduce concepts, but also to develop and nourish our participants for a longer moment in time. I've witnessed students gain a deeper understanding of self, and a holistic approach to being an artist and an individual in this world, from nutrition, to endless forms of expression like voice, production, instruments, and graffiti, to combating stereotypes and misogyny in hip hop."
ART START was established in the spring of 1991 after a small group of artists joined with homeless kids to make art in New York City.
Now, more than twenty years later, ART START has been recognized by celebrities and world leaders for its educators, who use creative arts to support and transform the lives of youth who seem to be going down the wrong path.
In fact, according to the directors of ART START, youth involved in the organization usually live in city shelters, on the streets, are involved in court cases, or are in rough family situations. The organization offers these young people workshops designed with a student-centered approach to education.
"Our workshops instill in our youth the confidence to appreciate who they already are and what they innately have to offer the world; then, to think critically, ask important questions, and pursue meaningful opportunities in life -- against all odds," Martin said, "While encouraging personal development on many levels, by using art and music projects and focusing on their outlet for expression, kids are free to build trusting relationships with our teaching artists."
Even though Tyrone Richards, also known as T Rich, just joined ART START last year, its One Mic Program has already changed his perspective.
"Without my art, which is my music, I would not be me," Richards said, "I would be lost in my own skin. Making music takes my pain away. I believe that art is powerful. Whether it's drawing art or making music, art it something that all people can relate to. I would tell kids or young adults to sign up for ART START to get better at their craft and to learn about themselves more."
Torey Baker, also known as Mad Bangers, also added that being involved with ART START helped him to stay out of trouble and to make something of his life. The twenty-year-old got involved with ART START and its One Mic program two years ago.
"ART START changed my life by keeping me focused on music," Baker told theGrio, "I have realized that art saves lives. Just to come to the program every Tuesday and Wednesday is great, especially since I get to be in a studio."
For Baker, ART START has created a positive ripple effect on his life by bringing positive people into his life. He noted that the organization has allowed him to not only meet more people, but also to have a greater sense of well-being.
"It not only changed my life, but it changed the lives of the people in my life," he said, "I would tell other youth to get involved with ART START, because it expands your mind and helps you explore more about life. It also gives you great opportunities and guidance in whatever you want to pursue in your life. You can collaborate with other people around the same age group and help out, which helps when you start meeting new people outside of ART START, because you are confident in yourself."
To help build students' confidence even more, Martin said he and other facilitators often take the students on trips to help educate them on different artworks, cultures, and people.
"Some of our students have never left New York City," he said, "Yet, in the past year we've traveled to Philly, upstate New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and other states to visit various higher learning institutions, participate in conferences, engage in workshops and performances, and have fun. A few of our participants are even currently learning some basic German to prepare them for their first international trip to Germany and the Czech Republic in the fall."
Leaders of ART START hope to encourage others to support their organization, so that more at-risk youth can use it to change their lives.
Indeed, as Solano looks back on his experiences at ART START, he said that he is motivated to help others realize that art can transform their circumstances.
"Art is powerful and magical, because through art anyone can take pieces and create a masterpiece," Solano, "I've always wondered why art is so big and important. However, I have realized that art is life. We live in it, and we are constantly surrounded by it."
thank you to peter from Hamilton College Clinton, NY WHCL FM for the interview and thank you to Lisa Duggan for setting it up and Laila Murad for wake up support:). http://radio4all.net/index.php/program/57562
spiritchild, as he is known, is a freedom singer from the south Bronx by way of Brooklyn, who uses the arts to cultivate a cultural revolution. He integrates activism and hip hop music production as the founder of the Movement In Motion Artist & Activist Collective.
Credits: The Wringer is a weekly program broadcast from Hamilton College with host Pete Bianco. It can be streamed live Wednesdays 8:00am-10:00am EST at www.whcl.org
Notes: www.xspiritmental.com/blog
www.xspiritmental.com
onemicartists.com
www.myspace.com/spiritchildmentalnotes
Check out one of our rising stars, Miky Hustles Miguel "Miky" Solano on Fox 5. Take a walk inside his mind, mind, mind, mind, mind...
get involved and volunteer with One Mic email spirit@art-start.org
more than the music, the movement, we doing it...
Click on the 3rd and 4th video segments under the viewer to skip straight to the ART Start Johanna De Los Santos segment.
<a href="http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/about_us/street_talk/street-talk-nov-12-2011" title="Art Start One Mic Fox interview" target="_blank">http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/about_us/street_talk/street-talk-nov-12-2011</a>
Monday, October 24th 2011, 4:00 AM
Until recently, self-expression was never Miguel (Miky) Solano's strong point.
In fact, for much of his two decades, the only thing the Brooklyn native (who bears a striking resemblance to the rapper Big Pun) was good at was getting in trouble.
To be fair, growing up in a hard-scrabble part of Gowanus, trouble was easy to find.
Then Solano grabbed a microphone in an Art Start recording studio and suddenly he was Miky, a master freestyle artist who could put into verse the day-to-day challenges of a young man struggling to rise from the streets of Brooklyn.
"My high school wasn't teaching me anything, so I dropped out and got in trouble with the police," says Miky, describing his experience as a 15-year-old Mexican-American being arrested for possessing 90 bags of crack cocaine.
"I was looking at seven to 15 years in prison, but I was young and lucky, and only got probation."
That's when Miky discovered the One Mic recording workshop run by Art Start, a 20-year-old organization that offers art programs in homeless shelters and as part of alternative-to-incarceration programs throughout New York City.
With the motto "Art saves lives," Art Start believes that the creative process, be it musical or visual, has the capability to transform the lives of at-risk youth.
"This is a place for all of us to come and express ourselves," says Billy (Spiritchild) Martin, a spoken-word artist from the Bronx and One Mic program director. "Self-esteem and discipline is what we are aiming for. To have this communication through hip hop is very important, so that the students can share their life experiences."
By his own admission, the One Mic program, which has a rotating group of 15 students, has changed Miky's life, instilling in the 20-year-old a sense of confidence.
"The first time I came to the One Mic studio, I was real quiet because I didn't know anyone and I didn't really know what I was doing," says Miky. "I was interested in music and liked to create beats by banging on tables, but I didn't have the right equipment or anything. Then I slowly started to learn what I was doing."
Miky teamed with teaching artists like Spiritchild to learn how to expand his vocabulary and properly put together a song.
"I didn't know about song structure initially," recalls Miky. "I would just write a lot of words, sentences and rhymes. I didn't even know what a bar was. He pushed me to use more vocabulary, write in 16 bars and to actually have a logical flow to my lyrics."
Miky (c.) hangs out with his friends at the Art Start recordin studio in Manhattan. (Jacob E. Osterhout for News)
(Page 2 of 2)
Two years later, Miky, who earned his GED and has a day job at a funeral home in Brooklyn, attends the One Mic workshop twice a week for four hours and has recorded more than 20 songs.
"I don't know anywhere else where I can go and use a free studio," he says, noting that an equivalent studio would cost at least $60 an hour.
"It's a good studio, too. All the equipment is top of the line. I try to pass that appreciation along to the new people who come in."
It's not the product, however, but the process that Miky enjoys.
"I come not only for the studio, but the people, too," he says. "It's all about the music and exchanging ideas.
Everybody has a different talent. There's the producer who is good at making beats, the singer and the rapper, and it's important to work with them all."
Spiritchild nods in agreement, emphasizing that One Mic is not a talent contest.
"This is not an artist-development program," he says. "Not everybody here is trying to be a professional MC. Many just want to socialize and hang out and write. This is simply an opportunity to be heard."
In fact, Miky's big dream isn't even to become a rap star, although if it happened, he says, "I wouldn't complain."
Instead, he'd like to be a politician and help shape America's immigration policy, a very important issue for both of his parents, who immigrated from Mexico.
He believes participating in the One Mic program will help him accomplish those dreams by improving his focus and communication skills.
"Before One Mic, I wasn't committed to anything, really," he says. "Now I know I've got to get serious. Once I open up my mind, the songs just pour out of me. I have a clearer vision of what I want to be. This growing-up process can really help everybody."
YOU SHOULD KNOW
To hear Miky rap, visit www.reverbnation.com/mikybless. For more information on Art Start, visit art-start.org.
BACK TO THE ROOTS TOUR w/ Evan Greer & spiritchild
BOOKING PERFORMANCES AND WORKSHOPS NOW
FOR AUGUST 2011 - JANUARY 2012
AT COLLEGES, HIGH SCHOOLS, UNIVERSITIES, and COMMUNITY SPACES
E-mail: booking@xspiritmental.com for booking info.
Black August xspiritmental jam session last show of the nyc summer
<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IoaZjXh97dY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
what is black august, in brief -its a time of honoring and acknowledging liberation movements.MXGMpacket.zip
One Mic / Art Start & Movement In Motion presents
an International Opening Minds
all artist who come and sign up entry is free...
we mean artist very loosely ;).
all ages...
join us at the Brecht forum July 9th 7pm to celebrate our first ever
international movement in motion youth hip hop exchange
featuring
K-Swift
Carly Delight
Marine Futin (France)
Woodvalley Movement (Germany)
spirit
Mental Notes
Movement In Motion (international)
Cashel Sapphire (belly dancing)
please join us in welcoming our youth group from Marburg Germany with their stateside debut along with our youth group from one mic NYC in a series of hip hop, r&b and xspiritmental performances.
$5-10 donation
bar will be available (taleigh holding it down)
www.onemicartists.com
www.xspiritmental.com
www.movementinmotion.com
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July 8th
Washington Square Park
5pm
featuring Woodvalley Movement (Germany), One Mic (NYC), spiritchild, K-Swift, Marine Futin (France), Movement In Motion (International)free
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July 6th 7pm-8pm
CAFE 5C
5th street Avenue C, NYC
meet and greet and performances
featuring Woodvalley Movement (Germany)
One Mic (NYC)
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