Arts Greenhouse, and auspicious participant Kai Roberts are currently featured as a front page story on Carnegie Mellon’s website!

To read the full article about Kai, click here.

Arts Greenhouse Workshop Leader Luqmon Abdus-salaam and Program Coordinator Amos Levy present a workshop to a packed (sic) house at the Free 4 All Music Festival at the Project 53 Musician’s Resource Center in Polish Hill, Pittsburgh.

The rest of the workshop is posted after the jump:

The Arts Greenhouse will be presenting a workshop entitled “Rap (or poetry) For Your Life” with Amos Levy and Luqmon Abdus-salaam at the Project 53 Musician’s Resource Center’s Free4All Music Festival on Saturday, July 17th, at 1pm. The workshop will take place at the Project 53 Musician’s Reasource Center, 3345 melwood ave. As the name of the event implies, this is free for all.

This hands-on workshop will last 2 hours. Here are some of our workshop goals:

- get participants to appreciate poetry as rap and rap as poetry

- realize how easy it is for them to make it on their own

- deepen participant’s humanity by getting them to think about, appreciate and express the story of their life thus far.

More info on the incredible wealth of activities going on during the Free4All festival click here.

The Arts Greenhouse Beatmakers Academy is on break for the Summer. We’re currently getting our funding situation situated (wish us luck) and we’ll be back with you soon. Plans for the Fall will be announced in early August.

We will, however, be participating in at least one workshop this summer in collaboration with the PRoject 53 Musician’s Resource Center in Polish Hill. More details coming soon.

Friday, May 21st
6 – 9pm
Union Project
801 N. Negley Ave

Featuring music, art, and dance by Peabody students
Featuring guest performances:
Kid A
Idasa Tariq
Cello Fury
Arts Greenhouse

Admission: One non-perishable food item or small monetary donation– all food items and proceeds will be donated to East End Cooperative Ministry.

Full details after the link:

Peabody Spring Arts Night
Teens Highlight their Artistry Alongside Local Talent at Union Project Event

Just because opportunities to take classes in the arts are slim at Peabody High School, doesn’t mean that the school lacks talent. At the Peabody Spring Arts Night, local teens will prove that all they needed was a chance to shine.

The festivities will take place at the Union Project, 801 N. Negley Ave, on Friday May 21st, from 6pm to 9pm. Teens will share the stage with professional performers for a showcase of music, poetry, dance, and visual art. The cost of admission is one can of food (or non-perishable) or a small monetary donation. All food and proceeds will be donated to the East End Cooperative Ministries Food Bank.

Local professional performers have volunteered their talents to help the teens and the food bank. Featured guests for the evening include: Cello Fury, Kid A, and Idasa Tariq. The performance will also feature participants in the Arts Greenhouse.

The Arts Greenhouse is a free hip-hop music education program serving Pittsburgh teens through the resources of Carnegie Mellon. Arts Greenhouse participants will be performing original hip-hop songs at the Union Project, as well as a special collaboration with Cello Fury. The Arts Greenhouse is an outreach program of the Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon. The program is made possible through generous support from the Pittsburgh Foundation, and the PA Council for the Arts. For more information on the Arts Greenhouse visit, www.pghbeatmakers.org.

Cello Fury is a rarity in the music world: three classically trained cellists performing high-octane music in locales ranging from concert halls to biker bars. Appealing to a wide audience – from kids to adults, metal-heads to classical music lovers – sets Cello Fury apart from your average rock band. At the Union Project Cello Fury will be presenting a unique collaboration, an accompaniment that they composed to fit with the hip-hop beats of Arts Greenhouse participant, Johnathan Pope.

Kid A (aka EMS) is a rising star in the Pittsburgh rap scene. He has already won the respect of local hip-hop promoters and taste makers. His 2006 mixtape, “The Devil’s Advocate” was an underground sensation, leading him to share bills with national acts such as Aesop Rock, Tech N9ne, Kool Keith, Mr. Lif, Vast Aire, and Blueprint. His music is grounded in style and substance over images and gimmicks. He is currently working with Pittsburgh producers to craft a collection of new releases to carry him to the forefront of Pittsburgh hip-hop – and to carry Pittsburgh hip-hop to the national spotlight.

In a world where hip-hop has become synonymous with ultra shallow consumerism and rampant mysogny, Idasa Tariq is a solider for the heart of hip-hop. Skilled both behind the boards and the mic, Idasa blesses the people with both soul laced beats and powerful rhymes. Since relocating to Pittsburgh in 2008, this native New Yorker has made a name for himself with hard-work and energetic performances. In 2010, Tariq has already flexed his abilities with a solo project – Say Cheese EP – and a collaborative effort with female emcee Dominique Larue – HerStory EP.

The Warhol and Arts Greenhouse present:

GO DJ!
FREE DJ workshops for teens at the Warhol!

Friday April 23
Friday April 30
4:00pm -7:00pm

Warhol Museum
underground studio
117 sandusky street
on the north shore, just across the 7th street bridge from downtown

free snacks

with DJ Thermos (hip hop)
& Mary Mack (post-punk)

“Siete Pesos” perform raps and poetry that they wrote during the previous 30 minutes at Nuestro Caminos. The goal of the workshop was to use hip-hop to explore issues of identity and immigration. The material written at this workshop will serve as a basis for further collaboration between the Arts Greenhouse and Jovenes Sin Nombre. We aim to produce recordings and performances that will help minority teens have their voices heard through hip-hop music and poetry.

A big thank you to everyone who helped plan or participate in this event.

More videos will be added to this post soon…

Nuestros Caminos / Our Journeys

The Arts Greenhouse and Jóvenes Sin Nombre invite you to attend a public workshop on bilingual Hip Hop.  Come hear cutting-edge examples of Hip Hop entirely or partially en español and/or in different dialects of English and help create original lyrics that span linguistic boundaries and speak to problems of real-life border crossing.  Delicious food will be provided!

Jóvenes Sin Nombre is a progressive Pittsburgh based youth movement composed of first generation Latinos whose aim is to stimulate new ways of thinking about national debates regarding the border, immigration, and citizenship through the arts. For more information on our group please visit: http://joveneslatinos.wordpress.com/

This event will feature teenage residents of Pittsburgh currently participating in The Arts Greenhouse and Jóvenes Sin Nombre, but all are invited to attend.  No particular language skills are required.

When?  Monday April 5, at 6:00pm

Where?  The Danforth Lounge, University Center, Carnegie Mellon University

What?  Music, free food, and creative expression.

Poetry 2 Performance:
From writing to rocking

What makes a poetry performance different than a poetry reading? How can a poet’s delivery dramatically affect their audience’s reaction? On Thursday, March 25^th between 4-6pm, the Arts Greenhouse invites teens from across the city to participate in a workshop that addresses these questions and more. Hosted at the 3 Rivers Computer Clubhouse in East Liberty (also known as, Phase 4 Learning Center, 5854 Baum Blvd. Pittsburgh, PA 15206), professional poets will lead a hands-on workshop for teens on how to transform their written words from sitting on the page to living on the stage! All levels of experience are welcome to this free workshop.

If you—or a teen you know—would like to join the student performers from 3 Rivers Computer Clubhouse and Peabody High School, contact Amos Levy Amos Levy at amoslevy@cmu.edu, or call (412) 268-5269.

In the past 25 years, poetry slams have led a revolution in performance of poetry. For centuries the public presentation of poetry has centered on reading. Authors would stand fairly still, eyes cast down into their text, and carefully read their work. In the 1980s, this style was challenged by poetry slams, which popularized throwing out the text, freeing authors to gesture, jump, spin, whisper, shout, and sigh. The performance poet memorized their material and used all the powers of delivery they could muster to create a powerful experience for their audience.

The techniques of performance poetry will be the focus of the workshop on March 25^th. Participants will discuss (and get a chance to practice!) essential elements of poetry performance: posture, body language, tone of voice, and how to inject emotion into the delivery of words. These skills can take a lifetime to master, but the workshop leaders will set participants down the right path.

Three accomplished poets and performers will be leading the workshop, including Yona Harvey, Teena Custer and Luqman Abdus-salaam. The workshop on the 25th will lead off with an introduction to performance poetry practice and technique presented by Abdus-salaam. Then we will invite local teens to the stage to present their original poetry. Afterwards, everyone will get their minds and mouths moving with 60 minutes of hands-on poetry creation and performance activities with Harvey and Custer.

This is a workshop for all levels of experience (or inexperience)—we all started with shaky knees or butterfly bellies—whether you think you can bring your audience to tears or have never shared your poetry in public before, this workshop offers a supportive environment for all levels of poetic performance!

The host organizations work to empower youth by providing them with tools to help them create and perform their own creative & artistic works. By creating a safe space in which teens can receive instruction and feedback from experts in their community, teens are encouraged to push their artistic abilities towards new horizons. For more information on the 3 Rivers Computer Clubhouse visit, http://www.3rcc.org.

Yona Harvey is a swish caught in a net of teeth. She rises in the light of blue curtains & sleeps with one ear open. Maybe she is the water from which she pulls her baby son. Slippery Fish, she once called him. Slippery Fish, her daughter echoed back across the water. Maybe she is the woman closest to the blackboard. Maybe she is the woman wading at the edge of the room. Maybe she has been reading too much Tomaz Salamun. Maybe she is one small word in a noisy sea. Maybe she should speak more of credentials,
academic scholarships. But she is afraid you’ve heard all the best stories. (Hard work, high marks, determination). She should keep better track of her volunteering—carpooling, book sharing, telling the stories of Martin Luther King, Jr. Next year, she’ll probably go swimming in Tokyo. Or in Pittsburgh—people wear black & gold there. The rivers take hold & don’t let go. The children say: Look! This is Yona Harvey. She buys green lentils from East End Food Coop. She prepares dinner, drinks, and works in
the city.

Teena Custer, aka B-girl Teena Marie, teaches dance at Slippery Rock Univeristy. B-girl Teena Marie has been competing internationally since 2002, winning b-girl battles such as Underground Movement 5 in Cleveland, and Enter the Cypha. In addition to being a part of hip hop culture, Teena has an extensive background in contemporary dance. She has performed with companies and choreographers around the nation, including: Attack Theater, Dance Alloy, Ursula Payne, Erika Randall, and Shelter Repertory Dance Theater.

Luqman Abdus-salaam leads the Arts Greenhouse Workshop Series as organizer, community liaison and primary lecturer. Abdus-salaam brings 15 years of experience as a hip-hop performance poet. He spent a period signed to Island Music Group, and currently works part time as a talent consultant for Philadelphia based independent record label, Ovum Recordings. As an educator, Abdus-salaam has taught creative expression workshops at Duquesne University, Carnegie Mellon University, Purdue University, Temple University and Penn State University.