Silence Is Violence

Hosted in different public schools in Orleans Parish, the artist conducted Peace Clubs provide an environment for students to actually see and use art as an alternative expression to violence. Local artists run weekly workshops, leading the students on a project that helps them express their communities' issues through their own eyes.

As our students generally come from the most challenging environments with little formal exposure to the arts, these clubs give them an opportunity to experiment with different art forms and discuss their everyday life concerns in a comfortable environment while be exposed to positive role models working in the community. The art projects are diverse and include painting, poetry, dance, music, second-line culture, and photography. The professional artists who lead the clubs are very familiar with these students' challenges and use these connections to inspire and motivate the students.

We are looking forward to the upcoming Fall 2012 semester. :

• Anne Marie Rooney and other invited guests will continue at O. Perry Walker High School with an array of students who elect to stay after school to participate in the Charger Cipher Poetry Club.
• Joseph S. Clark Preparatory High School will begin an after school Creative Writing Club conducted by Paige Valente (www.paigevalente.com), Anne Marie Rooney, and other local lyricists September 4.

Paige Valente's Poetry Club at Cohen High School is sponsored in honor of Ben and Ethel, two individuals who had an enormous appreciation of education as a basic human right and the one thing that no one can ever take away from you.