Mural Artist Bernie Wilke and youth prep the bridge

Although we did not get enough votes to receive a Grant from Pepsi Refresh Everything for our projects, volunteer mural artist Bernie Wilke and the youth that he taught last spring are determined to see their design come to life on the bridge of Cayuga Street between 5th & 6th Streets.  Thanks to a large donation of primer from Manny Ramos at Philadelphia’s Community Partnership Program, we began to prep the surface and will begin painting soon.  Thanks also to Kathryn Pannepacker for a generous donation of mural paint.  Stay tuned!

Priming

Kyseem - Community Mural Making Student, Spring 2010

Makiah - Community Mural Making Student, Spring 2010

Girls Hip-Hop/Jazz Dance Class

On May 21st, we at Ayuda were so excited to host our 3rd Annual Youth Art Exhibition & Gala.  This year we celebrated more performance art than ever before including Dance (hip-hop, jazz, and breakdancing), Guitar, and Singing.  We also were excited to see the presentation by students in the Community Mural Making Course about the re-imaging of a local mural which will be painted this summer.  One highlight of the evening was our annual live auction of youth artwork.  Ayuda welcomed auctioneer George Junious, Block Captain in Hunting Park, who entertained us all bringing down the house with very exciting auction action!  In collaboration with Spirit & Truth Fellowship Church, we hosted the show here in Hunting Park at the church’s new Joy in the City Building and enjoyed many guests from our community who came out to support our young artists.  We were also so very thankful for all of our community volunteers who helped us to make this exhibition a success!  In these hard financial times, we have learned time and time again about the power of “People Economy” – We have seen our neighbors care about the Arts at Ayuda and feel their support as we look forward into our 4th year.  (Click any photo to view more from the show.)

Nifeese's fantastic photography sold at Top Dollar this year!

Makiah presents for the Community Mural Making Class

Shawn with Community Arts Director - Michaelanne Harriman

ALCOHOL – by Janiza Sanchez, age 9

Why do you do this to yourself?

It only makes others cry. Why are you drinking this?

Does it make you satisfied?

Alcohol doesn’t take away stress, it only adds more

It hurts the people you love. Now you know why

Stop now before you get a DUI. Stop right now

Did you know you will not realize what you’re doing all the time?

TRANSFORM, Julie Perez, age 12. Graphic Design

We want to thank everyone who committed to voting every day in May for our $25,000 grant proposal with Pepsi at www.refresheverything.com. We had 129 committed voters on Facebook, lots of fun comments the proposal site (thanks Mom!), and many personal emails, all of which revealed to us how far and wide interest in our artistic work here in Hunting Park had spread. Now that the voting is closed, we will be coming to the table to begin the real work that Ayuda continues to do. In the words of a friend, “We may not have enough money, but we have some money.” Some of that money has come from folks donating toward the murals regardless of what the outcome of Pepsi turned out to be. Here at the OKA House, the kids and me have been saving “SPARE CHANGE TO MAKE CHANGE” and have collected $41.03 over the past month.  Hosting our 2010 Youth Art Exhibition & Gala on May 21st generated not only income for the arts at Ayuda, but more importantly, it deepened our community relationships which will support our projects for much longer of a term than a financial donation. So, here at the beginning of June, while we are not $25K richer… we’re very excited about our summer at the OKA House.

And I ask you again, join us!  If you can visit, stop by and get your hands dirty!  We’ll be painting our bridge mural throughout June, repairing our garden mural in July, and working on the mosaic mural through July & August.  If your support comes from a distance, take one minute right now and donate $20 on our website and designate “murals”.  We are still quite a bit shy of our materials budget and if you liked what you saw in our video, it’s your turn to exhibit that support financially.  I’ve been telling our youth that no matter how small the amount of change that you bring… if you will just bring what you have, you will see CHANGE.  We believe this.  Everyday, we witness folks bringing what they have to the table and our community in Hunting Park is transformed; moment by moment.

This is your moment.  Spare change to make change.

Michaelanne Harriman, Community Arts Director

mharriman@ayudacc.org

Our Earth
By: Najir Cornelius
We find earth in peace.
But now earth is dying
because of fighting, war, and violence
Help save earth
Help stop violence
Help save our earth

(Ayuda’s After School Program students have been writing poetry in response to the latest violence prevention project. We will be posting selections to share here. Enjoy!)

Hey Everyone! I would like to thank you for helping Ayuda out by continuing to vote everyday for our mural projects and for spreading the word to your contacts as well. As you know, we’ve been hanging in there around the 140’s for a while and in order to receive the grant, we must be in the top 10. While that seems pretty unlikely at this point, I would like to share with you a new development with a new goal that I wish you to consider. This process of voting has spread the word about the exciting things that we are doing in Hunting Park through the arts and right now we have more momentum toward our work than we’ve ever had before. Real momentum. People momentum. I have been approached by 5 people who have promised that if we can end the month of May in the top 100, they will each give $100 towards our projects this summer. Yes, that’s less than our stated goal, but if you know Ayuda, you know that we can do ALOT with very little. So my request is two-fold: #1: KEEP VOTING! Don’t give up! At one point we were ranked 109. I believe with 12 days left in May, we can be in the top 100. and #2: Would anyone like to join our friends and pledge a donation for the projects if we reach our goal? Email me at mharriman@ayudacc.org.

The kids in our art program are collecting change everyday for our mural projects, and as we see our jar filling up, our kids are realizing that we each play a small roll in accomplishing GREAT things! Let us each play our role… play it faithfully… and we’ll see what the summer will bring. Thanks so much for your support. – Michaelanne Harriman.

More info:  Pepsi wants to REFRESH EVERYTHING.  They have been giving away a ton of money each month to folks who want to do community projects that will have a positive impact and it is up to us who gets the money! Working together with a few artists, Ayuda submitted a proposal which details our ambitious goal to finish three mural projects this summer. READ MORE…

Thanks for your support!
Michaelanne Harriman
Community Arts Director

Ayuda’s after school students have been learning about the connection between violence and alcohol abuse. As a response, they composed poetry based their reflections. Throughout the next couple weeks we will sharing a collection of these with you.

Why is Alcohol never the Answer!
By: Daejah Dixon
Alcohol is never the answer
You can say no to it
Or you can say yes
The right answer is to say no
Alcohol is never the answer
cause you can go to jail
you can get drunk
and begin doing stuff you not suppose to
Like, yell, curse, hit, fight

Pepsi wants to REFRESH EVERYTHING.  They have been giving away a ton of money each month to folks who want to do community projects that will have a positive impact and it is up to us who gets the money!  Working together with a few artists, Ayuda submitted a proposal which details our ambitious goal to finish three mural projects this summer:

• Refresh our Bridge:  engage youth in Hunting Park to redesign and paint a new mural over one damaged by graffiti (mural has been designed; funds will cover painting and installation costs.)
• Refresh our Garden:  repair and re-install the mural at the Hunting Park Community Garden (see “…Luis”) which suffered weather damage last winter.
• Refresh our Joy:  create tiles with neighbors which will go into a new mosaic mural called “Joy in the City” depicting our own icons of joy.

Everyone has a chance to vote for 10 different projects each day.  Our project will be available for voting on MAY 1 st.  CLICK HERE TO VOTE TO REFRESH NORTH PHILADELPHIA!

We can’t do this without you!  Beginning May 1st, post this on your Facebook or other social media sites and spread the word!!