{fieldnotes} : the paprika festival

I had the pleasure of taking in a wonderful reading this past Saturday of a splendid new play, Henry and Lucy, by Rosamund Small.  Bravo Rosamund on your beautifully crafted play, filled with insight, humour, wonderful characters and kinetic dialogue.

Congratulations to The Paprika Festival and ten years of championing emerging young artists!

[The beaming Artistic Producer, Rob Kempson]

{W5H} Marcelino DaCosta aka. Frost

There are some people you meet who just resonate. Marcelino, aka Frost, is one of those people. We met at the Canadian Stage intensive. I was struck by his passion, curiosity, vulnerability and wisdom. On the first day of the intensive, he said something that had such an impact on how I view our work as Artist Educators. He said "We are meant to serve. We are servants"; a concept that I find full of both humility and purpose. 


He's the kind of person that you want to walk into your classroom, community or studio, because he is there to learn as much as he is there to teach. 

Who first gave you the confidence to be an artist? Who first gave you the confidence to be an educator?

I'd say, that I’ve always been drawn to art, pardon the pun. I'm originally a visual "artist" and became a street dancer in 98' focusing on original Hip-Hop style of "B-Boying" which I am still a practitioner of today.  Through training and growing with my crew, performing, winning competitions, meeting comrades around the world and learning from pioneers as well as true students of the art and culture, I began to form more confidence. After graduating from Sheridan College studying community outreach and development, I met one of my first educator/producer inspirations, Beth Gignac who is well known in the City of Mississauga, is currently an Arts Manager for the City of Calgary. She inspired me to think bigger and not be afraid of producing compelling ideas that could bridge gaps between people or arts and culture, as well as encourage my perspective around social justice.


What inspires your work as an artist educator? What feeds you? 
Life inspires my work, learning more wisdom from living- doing things right or making mistakes. Education, I'm currently working on my degree at York University doing Fine Arts & Cultural studies.  Growth in my craft, learning more history for sharing material that's based on experience, understanding relationships between people and how they interact also inspire me. Another thing that feeds me is when I create or learn more techniques to apply along with my experimentation. I make it my signature to never teach the same class twice, you never fully know what you'll get, except that either way it's gonna be quality and something to grow with and discuss.

When did you first feel like an "artist"? 
Been trying to be careful with that term "Artist" it has a lot of social constructs attached to it that may imply a level of supremacy.  I was ok with that for awhile? *laughing* cause I've been used to feeling that what I do makes me a like a superhero! and why not? like others who do what I do - I have an alter ego, a performance character and have supernormal abilities.  However I think a term like practitioner would better define and represent how I feel about Hip-Hop culture and my role within it. I began to feel like a true practitioner after I started teaching what I do, learning from pioneers locally and developing my own theories around creating original concepts. I think also when you learn to know your worth and make your exchanges the way you want (whatever those may be) then you're on the right track in my opinion. 

Where do you "work"?
That depends on the context, if I'm professionally doing "work", then it's in studios, community centres, drop-ins, schools, public and private venues, other communities. Some of my most favourite and full filling work is with my crew "Ground illusionz", a community Hip-Hop Group I formed in 1999. "G.I." works on an informal grassroots level for the purpose of training young practitioners of hip-Hop culture to professionally develop, compete, perform and teach and gain life skills. I also work as a facilitator with UNITY Charity, which is a not-for-profit public health organization. We offer alternative arts education and opportunities using Urban Non-violent Initiatives Through Youth. And finally, the work I've gained some my most relevant experience, is being a senior facilitator for the world renown "BluePrintForLife- Social Work through Hip-Hop" organization. BluePrint works with various indigenous communities across Canada's remote Arctic with the intentions of fostering the sharing of traditional culture & promoting healing.  Other stuff I consider "work" would be on myself (if there is really a self) I'm always trying to grow professionally and personally.


Why do you think arts education is valuable in today's capital-based world?
I'll make this one simple. Humans encouraged to learn and practice the arts, in short - is like creating and maintaining the most amazing custom vehicle of your dreams. If one learns and practices the arts, they travel more freely on the map of life, by evolving their perspective and problem solving skills, learn to have stronger values and cultural sensitivity, direction and aesthetic sensibility, formulate an opinion with facts and reason, promote healing, develop a sense of identity and imagination, unify with a community and think critically.  Problem is that most people in positions of power don't like their people getting smarter and/or having their own voice.  I don't need to explain why, the rest is 'his'tory.


How did you come to your first experience with the professional arts?
Probably at the same time in my development when I cognitively understood the concept of "performance" and the level of skill it takes to accomplish things that seem so simple, powerful or didactic. I would witness this at rock concerts, underground Hip-Hop shows and seeing my heroes based out of the Toronto scene like "Bag of Trix", "Intrikt", & "Boogie Brats" doing their thing in 99'.   After that, my personal history in growing as an artist/practitioner lead me to experience performing, competing and teaching, one understands "professional arts" more when they actually live life that way. It's different when you're on the inside actually bleeding for what you do, that's when your perspective can't be contested.

[vintage Frost]

Marcelino is a Professional Street Dancer and Community Outreach Worker. He has worked with people of all ages in Mississauga, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Whitehorse and Halifax. 


Thanks Rob Kempson for this great set of W5H questions.

{W5H} Rob Kempson

Rob Kempson is a stylin', sartorial wunderkind in our little Arts and Education Community. We were introduced a couple of years ago when I was on a playwright guest panel [along with the wonderful Marjorie Chan] for The Paprika Festival, of which Rob was in his first season as Artistic Producer. But it wasn't until the Canadian Stage intensive that I was able to get to know him. Busy as ever, he is still the Artistic Producer of The Paprika Festival, sits on the board of PAONE, just wrapped up his three-year tenure as Education Manager at Canadian Stage and is now the new Associate Artistic Producer at Theatre Passe Muraille. Phew! 


A splendid feature of the W5H series, is that each featured Artist Educator generates a new set of questions for a yet-to-be-determined next artist. So, these questions for Rob come courtesy of Cathy Nosaty:

Where were you when you first heard music that made a huge impact on you?
That's almost impossible to say. The story goes that I asked my mom for piano lessons when I was five. We didn't have a piano in the house so I'm not sure how or why it occurred to me. Either way, she said no--largely because I was the type who wanted to try/do/make/eat/play something different everyday. As it turns out I kept on asking and she finally gave in when I was seven. That's also the year when I joined the church choir as a Boy Soprano (sexy, I know). After me, the youngest member in the choir was my dad. So I guess if I had to pick a place it would be my parents' church.
 
What was your first favourite music?
My first favourite music was undoubtedly The Phantom of the Opera. I liked lots of music at that time, but nothing else impacted me in the same way as that show. During recess--EVERY recess--my friend Kathryn and I would kick people out of the tube slide so that we could sing through the entire show from the little lyric books that came with the cassettes. We thought the acoustics were best in the tube slide and we were in Grade 6, so no one else really had a chance at the slide. I can still remember arguing over who got to sing Christine's part in Angel of Music. Sometimes I wish my life were more like that still. Or maybe I just wish that I could still sing that part.
 
When did you realize that there were songs out there that expressed feelings and ideas similar to yours?
Shortly after I fell in love with Phantom, I fell in love with Musical Theatre in general. I think that the lyrical content of musicals, the emotion that they evoke, the stories that they tell always mean more than the verse and chorus of a hit pop song. When I found musicals, I found myself unable to separate the song from the story and the music took me away on a complete journey, rather than providing background entertainment. I think that's why kids connect with Disney movie musicals. Everytime you hear the song, you are transported. As much as Gaga makes me want to dance, she has yet to transport me.
 
Who was your favourite musician/band?
Jann Arden. Without a doubt. Something about her three-chord compositions and nasal voice made my pre-adolescent self shudder with excitement. I think I've seen her upwards of five times to date, and I would still go see her again if the opportunity presented itself. One time, my friend and I drove to Massey Hall (from Kingston) to see her, and we had won backstage passes because we were "Jann's Fanns" online. That's real dedication--becoming a fan long before facebook redesigned the meaning of that term. Even though her new stuff isn't that great I still have every album.
 
How did you feel listening to your favourite music?
All of my playlists are labelled by feelings, not categories. Music has always gotten under my skin and made me feel physical impulses--to dance, to sing-along, to write, to compose. It's not uncommon to see me bounce to the beat while riding the subway, or full-out tap on the platform. It's also not uncommon for me to miss my stop because I'm involved in a song that I'm listening to (although sometimes it's just because I love the Tetris app). I think my connection with music is best described by when/how I listen to it; when I'm listening to music, that is my primary activity. I cannot listen and work, listen and write, listen and anything. It consumes my whole feeling. Now doesn't that sound all artsy... sheesh.

[young Rob and friends]

You will find Rob at the helm of The Paprika Festival, running March 18-26th, at the Tarragon Theatre. The festival is celebrating it's 10th Anniversary this year. It features incredible, original performances by young people and it's absolutely free.