| The Ascent :: A newsletter for supporters of Art from Ashes :: Spring 2010 |
"Everyone gives their life for what they believe...But to give up what you are and to live without belief is more terrible than dying, even more terrible than dying young."
-- Joan of Ark
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FEATURED YOUTH POET
| | Kyle Benton, 19
Four weeks ago
I would have said
I don't remember the innocence,
the trust.
But now I am beginning
to remember.
The trust and caring
are starting to come back>
I peel back the layers
of scars over my heart,
remembering what made me
bleed in the first place.
And the more I peel away,
the more I start to see
that most of my deepest wounds
were self-inflicted.
And as the layers peel away,
I can feel emotions
and thoughts
I have not felt for years
coming back to me,
love that I have buried
and forgotten.
But this is only the beginning,
a first step on the road.
There is yet so much work
to be done,
so much more
to be rediscovered.
I am a long way from pure,
but I am on the path.
I am not perfect,
but I have purpose. |
MAY 23 AT THE HOUSE!
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JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED... BUT THE OPPOSITE OF MISANTHROPIC
(I guess you have to be a Hugh Laurie fan to get that...)
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 On Sunday, May 23rd, come support Art from Ashes by eating dinner at House Restaurant in Denver. You will have great food, great company, and House Restaurant will donate 10% of its proceeds from the evening to Art from Ashes. House Restaurant and Bar is located at 4363 Tennyson St. |
FEATURED BUSINESSES
| Jacobs Chase
Attorneys at Law
Jacobs Chase Frick Kleinkopf & Kelley
AfA Board Member and Jacobs Chase partner Mark Bell obtained a generous sponsorship for our upcoming SlamPhoenix!
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Revisionaries
Colorado's Macintosh Resource
AfA Board Member Steve Shepperd has pledged that he will donate 25% of all income generated as a result of an Art from Ashes referral!
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Gill Enterprises
Denver Real Estate Developer
and our fantastic landlord and generous patron, Ted Gill, who does amazing things for us and for the arts community.
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For information on our other donors and sponsors, please visit our sponsors page on our website.
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VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH :: LUCIFURY!
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Ranked 5th in the world, Denver's own Slam Poet Champion is also a volunteer, a guest poet and a facilitator trainee at Art from Ashes.
Each month we thank a special volunteer for all the hard work and time put in to help our young people live with belief... in themselves, in the power of their creativity and in their intrinsic value. Please read more about Luce (Theo Wilson) and our other great volunteers on the "our people" page on our website.
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WE'D LOVE YOUR SUPPORT...
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 Letter from Catherine
MOVIN' SO FAST.....
we need help keeping up!
Greetings!
This is the year we rock the free world... even more than usual!
We have made so many changes and there are things happening here every day that prove how amazing our work is and also how badly needed.
Thanks to grants from Safe City, Denver Foundation and Colorado Council on the Arts, as well as our individual donors and the hard work of our volunteers and facilitators, we are not only able to provide services for youth (more than 1,000 in 2009!), we also are training and employing young people! Of our 37 volunteers, 14 are youth and eight of them are facilitators! Every one of those young people has stated that they wish to be employed here and are actively engaged in seeking contracts and funding to do so. We just took a "faith step" just last week and hired Reid Dominie, 24, and we're hoping to hire at least one more young person this year as Phoenix Rising program manager: Lindsey Wise, who's been with us since she was 22.
We also just contracted with Pat Kelly, a Development Director with an extraordinary resume, who's dedicated to our ongoing success...including garnering funds to keep growing the agency, reach more youth, and hire those aforementioned young people.
Speaking of growing the organization, this year we're adding more creative programs to
provide hope and transformation. Our
new drama program, Casting Shadows, is getting started under the
leadership of facilitator and drama therapist Martha Crouse, and plans
are in the making for a visual arts program, Drawing on Air. Check out the changes to our website and mission statement and for the news we couldn't cover in this newsletter.
Not all news is good, as we say goodbye to two of our lovely young poets, one temporarily and one forever. Read about Giovanni's new adventure (that's how we prefer to refer to it) and about the passing of our dear friend and young poet Rinu.
We continue to provide opportunities for the struggling young people in our community that help them find safety and hope through our transformational creative programs.
"The first duty of love is to listen." -- Paul Tillich
Cheers,
Catherine
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A FREE CELEBRATION DURING NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!
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| SlamPhoenix! this Friday, April 30th
Cole Arts & Science Academy
3240 Humboldt St, Denver, CO 80205
Each year
we come together to celebrate the spoken word and the power of
intentional creation. This annual event, held in honor of National
Poetry Month, is a collaboration of artists and Denver Slam Poets, with
special performances by the Art from Ashes Youth Poets.
With
hands-on interactive workshops and activity booths, there's a little
something for everyone from poetry to graffiti and everything in
between. We hope you'll join us for the fun. And we
encourage you to check our events page regularly for upcoming workshops and performances. CLICK HERE to view the Slam Phoenix flier for specific event details.
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OUR NEW THEATER PROGRAM!
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 | You are the main character In the performance of your life!We welcome
opportunities to extend our reach in the community through the
introduction of new, therapeutic programs to assist struggling youths.
Casting Shadows is our newest program that facilitates expression,
connection and transformation through the power of dramatic
interpretation.
Founded
on a belief in the power of play, Casting Shadows provides a safe
environment for struggling youth to take risks, collaborate, experiment
with current and future conflicts, while reducing feelings of isolation
and developing new coping skills, as well as increased self esteem. In
order to cast a shadow, young people must learn to embrace the light
within! Click Here for a more in-depth description of Art from Ashes newest program.
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GOING FOR THE GOLD ON MAY 16TH!
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You can raise money for Art from
Ashes, accomplish a
personal challenge, and have a great time. Art from Ashes is
partnering with the Colfax Marathon, and we're recruiting individuals
interested in running for a great cause. You're already aware of the
amazing work we do with youth through our creative programs. Now you
can help raise awareness and blaze a path for more struggling youth to
find out what creative geniuses they truly are.
Choose to run in the half marathon (13.1 miles), full marathon
(26.2 miles), or run the relay marathon as part of a team of five
people.
Race begins and ends at Denver's City Park.
CLICK HERE to let us know you're
running, then CLICK HERE to register for the marathon (be sure to
select Art from Ashes as your charity partner). We also would like to thank Runners Roost on South Colorado Boulevard for supporting our youth runner, Chance Two Crow, with running gear and shoes. if you'd like to support Chance with a donation towards his run, please contact Susie Martin at susie@artfromashes.org |
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AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
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AfA Nominated for Prestigious El Pomar Foundation Award for ExcellenceThe El Pomar Foundation Award for Excellence program was established in 1989 to honor the outstanding achievements of Colorado's nonprofit organizations. A statewide selection commission of distinguished Coloradans, appointed annually by the Trustees of the El Pomar Foundation, nominates nonprofit organizations that do exemplary work to be recognized for their achievements. Each year a winner and two finalists are selected in 11 categories that reflect specific areas of service in the nonprofit sector. We're honored to have been nominated! We'd be even more honored to win! CLICK HERE for more info... |
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 WHAT A LONG, STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN... GIOVANNI'S JOURNEY |
 Each youth
we reach and empower through the Phoenix Rising program is a triumph,
none more significant than another. Yet, some lights burn brighter than
others and exemplify just how meaningful the work is that we do at Art
from Ashes. One such individual is Giovanni Lopez. We pay tribute and
say farewell to Giovanni, as he is leaving our community to begin his
life anew in his native country of Guatemala.
Although
the
circumstances surrounding Giovanni's departure conjure feelings of
contempt for the system responsible for his deportation, we can be
proud of the impact we had in his life and commend the efforts our
organization made to plead his case and ease his relocation.
This
story
may not have ended the way we hoped. But we can relieve the
sickening feeling that "this just isn't fair" with fond memories of
Giovanni, who used the power of poetry and found hope in his voice which
empowered him to change his life for the better.
Art
from
Ashes would like to thank Brett Davies, Esq. for his selfless
pro bono legal consultation, to Brad and Andrea Lawton of the Denver Justice and Peace Guatemala Committee and REDGUA, who gave a donation and helped Giovanni find accommodations
and potentially work upon his arrival in Guatemala, and Willie Barreno of DESGUA in Quetzaltenango (the city of Xela), an organization that is helping Giovanni settle in. To learn more about
Giovanni and the impact Art from Ashes had in his life and to read his poem written recently from detention, click here.
 To help other struggling
youth, we encourage you to contribute so our future can have more
victories like Giovanni!
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| A SAD GOODBYE TO ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL FRIEND
| Rinu and her family at First Friday  | Rest In Peace RinuThe Art from Ashes family mourns the loss of one of our youth
poets. Andrea "Rinu" Scherer succumbed to the streets after an attack
one week before her 21st birthday. Rinu regularly attended the Phoenix
Rising therapeutic poetry workshops at The Spot as part of our collaboration with Urban Peak, and had recently moved
off the streets into transitional housing. Rinu needed to report to a
judge once a week, and each week she presented him with a poem she had
written. Her life seemed to be improving, which makes the news of her
death that much more troubling. We wish Rinu's family well in their time of grief, and we thank Tina Griego for illustrating the love Rinu
received from her family and friends and the value and beauty of the youth we serve. Tina wrote two articles featured in The Denver Post, CLICK HERE for "Streets Kid Didn't Wander Alone" (or download a pdf); CLICK HERE to read "Radiance Stills the Crowd Gathered Around Grim." |
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NEW ADULT WORKSHOPS IN MAY/JUNE 2010
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INTRODUCTORY
The Phoenix Rising transformational workshops use the latest
research in left-brain/right-brain functioning and the role of
creativity in healing to encourage participants to access the creative
subconscious in order to facilitate transformation. The process is
designed to allow participants to recognize our inherent creative power
and the importance of perception in how we live.
:: Wednesdays from 6 to 7.15 pm, May 19-June 23
with facilitator Catherine O'Neill Thorn
Cost is $175 for 6 workshops; payment due by May 15 :: check, cash or Pay online with PayPal
INTERMEDIATE :: (participants must have completed an Introductory Session)
SYNESTHESIA: The power of perception
Poetry prompts will focus on each of the five senses as examples
that serve to illuminate the role of perception in our lives. By
choosing to perceive yourself and what happens to you differently, you
can harness your power to determine the course of your future.
:: Saturdays from 11 to 12.15 pm, May 22-June 26
with facilitator Catherine O'Neill Thorn
Cost is $175 for 6 workshops; payment due by May 17 :: check, cash or Pay online with PayPal
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TURN A PENNY INTO A DOLLAR
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Donating To Art from Ashes Is
As Easy As a Toolbar!
We all have a cause we care about. Yet, despite our best efforts to help our fellow man or nurture the environment, we often fall short on money or time and we don't contribute as much as we hope. But what if you could make a difference for your favorite charity (that's us!) by simply doing something you do everyday already - search the internet?
Art from Ashes has teamed up with GoodSearch, an internet search engine that donates 50% of its revenue to worthy charities designated by you, the user. By simply adding a toolbar to Internet Explorer (IE) or Firefox, each time you search the Internet about a penny is donated to Art from Ashes! And Good Search also partners with more than 1,300 stores (from Amazon to Zazzle). Each time you shop using the Good Search toolbar, a percentage of your purchases will automatically be donated to Art from Ashes, at no cost to you!
We encourage you to take a few minutes to discover how easy the transition is to using GoodSearch as your search engine. They make it really simple and are just as effective as Google (plus, they support worthy causes like us!) Just be sure to select Art from Ashes when you are asked "WHO DO YOU GOODSEARCH FOR?" Give it a try! It makes charitable donating to Art from Ashes automatic.
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