Youth from San Diego's Karen community perform the stick dance in traditional dress at World Refugee Day on June 20, 2015. Photo courtesy of the Karen Organization of San Diego

The Karen Organization of San Diego: A Dance Class Is an Act of Freedom

By Lily Kharrazi, Program Manager

The Karen (pronounced kah-ren) are one of Burma's many ethnic groups who have been granted refugee status to resettle in the United States. Through a Living Cultures Grant, support for weekly classes has brought middle school and high school youth together to learn traditional Karen dances from four dance instructors, including Ms. Hsit Hsa Paw. She is a culture-bearer who, for 22 years, taught dance in the two refugee camps where she lived on the Thai-Burma border.

Master artist, Kimisen Katada (Mariko Watabe) (right) and her apprentice Amy Smith are current participants in ACTA's Apprenticeship Program working in the Japanese Hayashi classical percussion tradition. Photo: Russell Rodríguez

Keeping Hayashi Alive in Southern California

By Russell Rodríguez, Program Manager

Master artist, Kimisen Katada (Mariko Watabe) and her apprentice Amy Smith are current participants in ACTA's Apprenticeship Program working in the Japanese Hayashi classical percussion tradition. The work between Katada and Smith is rich and vibrant, however, it is unique in the sense that there are not many people that continue to practice the Hayashi classical percussion form.

Master Yoruba drummer Najite Agindotan leads a procession of community members during LA Commons' Day of the Ancestors: Festival of the Masks in 2012. LA Commons, which helps neighborhoods give voice to their unique stories through community-based arts programs, will partner with ACTA, the City of LA's Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Youth Policy Institute, in the upcoming Promise Zone Arts cultural asset mapping project. Photo: Martha Benedict

Promise Zone Arts: ACTA Partners with the City of LA's Department of Cultural Affairs, LA Commons, and the Youth Policy Institute to Bring Cultural Asset Mapping to LA's Promise Zone

Earlier this month, the National Endowment for Arts announced a $200,000 Our Town grant to the City of Los Angeles' Department of Cultural Affairs to support Promise Zone Arts, a cultural asset mapping program with site-specific cultural events that address Los Angeles Promise Zone goals: improved educational opportunities, economic development, neighborhood safety, and livability. As a Promise Zone Arts partner, ACTA is eager to begin working with the City of LA's Department of Cultural Affairs, LA Commons, and the Youth Policy Institute to bring our participatory cultural asset mapping methodology to LA's Promise Zone.

Smithsonian Institution: Recovering Voices: Community Research Grant Program

Deadline: September 15, 2015