“What kind of tree plays tricks on people?
A Conifer!”
Of course.
Akira Timberlake told this joke at a recent Friday evening performance at Gabriel’s Art Kids Open Mic. Akira was the lead-off comic among a group of several kids who showed to see the show. And although Akira was the only one who signed up to perform, once others saw him up on the stage, the ice was broken.
An evening of jokes, impromptu ukulele, piano composing, and “silly” dances followed with every child confidently performing. First-grader Éilis, and Elena, in the second grade, popped up and down several times with material as it occurred to them; and, even one younger brother, Leir, who isn’t yet in school, had a joke to tell.
It was entertaining, to be sure — who doesn’t love a good joke! — and according to Tyler Becker, a teacher who’s been on board for about two years, it successfully achieved the goal to give the children an opportunity to feel comfortable as they share their artist personalities with an audience.
Becker, who brings a legacy of communications and education, dreamed up the program. “A talent show we did once a year wasn’t enough,” he says. “I wanted to start something that happened more regularly, so the kids got consistent experience being on stage.”
Gabriel’s Art Kids is the pre- and after-school extension of the Robert Williams School, both founded by Gabriel Miles, a certified K-12 educator who believes kids should be “saturated in all of the arts, plus all of the academics.” She fully supports the open mic and is grateful to have such a creative staff. “What I love about this school is that I have these amazing teachers and what we do depends on the skills and talents they bring.”
Growing an Arts Community
A traditional open mic, like one that takes place regularly at Village Books, brings together people who read from their own work. Both Gabriel’s Art Kids and Village Books are important for growing an arts community. Just ask Paul Hanson, one of the three owners of Village Books, all of whom have a strong commitment to the community.
“Around the time of school budget cuts,” he says, “we wanted to see what we could do to fill a gap. If there were after-school programming cuts, we wanted to give kids a place and an opportunity to share their work.”
Hanson tapped Seán Dwyer, who already ran an open mic for more seasoned writers, to organize the monthly event.
The kids who have shown up for these open mics are a little older than those at Gabriel’s Art Kids, and already writing. Nine-year-old Aliena Ciscell was the first.
Ali, as she is called, thinks of writing and performing as a way to express something she’s thinking about.
“I write or draw things that I see, or that I read, and change them. That makes them better, in my opinion.” When developing a piece of writing, she says, “I read a page to myself in my head before I show it to my family.”
Her dad, Galen, recognizes how important an open mic can be. “It’s one thing to perform for yourself, [and] absolutely another to do it in front of other people,” says Galen. “Most kids are imaginative. There is a primary value in the experience of performing in front of an audience.”
Kids Open Mics at Village Books give youth a safe place to get that experience. “This is a forum to allow the children to express their creativity,” Dwyer says. “It gives them the understanding that this is something they are good at and appreciated for.”
Ten-year old Sana Vinoth has published two books in a series called Sana & Clara, two young girls who undertake missions to protect animals. Even with that success under her belt, the idea of reading to an audience came with a few jitters. “I was really nervous,” she says, “but also really excited, because I wanted to help the cause [worldwildlife.org] and I could articulate it to people.”
This fulfills another of Dwyer’s goals for the Kids Open Mics perfectly. “I see these kids learning that their work has a validity that will make continuing the effort to write a worthwhile project.”
The program began organically with just posters in Village Books. Now, Dwyer is doing outreach to all elementary school principals in the area. “Our goal is to encourage the creativity of the children in this area,” he says. “I remember when my mom praised the first thing I wrote, at 6; that made writing something I wanted to continue to do.”
Dwyer also mentioned that having a deadline to finish a piece of writing, a little like homework, for the last Monday of the month is a good habit to develop. At Gabriel’s Art Kids, that could have been the set-up for a joke told in October:
“Why did the boy eat his homework?
Because his teacher said it was a piece of cake.”
How fortunate for us and future generations that there are people elevating the art of the open mic.
Sign up for Kids Open Mic at Village Books.
