Artist-mentors
encourage teens to
follow their dreams
Teen Arts Connection
workshop promotes
self-expression in variety
of disciplines
By gloria stravelli
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY  FARRAH MAFFAI Top photo, actress Lorraine Stone and voice teacher Terri Thomas introduce the students to voice improvisation during the Teen Arts Connection mentoring program at the Presbyterian Church Meeting House in Shrewsbury May 17. Above, Mark Slocum, 16, and Tarra Torres, 17, work at the drawing station.

What gift would you give an artistically gifted young person? The Monmouth County Arts Council has answered "community" in the form of the Teen Arts Connection, a forum where teens involved in the arts are nurtured by artist-mentors and share their passion for their art forms.

"Being a member of the Teen Arts Connection helps me to not be alone in my poetry," said Long Branch High School sophomore Mark Slocum at a recent teen arts workshop. "It’s something I still face when I write for myself. I’ve always thought of it as something that’s private, but TAC has made me secure, comfortable in my work and given me confidence to share that with other people."

Slocum, along with other members of TAC and the professional artists and arts educators who are their mentors, got together recently to share their art and explore other forms of artistic expression.

The all-day workshop, which took place at the Presbyterian Church Meeting House in Shrewsbury, was the vision of Robyn Ellenbogen, arts education director for the MCAC.

"The workshop was a really unique opportunity for kids to explore self-expression in other disciplines; to try things in a very safe, free, comfortable environment," Ellenbogen said.

"They felt empowered and confident enough to risk something. We speak about that frequently, that in order to get to new territory, to try something, you have to risk something," she noted. "It may just be feeling foolish. It’s not simple; it’s a very profound thing. But I hope that’s the kind of environment we’ve stimulated."

"I’m a poet, but I like doing all forms of the arts," said Slocum. "I like to sing, dance, act, paint and draw, but my passion is poetry.

"We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. I had no clue," he confided, "but now that I’m here, I think it’s a lot about building on yourself and getting to know yourself a little more. "

The paint station attracts Monmouth County Arts Council board member Dr. Evander Duck Jr. and his son, Evander Duck III.

Like a pied piper of the arts, Ellenbogen has gathered a group of some 14 high school students from throughout the county who are involved in different art forms.

TAC’s activities have ranged from advocating for restoration of arts funding to attending live performances, and the diverse group is like-minded.

"We had a real stroke of serendipity — an instant mind meld between the kids," Ellenbogen said. "They were so happy I think because they thought, ‘Wow, we’re a group of teens, and we all love our thing.’ It is a relationship of like minds, like spirits, with similar dreams. It’s very powerful, and because it is so powerful, it’s really turned into an important program in our eyes."

Actress Lorraine Stone opened the workshop by summoning participants "to the water" — an area on stage where undulating water was symbolized by sinuous fabrics.

Stepping into a folk-character mode, Stone played a tape of the Negro spiritual "Wade in the Water" and invited the teens to participate in the experiences offered.

"Old folks say if you want change in your life, wade on in the water," she said. "There will be challenge, there will be a storm in the water, but that’s the only way you’ll get to the other side.

"Today you are going to come to the water," she continued. "What would you do at the river? Think about that as you go through the process today. Think of it as releasing, submerging, energizing."

Before leaving the stage, participants each collected a wooden box containing pencil and paper on which were written four introspective questions and a verse.

What is your dream? What do you fear? What are the challenges in your life and in your community? What is your gift? were the questions that needed answering, and the responses were shared at the end of the workshop.

Then it was time to wade into the experiences awaiting them.

"In this next hour, I would like for you to have as many experiences as you can," advised Ellenbogen. "Let’s see what we can find out about ourselves."

Stepping down from the stage, participants gravitated to stations for writing, drawing, painting — all supplies were available.

"Feel free to bring anything to the paper," invited Lloyd Davis, a musician and community service volunteer for the Long Branch Chapter of NAACP, who wore a foreman’s hard hat and acted as ombudsman for the day.

With his father looking on, seventh-grader Evander Duck III, Freehold, tried out the paint station.

"I think there’s so much structure and rigidness in society, observed Dr. Evander Duck, an MCAC board member. "Here there are no rules except to be yourself and allow your creativity to run free. I don’t think we do enough of that in our daily lives.".

Drawing on their own muse, mentors accompanied the teens on a journey of discovery, empowering them to experience new art forms.

Keening and wailing, Terri Thomas, president of the Black Box Theater of Asbury Park and a member of the voice faculty of Westminster Conservatory, introduced the teens to voice improvisation.

Teens and mentors were gathered into small groups by Chris Tomaino, who staged experimental theater improv sessions that stretched their creativity. Tomaino, an actor, founded TheaterXpress, a program for young people based at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch.

Yvonne Lamb Scudiery, a dancer and director of educational programming for the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, guided the teens into fluid improvised movement.

Ritual was the domain of Terri Blair, a life coach, who offered a setting for ceremony and imaging where participants could plant flowers and give and receive blessings.

And TAC members were willing to cross artistic boundaries.

"I’m here to look into other areas of the arts — to do some painting, to net­work," said Matthew DeRond, Shrews­bury, a student in the commercial art program at Red Bank Regional High School.

Marygrace Murphy, Belmar, a stu­dent in RBR’s creative writing program, concurred. "This brings all the areas to­gether," she said.

Mentors relished the opportunity to be gatekeepers.

"I think that when you’re young, you don’t know who you are, especially if you pursue some form of art," explained Stone. "It can be scary and maybe in­timidating, and as a mentor, I can stand at one of the portals they’re passing through and mirror something for them. Maybe I can encourage, maybe I can support them."

"My perspective is a little more self­ish," said Scudiery. "I always knew what I wanted and that I would get it. My dream was strong from the time I was very young, but my fears were so intense. I could dance. I had a dream. I did exactly what I wanted, but the pain I suffered from not being confident in speaking hurt me my whole life.

"It was very painful as a young per­former," she continued, "so when I see that, I’m drawn to that pain in people, and I think that’s why."

And students were able to give voice to the impact of art in their lives.

"If art was taken out of your life, how would you feel?" Blair asked Caitlyn Valentino, Union Beach, a student in the creative writing program at RBR.

"Restricted, like they’re taking a large part of my life away from me," she responded. "I would feel helpless. I wouldn’t be able to express myself."