"I feel Magdalena is one of the top artist educators in the country...her classrooms are places of healing and rejuvenation. I look forward to collaborating with her much more in the future."
Kurt Wootton, Founder-Director, Arts Literacy Project, Brown University
Explorations in Puerto Rican Culture for the Springfield Schools (Massachusetts)
"I have been invited to facilitate countless teaching residencies over the years, both nationally and abroad (see a partial list below) The most recent, Explorations in Puerto Rican Culture, is a pilot project for the inclusion of Puerto Rican arts and culture into school curriculums throughout the U.S.; may it be so! Special thanks to Waleska Santiago, David Marshall, Julie Jaron, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, D.O.E. and Maria Luisa Arroyo (Project Coordinator, year one) for making it all possible. Below are just a few of the nationally acclaimed artists and educators who have come together to pioneer a movement that is long overdue."
Left, Ramon Arroyo, musician, lyricist and singer of Boricua Music - some call it folkloric, others Jibaro or traditional; with David Marshall, Project Director under the auspices of the Massachusetts Cultural Council
Lydia Perez Bomba y Plena singer, dancer, impresario and teaching artist:
http://afroyorubarican.blogspot.com/
Heshima Moja composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, teaching artist, Music Director
with Teatro Vida www.myspace.com/heshimamoja
Joining Explorations this year: Obanilu Allende; musician and vocalist with a specialty in Puerto Rican forms: www.myspace.com/obaniluallende, Sandra Maria Esteves, Godmother of the Nuyorican Literary Movement, poet, visual and teaching artist: www.sandraesteves.com
Explorations Artists peforming in Blunt Park
L to R: Heshima Moja, Lorena Garay (composer, vocalist, cuatro player (one of few women who play cuatro professionally) multi-instrumentalist, teaching artist: www.lorenagaray.com;
Jose Gonzalez, Ahmed Gonzalez, www.criolloclasico.com
Sharing stories at lunch, teaching Artist, Vanessa Pabon: Digital Storytelling and Technology with William Cumpiano, master cuatro and guitar maker; in the background, left, Waleska Santiago, Puerto Rican arts historian and Project Coordinator, speaking with visitor, Gloria Arce, Ms. Senior Massachusetts.
Lorena Garay at Explorations, 2007
Sandra with Professor Alberto Sandoval-Sanchez, foremost authority on Latina Theater in the United States.
All day training with Mid-wives and Midwifery Students from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, on Diversity and Effective Communication for Cultural Competence.
Exploring creative communication for building empathy using theater techniques. Workshop was held at Baystate Hospital.
Writing for Performance Workshop at the Center for Cultural Exchange, Portland, Maine, with Middle School students.
Five day training culminating in a public performance of orignal text by students in collaboration with adult artists.
Ferocious Women at a Writing from the Belly Residency, UMass, Amherst
From a workshop with teaching artists - activating the right brain through movement.
Theater Workshop at the Green Street Arts Center, Middletown, CT
The act of creation makes us more of who we are - art-making is an act of mutual liberation.
Magdalena designed and facilitated a professional development training on building community and collegiality at the Wolf School in Rhode Island.
"The wonderful staff at the Wolf School are to be commended for their willingness to dive into the creative process and take risks together. It was a great day! I have the good fortune of meeting open-minded educators, clinicians, occupational therapists, and others working for the wholeness and wellness of our children everywhere I go. Every day feels new and inspires me to continue this work. "
Magdalena uses photographs in workshops on building empathy. The one was taken on the Coney Island boardwalk in Brooklyn, NY. Las Tres Sirenas Incognito.
Teachers in Santa Monica, CA. creating performance from curriculum story books.
Facilitating Diversity Workshop with Social Workers in Lacey, Washington.
Daycare and Early Childhood Training in Gentle Behavior Management and Creative Play at Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, MA
Magdalena has been a teaching artist since 1971 and a core faculty member of SmART Schools, based in the Education Development
Center in Newton, MA. since 1999. Consultant with the Brown Arts Literacy Project from 2001 - 2007 under the direction of Kurt Wootton. I currently facilitate classroom workshops that span Grade 4 to Post Graduate and working extensively in the design and facilitation of professional development workshops for educators and administrators.
Sample Residencies:
Text and Music in Performance: Springfield High School of Science and Technology, a collaboration with Mr. Gary Bernice, Teatro V!da and the Sci-Tech Concert Band;
Taking the Torture Out of Testing, SmART Schools Summer Institute, RI
Teaching Storytelling with I-Movie, with James Lescault, SmART Schools, RI (professional development)
Media Literacy: multiple schools and organizations, including YMCA, Earth Service Corps, New Hampshire; Gerena School, Springfield, MA. (designing and facilitating media literacy workshops since 1984 for schools, non-profits, and community based organizations;
Intergenerational Writing with parents and children, Alice Beal School, Springfield, MA
Poetry for Multiple Literacies (written, read, oral, physical), Zanetti Montessori School, Springfield, MA.
Teaching Empathy through Ecphrastic Poetry Writing: SmART Schools, Santa Monica Schools, CA.; Rhode Island, New Hampshire (professional development)
Understanding Brain Functions through Creative Movement and Theater, SmART Schools
Poetry and the Multiple Intelligences: Reaching Every Student; Fitchburg Academy for the Arts, Fitchburg, MA
Consultant with Gender Equity of Western, MA from 1993-1998: Working with non-traditional students in vocational schools on interrupting gender stereotypes and violence prevention;
Deconstructing Antigone and the Oedipus Cycle, workshops for and with high school students and educators, with the Brown Arts Literacy Project, Brown University, RI.Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance, Brightwood Elementary School, Springfield, MA
The Journey of Sound through the Ear: Creative Movement for Learning Science; Lincoln School, Springfield, MA.
Other original workshops Magdalena designed and facilitated include:
Writing from the Belly, University of Massachusetts, (culminating in an annual performance on body politics and sexual identity) 1999-2008; Springfield Central Library, MA.
(New!) How to Be A Super-Hero for Five Minutes a Day: Overcoming Stress by Recovering Your Creative Ferocity (inspired by Professor Stephanie Athey)
Embracing the Muse: What to Do When Students Say "I Can't Write"; Brown University for SmART Schools;
Teaching In Times of War: Addressing Tough Issues Through the Arts, multiple schools
Take Back the Joy! : Having Fun in the Classroom AND Meeting the Standards (professional development; numerous schools throughout the East Coast)
Why Did You Become a Teacher? Motivational Workshop (tools for preventing and interrupting burn-out for educators at all levels)
Love and Protect the Earth: arts and the environment, Beach Street School, RI (with SmART Schools)
The Tainos: Columbus Discovered What?!
The Nuyorican Literary Movement: Vanguard Puerto Rican Writers in NYC
Theater Games for Teaching History
Robots No More! Laughing Our Way Through Standardized Testing: Techniques for having fun while preparing for tests (and increasing scores!)
Building Community through Creativity (designed for multiple Upward Bound programs)
A Basic Classroom Tool-Kit for Arts Integration, with Kurt Wootton, SmART Schools
Theater Artist in Residence, Holyoke Magnet Middle School for the Arts, 1990-1995
Safe and Gentle Ways for Dealing with Grief in the Classroom
We, Too, Are America and a Journey in Four Movements: created theater performances with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. Performances at Smith College, Western New England College and Holyoke Community College with the Voices from Inside project, Northampton, MA.
Guest teaching artist with the Performance Project working with formerly incarcerated artists and artists in recovery, Holyoke, MA.
Partial list of clients:
Fitchburg Academy of the the Arts, Fitchburg, MA
Santa Monica School District, Santa Monica, CA
Zanetti Montessori School, Springfield, MA
Holyoke Magnet Middle School for the Arts, Holyoke MA
Stepping Stone Foundation, Milton, MA
Alice Beal School, Springfield, MA
Brightwood Elementary School, Springfield, MA
Chestnut Magnet Middle School, Springfield, MA
Rocky Hill Schools, Rocky Hill, CT
Math Power Program, Northeastern University, Boston MA
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
Boston University, Boston, MA
Morgan School, Holyoke, MA
Donahue School, Holyoke, MA
New WORLD Theater, Amherst, MA
Northfield Mount Hermon School, Northfield, MA
Lawrence High School, Lawrence, MA
Amherst High School, Amherst, MA
Franklin Technical High School, Turners Falls, MA
Wildwood School, Amherst, MA
Westfield Vocational, Westfield, MA
Smith Vocational, Northampton, MA
El Puente de Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Lincoln School, Springfield, MA
Brightwood Center for Families and Children, West Springfield, MA
Gerena School, Springfield, MA
Springfield College, Springfield, MA
Bronx Community College, Bronx, NY
and many more...
C.V. available upon request.
Mgadalena with one of her sheroes, filmmaker and human rights activist, Iris Morales. Iris is a former member of the Young Lords Party, who made the legendary film documenting the YLP, Pa'lante. She is also and attorney and continues to work for justice as an activist, educator an media maker. Please visit and support her work, she is a national treasure: www.palante.org and www.us-puertoricans.org
