"I Am" Poems and (Not So Scary) Soldering!

This week during Girl Talk at SOHO, we created "I Am" poems where big and little sisters used the starting phrase "I am" to create a poem that describes them.  It's always wonderful to see the variety of what's created and to see that some people are already so open with each other.  Almost everyone shared their entire poems with the group.

During the art portion of the night pairs created friendship necklaces!  This project is always fun because girls get to use soldering guns and learn a little about jewelry making.  There's always a few who are scared of the processes but by the end everyone is impressed with what they've learned!  After Thanksgiving, everyone will get their friendship necklaces back and will be able to start wearing their creations.

Last week was also the night before our week off for the Thanksgiving. In line with the thankful theme, Zartesia had orchestrated a secret thank you to the big sisters and teachers to thank them for everything at SOHO! It was a wonderful surprise for all the big sisters to see that their little sisters understand and appreciate their time together.

What are you thankful for this week?

Happy Holidays everyone!

Book-Binding and More Fun with Hula Hoops...

 This week, groups from last week switched so that pairs in Girl Talk the first week worked with Liana for photography. And girls in photography headed to Girl Talk. The second group had a great time with blind contours and reaching that candy as well! And the last group worked with Liana to learn the basics of photography and talk a little about composition and how to look at photographs.

After snack, everyone learned about bookmaking from Tesni - the tools, the process and how to get started. Then pairs worked together to create their books! It's definitely a process that benefits from two people. And it was a little challenging. But pairs did a great job working together and figuring out how to problem-solve.

Next week we get to try some exciting new things like soldering! See you then!

Blind Contours and Letterpress

This week Girl Talk was all about getting to know each other better - just big sisters and little sisters in a smaller group.  Pairs played some drawing games together. One that's always fun is doing blind contour portraits of each other. As a re-fresher, blind contours are drawings you make while looking at the person you're drawing, never looking at the paper, and never lifting up your pencil! There was a lot of laughing going on. 

Pairs also played a game we affectionately call "candy reach."  Each pair stands in their hula hoop they made the first night, and Tesni scatters some candy around them, outside the hoop.  Some are just out of reach and some are actually really far away! The pairs then work together to figure out a way to reach the candy. There were some pretty awesome acrobatics going on, using tools like pencils and pens, and a lot of giggling and high fives.

When the group came back together, everyone headed into the letterpress studio to learn a bit about letterpress printing with Jordan. Then each pair printed covers for the hand-made journals they would be making! Jordan worked with each pair in the printing studio while the group finished up their inspiration boards in the other room.

Next week we'll be able to use the covers printed tonight and learn about bookmaking!

Inspiration Boards & Family at AJCES

 This year, we had our second SOHO night at the girls school - Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School. Or, AJCES for short.  We invited families to join us, too!  Big sisters got to see the girls' neighborhood, what their school was like and meet some of their family members.  This was the first time we had ever tried this and it was wonderful!

Everyone had Girl Talk together where we played the always-fun untangle game and talked about what Girl Talk really means. Mainly, we wanted to make sure all the women and girls knew it was a safe space to share ideas and thoughts and feelings and to explore new ideas, too.  Everyone also went through images and postcards to find one that they felt reflected them as a person and then shared why with the group.  

The girls gave their big sisters a tour of the school which was really fun.  The girls seemed to enjoy being the ones teaching this time!

Finally everyone sat together in the cafeteria and word on creating inspiration boards for the room makeovers each pair would do at the end of the year. It was fun to see parents getting excited and little sisters and big sisters getting to know each other. Inspiration boards included colors, patterns and ideas but also included things like how girls wanted their room to feel and what was most important to them.  We ended with another wonderful closing circle - can't wait for next week and getting the group into the VisArts studios!

SOHO's Opening Ceremony!

We held our official SOHO opening ceremony on October 23^rd! All the women arrived early with potluck snacks to share with the women and girls.

All of our "little sisters" arrived by bus from AJCES.  The mentors were all waiting upstairs in our community space and even formed a high-five tunnel to greet them all! The beginning of the meeting was socializing and  getting to know one another over snacks.   Then everyone went on a tour of the building and learned about all the different studios and what happens in them. 

The girls and mentors went on group scavenger hunts to see how well they remembered what they learned in the tour...and to just have a little fun.  The last clue led them to the beautifully decorated fibers studio.  Once in, girls and women were greeted with a circle of chairs, candles, twinkle lights and a big sign saying "Gratitude".  On each chair was a gift bag with each person's name on it and a flower.  In each bag was a card with the word taht their match used to describe themselves in their interview on one side and the word their match used to describe themselves at their interview. Everyone opened their bags and all stop up and found their match. There were a lot of great moments ("I'm looking for somebody 'Awesome!'") and a lot of hugging and high-fiving.

Afterwards, each pair had their picture taken together. The pairs also used their time to decorate a hula hoop together and had a hula hoop contest! Big and little sisters also spent some time writing  letters to themselves about what they were looking forward to in the program. During Closing Circle everyone sat together in a circle, holding hands.  Each person expressed what they were thankful for with the group. Then, when SOHO ended, everyone took photos together and big sisters waved goodbye to the girls as they got on the bus! So excited about this first meeting and looking forward to the rest of the year!

We had a special awards ceremony for SOHO last Friday morning!

SOHO received the statewide Shining Star Award, part of the Dominion ArtStars awards given through Virginians for the arts. These awards celebrate arts and education in the community, recognizing arts organizations that best demonstrate and advance synergy between the two. Shining Star awards emphasize the contributions of arts organizations through their partnership and collaboration with schools across the commonwealth. In honor of this big occasion we threw an awards ceremony! We were so happy to see mentors from past years – all the way back to SOHO’s very first year. SOHO would like to thank Richmond City Councilman Parker Agelasto, Delegate Betsy Carr, and the representative from Congressman Bobby Scotts office who attended for coming to the ceremony and celebrating this achievement with us.

The ceremony included speeches by VisArts CEO Ava Spece, Iris Holliday with Dominion, Emily Smith – board member for Virginians for the Arts and program staff for SOHO – Tesni Stephen, Jordan Roeder and Liana Elguero. We concluded this with a few stories from past and present SOHO mentors.  We are so thankful for this award and for the support represented that morning through all of our lovely attendees. Go SOHO!