International Peace Day 2013

Memphis Street Academy Students march for PEACE!

On Friday, September 20, 2013, every student, teacher, and staff member from Memphis Street Academy Charter School marched for the cause of global peace through the neighborhood surrounding the school. Students exclaimed chants for various peaceful causes that they rehearsed in their homerooms. They carried signs and posters that called for peace in many ways, such as stopping gun violence, and end to bullying, proclamations against abuse, and many other peaceful causes.

Neighbors waved to children on the march, cheered, and threw up peace signs in support of their cause. It was a great step in getting our students to think about global and local ideas of peace. It was also a great way to show the neighborhood the progress our students are making every day.

MSA Student Volunteers at Peace Day Philly 2013 (photo by Brandon Lee)

Later in the evening, ten students attended Peace Day Philly at Hawthorne Park in South Philadelphia. These students were part of last year's Advanced Art class. All week long, they worked on "Peace Pinwheels" to be placed in a garden for children who attended the event.  Our students also designed several posters for the event. While at the event, these Memphis art students volunteered for hours to help younger children make origami "Peace Cranes" and pinwheels of their own.

Advanced Art students presenting their work to Philly poet and peace advocate, Sonia Sanchez at Peace Day Philly 2013 (photo by Brandon Lee)

Our students were also invited on stage to present legendary Philadelphia poet Sonia Sanchez with two posters they created. These posters were inspired by Sonia, and had decorative quotes she'd written about peace.  Sonia was delighted. She was very thankful and happy that our students were thinking about peace at such a young age. Later, students helped Sonia pass out "Peace Journals" to the crowd in attendance.

A special thank you goes out to our Activities Director, Mr. Lee, who arranged the day's events. All in all, it was an incredible day here at Memphis Street Academy. These kids really showed us what they are made of. It gets better every day. 

MSA Students with Councilman Mark Squilla at Peace Day Philly 2013 (photo by Brandon Lee)

Wildcat Artist Spotlight: Nefferra Hart's Paper People

Nefferra Hart is shown here showcasing her "PAPER PEOPLE". These are handmade paper dolls where she draws the front and back of each original character on opposite sides of a single sheet of paper. The dolls are then cut out with meticulous care.

When asked about the origins of this amazingly creative artwork, Nefferra explained, "I make these Paper People because one day when I was little, my sister and I were bored and decided to play, but we didn't have any dolls. So my big sister came up with this crazy idea of PAPER PEOPLE. Ever since that day, I decided I will be making and playing with these dolls for the rest of my life!"

Wildcat Artist Spotlight: Pablo Cordero (And the first day of Young Picasso's Club)

5th Grade Wildcat Pablo brought some of his work from home today - pieces he did in fourth grade last year. Both pieces were done in iridescent watercolors.

One piece was based on Pablo's favorite thing to draw, superheroes:
  

 Another was a sea life scene with a jumping shark:

Today was the first day of the "Young Picasso's" club at Memphis Street Academy. Students gathered for the first time this year to trade their free time for artistic growth and share their ideas and dreams.

 We look forward to an amazing year here in our art rooms, and we cannot wait to showcase more work from our young scholars!

Welcome Back, Memphis Street!

Welcome back to a brand new school year! We look forward to an amazing year of ART in our caring school community. Here we see Ms. Wiesner's afternoon class (Homeroom 8-7) performing a team-building art exercise.

Students worked in groups (in silence for ten minutes, communicating only with facial expressions and hand motions) building structures made of popsicle sticks, tape, straws, and toothpicks. The winning team had a structure topping off at 33 inches!

"I had to get a bigger ruler," said Ms. Wiesner, "I didn't think we'd be able to build higher than twelve inches!"

It is fixing to be an amazing year. Welcome back, Wildcats! It gets better and better every day!