May 31, 2010
Planting Seeds at C.R. Marchant

C.R. Marchant Middle School runs an arts-based curriculum in Toronto's Weston Village area. Thanks to a last-minute grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage, Mariposa In The Schools and Inner City Angels were able to pull together a special end-of-the-school-year project involving the Six String Nation. Today was the launch of the project.

After some hastily convened meetings a few weeks ago, we settled on this morning for my presentation to all grades in the gymnasium. It was a fairly typical school visit in most ways - I did my multi-media presentation and then handed the guitar to a couple of students to play in front of their classmates. What made this so different was that we then introduced the students to songwriter Chris Rawlings (pictured). Chris played a song on Voyageur and then let the students know that he'd be working with them over the next few weeks to write a few songs for the guitar based on their own sense of Canadian identity as gleaned through the story of the Six String Nation.

Artist-in-residence Allycia Uccello also took the stage to let know that the Six String Nation story would be part of a group effort to complete a three-storey mural in one of the C.R. Marchant stairwells. It's going to be a crazy-busy few weeks for the students - who presumably also have assignments and exams in the offing - but they're also going to be doing all this creative work to be unveiled when I return to the school on June 24th. I'm really looking forward to the results.

Thanks to Chris, Allycia, Dolores Anderson (MITS), Jane Baker (ICA), Principal Roula Skordakis and the staff and students of C.R. Marchant Middle School, Weston.

Posted at 5:05 PM

May 30, 2010
YMCA Announcement

If you've been following me on Twitter at all, you'll know that I spoke Friday night at Geneva Park on Lake Couchiching at the Annual General Meeting of YMCA Canada. Pat Thompson from the Y approached me at the 150! Canada Conference back in March with an idea inspired the Six String Nation presentation I did there. So Friday I did my presentation for these YMCA delegates from all across Canada and several international Y guests as well. But really, that was just a tease for this morning's presentation.

We announced today that we will be launching the YMCA Table Project - a new board room table to be constructed using materials from each of the 53 local associations and their various branches from all across Canada. I'm so honoured that YMCA Canada has taken such inspiration from the Six String Nation and invited me to consult with them as the project moves forward. With some help from my friend Melanie Egan at Harbourfront Centre, I hooked the Y up with the Brothers Dressler, an extraordinary Toronto-based craft duo who will do the construction on the table once the materials are gathered.

Special thanks to Pat Thompson, Scott Haldane, Peter MacLeod and all the conference attendees at Geneva Park!

Posted at 2:15 PM

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