KIIC was an organizing partner of Harwood Art Center’s Root & Bloom (March 2021), a virtual (re)generative retreat made by and for New Mexico’s Creatives, to serve and support individuals in the bewildering here and now, as well as in visioning and actualizing a just, abundant shared future. Keshet Dance Company members, Ana Lopes Arechiga and Lara Segura contributed a Movement and Healing: Collaborative Choreography Workshop.

Choreographers’ Showcase

KIIC presented the virtual 2021 Choreographers’ Showcase, a collection of work submitted by previous Makers Space Experience participants. Many Makers submitted work created during the Covid-19 pandemic, featuring the talent and resiliency of Keshet-connected performing artists around the country.

 

Movement + Mentorship = Metamorphosis (M3)

Keshet’s M3 Program (Movement + Mentorship = Metamorphosis) uses the vehicle of dance to engage, educate, and empower incarcerated and paroling youth and young adults. As with Keshet’s other programming, this year M3 had to be conducted entirely in remote formats to help keep students and faculty safe and healthy. The transition to Zoom within the juvenile jail was a significant policy adjustment and successful collaboration between Keshet and CYFD/Foothills High School. Under normal circumstances, students are not allowed any access to technology, internet, etc. Creating a space inside of the juvenile prison in which students could indeed have access to M3 programming was a significant leap in an effort to maintain connectivity to this program. M3 faculty worked directly with Youth Diagnostic & Development Center (YDDC) and Camino Nuevo Youth Center (CNYC) staff to ensure consistent communication with students, despite limited technological access. M3 faculty were able to provide programming to four units at a minimum of twice/week for each unit, offering a total of 9 classes per week. Over the course of the fiscal year, M3 faculty facilitated a total of 238 classes, in which we offered opportunities for student leadership, and developed a multitude of creative collaborations. We adapted our post-release mentorship program to a virtual format, conducted one-on-one check-ins with students following their release from YDDC and CNYC, and welcomed them into online community classes.

M3 Guest Artists

Mindfulness can be described as; The act of being present to all one is experiencing, free of judgement. M3 Guest Artist over Zoom: Mindfulness & Creativity Workshop by Paul Cuffee.

The M3 team was honored to welcome guest artists into our virtual classrooms this year. Paul Cuffee guided students through mindfulness practices, and spoke about the intricacies of the film and music industries. In May 2021, members of Everett Company, a theater and dance company based in Rhode Island, facilitated comedy improvisation workshops that left us all aching from laughter and with a new appreciation for the humor, awareness, and vulnerability of each other. The incredible faculty of the National Institute of Flamenco brought music, dance, and cultural knowledge to our classes, and connected the rhythms and practices of Flamenco to Hip Hop music and culture. Trey Pickett offered Krumping and Afrobeat workshops filled with joy, strength, and invitations for deep individual connection, empowerment, and expression.

Movement for Mercy

The Movement for Mercy project centers around the themes of community, relationships, shared history, and intersections of experiences. Co-created and performed by a team of collaborating artists from Keshet Dance Company, students from Keshet’s M3 Program, Keshet’s Arts and Justice Initiatives Youth Leaders, and additional members of the Keshet community, this production has been created inside and outside of prison walls.  

In lieu of a cancelled June/July2020 tour, a two-part virtual experience was created.

Part I, July 9th:  A conversation with the artists, discussing the work, the creative process, and the intentional and transformative intersections of arts and juvenile justice.  

Part II, July 11th: A screening of the work. A special viewing of the February 2020 Movement for Mercy work-in-progress showing in its entirety, along with new pieces created in quarantine, as well as insights and commentary from the artists. While the originally intended format of this work is to be experienced live and in the round – hearing breath, watching expressions, smelling sweat, feeling the connection of dancer and audience bodies – this new format allowed us to connect our work to so many more around the country than we would ever be able to reach in a traditional touring format, continuing the important conversations related to the country’s juvenile (in)justice system.

Youth Leadership Council

Keshet Youth Leaders are employees of Keshet who meet weekly to work on justice oriented creative projects, research agendas, and community activities. Over the past year, the Youth Leaders codified a Youth Leadership Council, for which they serve as the Executive Committee. The Keshet Arts and Justice Initiatives Youth Leadership Council is a collective of youth of color and allies who strive to utilize their platform in order to elevate the voices of system impacted youth by providing educational resources, peer support, and access to an uplifting community. 

Both Keshet Youth Leaders and Council members may serve on Bernalillo County committees and attend meetings such as the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RRED) and Bernalillo County Steering Committee where they are able to ask questions, give feedback and assist in developing programming that intends to dismantle the school to prison pipeline, seek racial equality, reduce recidivism rates and create positive alternatives to juvenile detention.

Pictured (L-R): Youth Leadership Council members, Julian Jimenez, Juliana Gorena, Elise Lopez, and Emani Brooks

AJI in the Community 

Albuquerque Justice for Youth Community Collaborative

Keshet is one of more than 20 community-based organizations in Albuquerque joining forces in a multi-year effort to support healthy and thriving futures for all young people, especially those in trouble with the law. The Albuquerque Justice for Youth Community Collaborative, supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, will engage local youth-serving organizations and families who have been affected by the juvenile justice system in efforts to shape promising futures for young people — even after they’ve made mistakes.

This year, Keshet joined the Collaborative with members of the Youth Leaders Council, as well as Keshet’s AJI staff, attending regular meetings to collaborate with other community-based organizations working towards systems-change within New Mexico’s juvenile justice field.

Progress toward social justice, racial healing and equity requires a radical change, grounded in community leadership and respect for the perspectives of young people and families who have been directly — and often negatively — affected by the juvenile justice system,” — Albino Garcia, Executive Director of La Plazita Institute in Albuquerque and Founder of the Collaborative.

Arts and Justice Roundtable Conversation 

Keshet hosted the Intersection of Arts and Justice Roundtable Conversation on April 1, 2021 on Zoom and recorded it to share in an ongoing manner with the broader community and organizational partners. The conversation focused around exploring the roles arts can play in transforming juvenile justice in both our local community and in our country, highlighting the lived experiences and artwork of Keshet Youth Leaders, as well as the current work and experiences of scholars, artists, and organizations working in the field of Juvenile Justice in New Mexico. Keshet appreciates the support of New Mexico Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities for this event. 

The Roundtable featured panelists working within the field from different perspectives, including:

• • Emani Brooks, Youth Leader, Keshet Arts & Justice Initiatives, Youth Council Co-Chair
  • sheri crider, Executive Director, Sanitary Tortilla Factory
  • Albino Garcia Jr, Executive Director La Plazita Institute
  • Shira Greenberg, Artistic Director, Keshet Dance and Center for the Arts
  • Juliana Gorena, Youth Leader, Keshet Arts & Justice Initiatives, Youth Council Co Chair 
  • Dr. Marissa Juárez, Central New Mexico Community College, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Dr. Manuel Montoya, University of New Mexico, Presidential Teaching Fellow;  Associate Dean, Planetary Decisionmaking and Inclusion
  • Carmela Romero, Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative 
  • Hon. Marie Ward, Presiding Judge, Children’s Court Division, Second Judicial District  Court, Bernalillo County 
  • Moderated by Elsa Menendez , Artist/Educator; Field Representative, Office of U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich

Pchyolka Collaboration

Pchyolka workshops in Kaliningrad, Russia

In a cross-cultural curriculum exchange spanning from from August to November of 2020, Keshet faculty worked with a team of art specialists working with orphans in Kaliningrad, Russia, facilitating training in the Keshet M3 teaching philosophy and transferable curriculum. Over the course of 10 sessions, the two teams forged connected relationships, learned from each other, and supported each other. The project culminated in a virtual sharing open to the public that connected audience members from the U.S. and Russia in a discussion about healing arts. Keshet appreciates the support of the Eurasia Foundation via the US-Russia Social Expertise Exchange (SEE) to make this project possible.

It’s a great experience that we were able to gain here… In the beginning our American partners helped us so much, especially in the training called “What We Have in Common”, to make kids trust us more, and see us that we are like them. — Khilolla, Music Specialist, Pchyolka

Those trainings that you shared with us helped us enormously as we worked with kids who are in a difficult life situation in orphanages. Because of these trainings kids started to open themselves, to share a bit of their lives with us, and because they became open there became trust in us, and we were able to help them to solve their problems through creative movement… The trainings helped us to be united with the kids… — Ksusha, Dance Specialist, Pchyolka

Guest Artists: Everett

Everett Company, a theater and dance company based in Rhode Island, was set to perform at Keshet in the Revolutions International Theater Festival in March 2020. After the cancelled performance due to COVID-19, Keshet together with Revolutions International Theater Festival reimagined the presentation of Everett’s Good Grief with a virtual showing and Q&A session with the cast and workshop in May, 2021.

Good Grief focuses on trauma and the true stories of the artists/performers. The performance was inspired by the healing work of Dr. Richard Schwartz who developed Internal Family Systems in response to clients’ descriptions of experiencing various parts–many extreme–within themselves.

Everett’s Good Grief team, conducted a youth workshop with Keshet’s Youth Leaders

Good Grief was made possible through major funding support from NEFA, MAP Fund, NEA & RISCA. This presentation was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

A Love Letter to Albuquerque

Keshet Dance Company continued to play an integral role across Keshet programming this year. Company members taught KP3 students excerpts from three Keshet Dance Company repertory works: AniMa’Amin, rock mass adjunct and Roadtrip Mixtape all choreographed by Shira Greenberg. They served as mentors for KP3 students and included some upper level students in the creation of new works. Company members also worked closely with Keshet’s Youth Leaders developing and sharing Movement for Mercy for virtual formats.

 Bologa

#DancetheVote

Major Funders

We would like to heartily thank the following organizations that have supported Keshet programs with major contributions ($10,000 and above) in FY20-21, deepening Keshet’s work in the community.

Corporate Fans 

These terrific local businesses supported Keshet’s 25th Anniversary Season of virtual performances. Corporate Fans connected with Keshet’s community through online performances, social media, and Keshet’s e-newsletter, as champions of the arts and supporters of Keshet’s community-driven mission. Thank you!

*Corporate fans for the full year

Sustainers Club

Thank you to our Sustainers Club members, monthly donors to Keshet whose recurring gifts help ensure Keshet’s sustainability through challenging times. Sustainers Club members receive special communications and behind-the-scenes opportunities. Thank you for your meaningful support of Keshet!

• Sarah Egelman and Dan Clark
• Roy and V Goforth
• Shira Greenberg and Richard Letscher
• Matthew Hess
• Manuel Montoya
• Theresa Palmer and Kurt Christopher
• Matthew and Carolyn Tobias
• Nathaniel Trask and Adrian Moore Trask
• Thomas Wolinski

Become a Sustainers Club member by selecting the “monthly” frequency when making a gift to Keshet online. Click here to set up your recurring gift.