Breaking Barriers
Typically, we define arts learning as learning to draw, dance, act, or play an instrument but those technical skills are often the setting for learning fundamental skills like self-advocacy, communication, and collaboration.
Here we share an instance that illustrates how the arts become a stage where young people develop their thoughts and insights, articulating them for public audiences on behalf of themselves and their communities.
The Owsley County community in Kentucky celebrated youth experiences within their community through the creation of a student-devised theatrical project before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic The work was supported by Partners for Rural Impact (PRI) in 2019 through 2022.
This piece was originally published in August 2023. You can read the original here.
Across the United States, there are countless communities where students face opportunity gaps due to a lack of in-school, arts education initiatives. Many districts spread the limited number of arts educators and teaching artists across multiple schools, making arts education a rich, but rare, rather than regular and sustained occurrence. The costs to artistry and creativity are obvious, but such a stingy approach to arts learning also robs young people of important opportunities to make their voices heard, share what’s on their minds, raise questions, and bring their full selves to the table.
This is a shame because so much of growing up is learning to speak up and step into your power, not only for yourself but your community – the people and places that define where you come from and shape where you are going.
Over the last year, as the election has played out, several communities across the country have been closely examined; either uplifted as paradigms of the American dream, vilified as instruments in that dream’s demise, or questioned as people sought to split truth from hyperbole within archetypes. Communities across the Appalachian region fell into this final category as one of the presidential tickets featured the author of Hillbilly Elegy, a book that, since its publication, has been condemned by Appalachian residents as being a dangerous stereotype of rural America and its values.
In the hopes of battling the dangers of a single story, especially at such a charged time, we wanted to revisit a piece from last year that features the story behind the development of a youth-devised theatre production in Appalachian Kentucky. Developed before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, The Shiners is a heartfelt play that centers on the highs and lows of life in Appalachia and the pride that the residents feel for their community – their home.
The Shiners: A Play about Youth Voice
Partners for Rural Impact (PRI) uses a place-based, cradle-to-career approach to respond dynamically to the needs of each community within its network – ranging from K-12 education, dental clinics, flood relief, teaching artists networks, rural library networks, and more.
With the support of PRI, teaching artists, teachers, and high school students in the Kentucky county of Owsley came together to capture, hone, and tell their stories on stage in a full-length and festival-length production that also took on an unexpected life as a radio play during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The work was an intensive collaboration between students, a local arts teacher, Stevi Nolan, and local teaching artists, Bob Martin and Judy Sizemore.
Judy Sizemore, a PRI collaborator for many years, was instrumental in the execution of “Our Creative Promise”, a Promise Zone and Promise Neighborhood project in 10 southeastern Kentucky counties as well as the creation of a teaching artist directory for the region. The video below captures some of the stories from Our Creative Promise.
One of her notable projects was the creation of “Where I’m From” poems. Inspired by the poem of the same title by Kentucky poet, George Ella Lyons, Judy encouraged the students to take an asset-based approach to writing about their communities. Check out a few poems from students at Hazard High School in Perry County here.
Bob Martin had previously supported the Owsley County community in developing HomeSong 1-3. Developed with support from PRI, “the HomeSong project exemplifies the collaborative nature of [The Owsley] County community as well as residents’ desire to ‘tell our own story.’ Artists, schools, non-profit organizations, members of the business community, and others worked together to develop the scripts and stage the musical productions with an inter-generational cast of residents mostly lacking prior theatrical experience. Many participants reflect that this project, by and about their community, had a significant and lasting impact on them personally and on their county.”
To get a sense of the spirit of HomeSong, watch the clip of the opening song below or, if you have the time, consider watching the full production of HomeSong 1 here.
Regional Youth Arts Summit
In the fall of 2018, PRI hosted a regional youth arts summit. It was designed to engage young people in PRI’s collective impact efforts to improve arts education in the region. During the end-of-day reflection session, young people shared that they admired and appreciated HomeSong, but they did not feel like their perspectives were represented and they wanted to create something that more accurately reflected the complexities and challenges of their modern lives.
Bob, Judy, and Stevi were all present at the summit. Rather than ignoring the students’ constructive critiques, they leaned into them and began to work together to conceptualize how they might build on the foundation of HomeSong and create another outlet for young people in the region – a place where they could safely talk about the highs and lows of their experience growing up in Appalachian Kentucky.
Creating The Shiners
In the fall of 2019, Stevi tasked her high school arts classes with developing the characters and writing the dialogue in the play The Shiners. When her students first learned of the project, they all thought Stevi was joking with them. Their doubts and wonderings grew when they learned that they were not only going to write the play, but they were going to perform and produce it too, telling Stevi that “she had lost her brain.”
The students did eventually warm to the project, making it their own. In an interview, Stevi spoke of the ways in which students who would never open up in class were suddenly engaged: “There was one specific (student) … having him in a normal classroom, he probably wouldn’t have wanted to do a whole lot, but he got to do something like this and he just came alive. He got to tell his story.”
The Shiners focuses on two young men, Cletus and Reggie. After the loss of their grandfather, the boys struggle to find new direction without his guidance, wondering whether they’ll be able to keep their tight-knit, but growing family together. An uncle even tempts one of them into joining an underground moonshine business. Ultimately, they find a new way forward with help from unexpected sources.
The student-led play also boasts original music from a local high school band and a variety of original pieces which are featured in a talent show at a county fair in Act 2.
As Stevi and her students were gearing up to present the play in spring 2020, COVID-19 halted the physical production. Stevi and her collaborators adjusted quickly, moving the show to a radio play format which featured drawings from teachers and students from Owsley County Schools.
When school resumed in person and audiences were able to gather once more, Stevi moved forward with the full production of the play. They had to recast several roles as students had graduated, but new students were willing and able to step in.
One such student was Erin who first participated in the production as a freshman. She was a writer and a featured performer during the talent show at the county fair. Her involvement in the play expanded during her junior and senior years to a supporting role as Miss Anna, a representative of Child Protective Services who worked with Cletus and Reggie to ensure they could stay together after the passing of their grandfather. In reflecting on her expanded involvement, Erin said, “I’m really glad that I got to be Miss Anna because I feel like she plays a huge role and (helps) other people during rough times. I went through some family issues too. (Miss Anna) is always there to fix it and is a very hard worker—just like me.”
In reflecting on her experience with The Shiners, from devising to performing for the county and at the Kentucky Theater Association (KTA), the statewide theater festival for high schools in Kentucky, Erin expressed her gratitude:
“The Shiners has been really great for me. I’ve learned so much from The Shiners and it’s taught me a lot of lessons […] because while The Shiners was getting started, I had been going through some things: depression, family issues, losing somebody. It was a very emotional time. I went through it for four years, but what really kept me going was The Shiners.
“[…] And look where we are today! From a piece of paper into this wonderful play called The Shiners what we created. […] It brought so many people to tears, it brought a lot of messages to a lot of people, some that we do know and some that we don’t know. Going through with KTA, even if we didn’t win, we still got a message through about hope. And I feel like the actual winning is getting that message across, not winning the trophy […] because we still got our message across—we got our voices spoken out. That is a huge thing about this play and I don’t think any other play is going to beat it.”
To get a sense of the project, watch the clip of a promotional reading from 2019 below or, if you have the time, watch the audio project featuring drawings or the full stage production.
How Does this Work Break Barriers?
Empower Youth during Times of Transition and Change
For young people, the transition from education settings like high school and college to pathways beyond them involves several critical questions and decisions, including whether and how they maintain their connections to arts and culture.
- Will I continue to perform or create after I graduate from school?
- What resources will my college or training program provide me with to continue performing or creating?
- How much will it cost to maintain private lessons and studio time if I am not an arts major or minor?
- Will I have time to participate in an arts ensemble when I have to balance coursework and a job?
Involving youth in expanded roles within the arts and culture sector through opportunities like The Shiners is critical in helping them see that there are numerous ways in which the arts can enrich their lives and their communities beyond presenting finished products (e.g., orchestral concerts, plays, or art shows). Expanded experiences provide learning opportunities and skills training for young people who, when offered access and opportunity, will not only see but benefit from how the arts can support things like health and wellness, community investment and development, and community pride.
The process of incorporating youth voices into these experiences is an intentional one and takes time. It takes time to build relationships, to spool them up on strong practices in collaboration and communication. It takes time to encourage them to come out of their shells, to embrace being authentic, and not worry about what other people might think.
While this process may delay the deliverable or extend the timeline, the dividends are enormous because it is a direct investment in young people’s continued involvement in and allyship of the arts and culture sector. Whether they step into roles as artists, audiences, administrators, or decision-makers, they know the deep value that the arts can play in their own and others’ lives.
What expanded experiences for young people in the arts and culture sector are you familiar with? Send me an email.
I’d love to learn more and potentially feature those experiences in an upcoming newsletter.
This piece was originally published in August 2023. You can read the original here.
About Our Work and Collaborators
About Partners for Rural Impact
For over 25 years, Partners for Rural Impact (PRI), formerly known as Partners for Education at Berea College, has been supporting the communities of Appalachian Kentucky through place-based, cradle-to career-initiatives that empower rural leaders and communities to accelerate educational outcomes for all students.
What began as an initiative in one county now serves 50,000 young people a year across 31 counties in Appalachian Kentucky, in addition to working with communities in Arkansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Texas.
Today, PRI works in rural communities by
- Addressing the program gap found in rural places to ensure students have equitable access to resources,
- Building the capacity of rural schools and communities to be data-driven and equity-focused, and
- Aligning local, regional, and national systems to ensure student success.
This post is a part of the Breaking Barriers focus of our Amplifying Creative Opportunities newsletter. Read other Breaking Barriers-themed posts.
Here is a piece by Abigale Franco and Dr. Dennie Palmer Wolf titled “Youth Orchestras as Opportunity Structures” from our second issue.
