Create West Virginia diversity team member, Crystal Good, recently traveled to NYC to develop a relationship between Create West Virginia and The Arts Horizons LeRoy Neiman Art Center (The Center).Good along with The Center director, Clayton Evans, are seeking a partnership that will bridge the space and perceived differences of youth in Rand, WV and Harlem NY.
This project called The Block: An Urban to Rural Youth Connection will use the internet, video, community service, poetry and 2-D collage to help youth reflect on who they are, where they live and where they would like to be. In sharing this with peers from their community and with peers between WV and NY participants will have a better idea of the resources that are available to them to fulfill their dreams. The Block gets its name from the famous collage/painting by the African-American artist—Romare Bearden.
“The Block is not only a project about valuing where you are from but its about economic development” said Good, “This project is about building a rural/ urban template that can be used to teach 21st century learning skills to youth, families and communities through the internet and technology. In essence The Block is about developing valuable virtual social skills that are such an important part of business in the creative economy.”
Good seeks to connect peer groups from typically contrasting environments (urban to rural; urban to suburban) in order to create a fertile exchange and recognition of differences and similarities. She feels this is just one way to infuse and embrace diversity while challenge the perceptions of an “all white” West Virginia.
Former WVU and Pittsburg Steelers player Amos Zeroue knows first hand how these types of exchanges can influence. Zeroue, whose childhood was spent in West Africa and urban NY came to WV and discovered a gentle balance and blending of cultures that has influenced his current career choice as restaurant proprietor and chef at his restaurant Zeroue’s in NYC.
Good hosted a conversation about The Block project project at Zeroues restaurant. Mr. Zeroue is excited to support the project. Other tentative supporters include American Airlines who recently launched their own rural urban connection with direct flights from Charleston, WV to NYC, The Affrilachain Poets, Covenant House, Clay Center and the Rand Caring Education Association, Inc.
For more information contact Crystal Good at [email protected] or Clayton Evans and [email protected].
The Arts Horizons LeRoy Neiman Art Center (The Center) is a new Arts Horizons program located at 2785 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, near 148th St. The Center, which opened in June 2008, is becoming an integral resource in the central Harlem community. The Center was made possible through a generous gift from the renowned painter, LeRoy Neiman.