Hip-H’opera is a long-term project collaboration between Art Sanctuary and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. In 2007, the Opera Company approached Art Sanctuary with what started as a novel idea: create a project that allows young people to marry two completely disparate genres of music and watch “magic happen” as the youth redefine what both look like in their own terms. “Hip H’Opera: the Song Cycle” was born out of that spirit of innovation and collaboration and has since grown into the Hip-H’Opera project. In the last year we’ve worked with three Philadelphia high schools: Nueva Esperanza Charter School, Lincoln High School and Martin Luther King High School. Each school was assigned a teaching artist from Art Sanctuary and the Opera Company who conducted a series of workshops using the Hip-H’Opera learning guide that was developed with both organizations. The students, over an 18-week period, learned the history and aesthetics of hip-hop and opera, genres that use the human voice to tell profound stories. And, as a result, the students told their own stories using poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, capturing the their lives as they believe they need to be told – from their own voice. The result of the Hip-H’Opera project will be a full-length hip-hop Opera. The libretto will be completely informed by the writings from the students in phase one. During this next phase of the project, those students from the first phase who self select to participate will be part of the Hip-H’Opera Leadership Program. This is a smaller group of students who will meet once a month on a Saturday for a part-writing workshop and part-career shadowing experience. Our hope is to open the students to careers in the Arts to which they have never been exposed. They will meet costume designers, set designers, producers, writers, playwrights, editors, actors, singers, dancers, choreographers, composers, musicians and many more. The students will also follow the progress of the libretto for Hip-H’Opera and provide consultation and feedback for the composer and librettist, Daniel Bernard Roumain and Marc Bahmuthi Joseph, respectively. The final production is expected to premiere in Fall of 2013. Tarana J. Burke Managing Director Art Sanctuary 628 South 16th Street Philadelphia, PA 19146 tburke@artsanctuary.org 215-232-4485
www.artsanctuary.org
Innovation & Excellence: The Philadelphia Engagement Projects
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