A Westside Story: Through the Eyes of a Sandtown Child!

Guest Blog | Stacy Willyard, Theatremaker & Facilitator

Our new grants and mentoring scheme, KSF Artists of Choice, is open for applications from 1 – 29 May to UK and US artists across the disciplines of dance, theatre, musical theatre, music and film. Over the next few weeks, we will post guest blogs from some of our previous grant winners about how they used and were impacted by their KSF grant. 

Name | Stacy Anne Willyard 
Company name | New Song Community Learning Center, Baltimore City
Project name | A Westside Story: Through the Eyes of A Sandtown Child!
Year awarded KSF grant | 2014

Our KSF grant funded an experience, masked as summer camp. Twelve New Song Academy students entering the 6th-8th grade engaged in a week-long creative Forum Theatre workshop, (Forum Theatre is a Theatre of the Oppressed Technique used to inspire community dialogue around tough social issues; it’s all about the process). At the end of the camp we presented our piece, A Westside Story: Through the Eyes of a Sandtown Child. to parents, students, teachers, community leaders and neighbours. The performance was followed by an “inside the actor studio” style community dialogue. We then staged a day of neighbourhood clean-up on the block, connecting these young artists to the action of service as a final step of the process.

As an artist receiving a KSF grant further developed my inquiry-based creation process. As an educator it allowed me to teach peace & conflict, utilizing creative expression as a powerful teaching tool to embody new knowledge and then empower application. As a facilitator I was able to secure a space for young artists to dialogue with the languages of the theatre (image, movement, sound & word) and the resources to recruit professional hip hop artists to lead the journey to finding their own creative voices. As a trainer it allowed me to take the time to train accomplished artists I respect, “each one teach one” training them in the theory and processes of conflict transformation. My hope was to contribute to the development of local artists in Baltimore who serve as youth workers.

This project was a testament to theory in practice, a culmination of four years with a set of students building an understanding of the possibilities of theatre. Personally, it was a moment of pride, seeing what my students were capable of expressing as ambassadors to their communities stories.

Currently, I am looking for funding to keep this summer camp tradition alive. The community of Sandtown West, Baltimore has been ground zero to the recent police brutality tragedy in the United States. The community is currently in the midst of movement as conflicts, decades old, that the youth endure, have arrived at a tipping point. Emotions both destructive and productive have surfaced and, with proper attention, I believe we are in the midst of a moment where honest transformative growth can occur. My wish is to use theatre to nurture transformation this year.

I highly recommend artists from all walks of life to apply for KSF Artists of Choice. The Foundation values creative voices, investing in their contribution and development. I hold a tremendous amount of gratitude to Kevin Spacey himself and his whole team at the Foundation for providing me support, allowing all involved in my project to have such a meaningful experience.

I also want to  shout out to all of the teaching artists, activists & peacemakers out there working in communities where funding for the arts is always a struggle. Continue to find ways to do the work because this service matters and the impact it provides is real!

Read more about Stacy Willyard and her work in Sandtown, Baltimore here.