ARTIST: ARISE ENSEMBLE

ARISE, which stands for African Americans Renewing Interest in Spirituals Ensemble performs African American music and stories. This presentation performed at The Kansas African American Museum begins with Harriet Tubman appearing, announcing her return through the annals of time to speak to today’s generations. After her speech, she introduces ARISE who enter singing one of the songs from the Underground Railroad (UGRR). Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Cried and I Cried, Steal Away and Wade in the Water, songs that Harriet Tubman cited as having been used to facilitate escape through UGRR, will be highlighted and taught, including the stories behind them.

GRADES: 1-12
COST: $900 per school
DELIVERY: Pre-recorded, 45 minutes

Standards Alignment: SECD: Self Awareness, Social Awareness, Self-Management

Grade Band Workshops

ARTIST: Sydney Lenox-Barkus

Join Mrs. Lenox-Barkus at The Kansas African-American Art Museum to discuss the history of quilt codes used during the Underground Railroad. Inspired the quilt “We Be Like Trees” by African American textile artist Anita Holman Knox, students will create their own coded quilt square as part of a class quilt project.

GRADES: K-5 (2 versions available, K-2 and 2-5)
COST: $85 per class
DELIVERY: Pre-recorded, 30 minutes

Standards Alignment: SECD: Social Awareness, Responsible Decision-Making

ARTIST: ARISE ENSEMBLE

ARISE, which stands for African Americans Renewing Interest in Spirituals Ensemble performs African American music and stories. This uplifting performance at The Ulrich Museum includes storytelling and choral music of Spirituals and the Civil Rights movement. Students will learn about Gordon Parks and the challenges he faced and know that the spirit of Gordon Parks — the drive to overcome — is in all of us.

GRADES: 1-12 
COST: $900 per school
DELIVERY: Pre-recorded, 45 minutes

Standards Alignment: SECD: Self Awareness, Social Awareness, Self-Management

Grade Band Workshops

ARTIST: Hugo Zelada-Romero

“See like Gordon” is a two-part series that includes a pre-recorded virtual tour of The Ulrich Museum’s Gordon Parks Exhibit and a live-streaming photography class with professional photographer, Hugo Zelada-Romero. The mission of this course is to teach students how to see people in the way that Gordon Parks did, with empathy, compassion, and an eye for bringing out the truth and humanity of his sitters through his camera. Students will be led into finding and making the most of any lighting situation to create dramatic and impactful portraits. Students will practice composition and posing their classmates in various ways to communicate, happiness, shyness, sadness, joy, all in an effort to identify emotions in themselves and others. Work created by students will be shared as an online or in person exhibition. Any camera can be used to make excellent pictures of our neighbors, family and friends. This course will inspire students to “see like Gordon” and bring out the best in ourselves and each other.

GRADES:  3-12 
COST: 2 sessions $209 per class (The program includes a planning meeting and 2 sessions with the same group of students.)
DELIVERY: Pre-recorded and Live Streaming, 40 minutes

Standards Alignment: SECD: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Self-Management, Responsible Decision-making

Grade Wide Performance

ARTIST: Roy Moye III

A STEMusic concert is an experience that will energize students and inspire them to think about a journey in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. This is a concert full of singing, chanting, rapping, and of course, dancing! Students will have the opportunity to learn about multiple STEM topics and even learn new vocabulary terms. At the end of each conert, students will have a chance to join the STEMusic Nation by answering questions about what they learned. Don’t hesitate to provide your students with an unforgettable and highly musical STEM immersion experience!

GRADES: 3-5 
COST: $286 per grade
DELIVERY: Live Streaming or In-Person, 45 minutes

Standards Alignment: SECD: Self Awareness, Social Awareness, Self-Management

Grade Band Workshops

ARTIST: Brittany Marie Thompson

This 4-part program will teach students the importance of stepping and strolling. Using their feet, hands, voice, and vocal clarity, students will make uplifting rhythms and cadences that reinforce social emotional learning skills and positive affirmations. Stepping originated in South Africa and was originally called Gumboot dancing. Strolling is a synchronized dance that uses unique motions that convey self-expression. Students that participate in this program will learn the importance of teamwork, unity, sisterhood/brotherhood, discipline, self-determination and camaraderie.

GRADES:  3-8 
COST: 4 sessions $379 per class (The program includes a planning meeting and multiple sessions with the same group of students.)
DELIVERY: Pre-recorded and Live Streaming, 40 minutes

Standards Alignment: SECD: Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Self-Management

Grade Band Workshops

ARTIST: Storytime Village

In this program, students will join Storytime Village’s puppet characters Leroy and Bella as they take a look back in time to the Civil Rights movement in Wichita, KS. At that time, there was a young man named Ron Walters who had a dream of living in a place where he was treated fairly and equally, but he couldn’t even eat at a lunch counter because of the color of his skin. Through conversation with Priscella Brown, illustrator of the children’s book People, Pride, and Promise: The Story of the Dockum Sit-In, Leroy and Bella discover the importance of imagery in the Civil Rights movement and talk about how Ron Walters and his companions had to overcome much adversity in order to change history. This program brings a historical narrative to life and poses the question: “what do we do when we look around at a picture that we’re not a part of—how do we put ourselves in that picture?”

GRADES:  2-5 
COST: $286 per grade
DELIVERY: Pre-recorded, 45 minutes

Standards Alignment: SECD: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Self-Management, Responsible Decision-making

Grade Band Workshops

ARTIST: Rob Simon

This performance explores the relationships between Feelings, Actions, and Thoughts (F.A.T.) within the internal environment of the individual, and in social interactions between people. Participants are encouraged to examine how each of these decidedly human characteristics influence each other in a never-ending dynamic, and how the dynamic influences relationships with others and the relationship we have with ourselves. The most important learning, however, is that the outcomes from the interplay between feelings, actions and thoughts can be positively influenced by learning and choosing to better control one or more of the three separate characteristics. Different versions of this program are available for the following grade levels: K-2nd, 3rd-5th, 6th-8th, 9th-12th.

GRADES: 1-12
COST: $286 per grade
DELIVERY: Pre-recorded, Live Streaming or In-Person, 45 minutes

Standards Alignment: SECD: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Self-Management, Responsible Decision-making

Grade Band Workshops

ARTIST: Rob Simon

This presentation addresses the relationship between positive thinking/action and positive results, and is a solid approach to developing a healthy self-worth. The root of the title is well-expressed by a few well-known aphorisms. Both Mark Twain and Henry Ford are quoted as having said “If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you are probably right.” Tony Robbins and Richard Bach both say, “You make your own reality.” And Solomon, said to be one of the wisest people who ever lived, reportedly taught, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” The presenter makes a case for developing a stronger sense of self within all relationships by consciously and deliberately shaping the way one thinks. Different versions of this program are available for the following grade levels: K-2nd, 3rd-5th, 6th-8th, 9th-12th.

GRADES: 1-12
COST: $286 per grade
DELIVERY: Pre-recorded, Live Streaming or In-Person, 45 minutes

Standards Alignment: SECD: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Self-Management, Responsible Decision-making

Grade Band Workshops

ARTIST: Rob Simon

“Music With A Message” is a deliberately broad subject because it emphasizes music as a vehicle for helping to deliver practically ANY important personal, social, institutional and/or even generically political messages to an audience. These could include messages from school mottos, slogans, mission statements, monthly focus points, or any other desired areas or topics – no matter how unique – as long as the artist is given enough lead time to shape an approach to emphasizing your chosen message with stories, illustrations, and songs from the public domain, radio airplay, or the artist’s original repertoire. Different versions of this program are available for the following grade levels: K-2nd, 3rd-5th, 6th-8th, 9th-12th, and for adult learners.

GRADES: 1-12
COST: $286 per grade
DELIVERY: Pre-recorded, Live Streaming or In-Person, 45 minutes

Standards Alignment: SECD: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Self-Management, Responsible Decision-making