Passport ATX: A Cultural Arts Passport for the City of Austin

Be a Better Tech Parent

2009-12-17T17:52:00.001-08:00

Be a Better Tech Parent

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Decision Making Becomes the Newest Life Science | Edutopia

2009-12-16T11:49:00.000-08:00

Decision Making Becomes the Newest Life Science | Edutopia

The Lost Generation?

2009-10-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

The "Lost Generation" is Business Week is calling the younger Americans, shut out of economic opportunities. I think about how a cultural passport could provide access to job training as well as alternative economic opportunities. Kids still have to eat, have fun, and see new things, whether there's money or not.

Evolving perspectives on corrections and the youth (in)justice system

2009-10-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

Most people admit that the youth criminal justice system is broken. However, there are few leaders willing to pay attention to this issue and a lack of willingness to design and implement new solutions to creating a way out for youth in prison.

I was excited to see this article published on The Root about how there is a growing bipartisan movement to end life sentencing for nonviolent youth offenders which is making its way to the US Supreme Court.

http://www.theroot.com/views/former-republican-senator-and-charles-roc-dutton-want-no-more-life-prison-teenagers

The passport project is relevant here as part of an alternative sentencing plan to youth offenders / ex-offenders. The youth would pass through a comprehensive "cultural boot camp" where they learn how to use the Passport and navigate the cultural network, from using Google Maps to locate destinations and plot bus schedules and maps, to documenting their visits with text, pictures and digital video. Then, they would be assigned a regimen of visits followed up by online learning activities, and would document their visits in the form of a product such as a web page, blog, song, article, photo essay, or video.

This use of the passport would create channels which currently don't exist for youth to visit and develop an understanding of the cultural sites and activities in the city. The passport would allow them the opportunities to expand their horizons and redraw their maps of the city to include more nourishing, socially positive destinations where they can interact with like-minded peers as well as educators and mentors.

Moving Forward

2009-10-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

It's October 2009 and the project is moving forward. I wish I could say by leaps and bounds, but there are only so many hours in each day to dedicate to this when I have to pay the bills as a musician and grad student.

This past week was a shot in the arm to the project in many ways. I was invited to be a panelist a the Future of Music Coalition annual summit at Georgetown University. There, over the course of three days and several panels, the co-panelists, discussed, explained, and sometimes bickered over media issues, digital technology, livelihood for musicians, arts education, among many other themes.

I was asked to share this idea during the final session of the conference, and was pleasantly surprised to be approached from several people across disciplines from academic to arts management to youth hip-hop educators who wanted to plug-in in some way.

I am anxious to network and study other models and see what elements make them work, and how we might be able to incorporate their strategies into achieving our objectives: to repurpose and expand access to technology, mass transit, and the arts to benefit youth development and achievement.

Youth and good food: Successful models

2008-10-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

Passport:ATX is designed to be a holistic program. In designing it we want to create avenues to nourish the mind, spirit, and body.

Here are three links to organizations/movements that are influencing the design and theory behind Passport:ATX as far as youth, food, and access to resources. We look forward to linking Austin's youth to their work:

1. Eco-soul chef Bryant Terry

Bryant Terry brings you the best familiar food, but prepared in a way that will truly nourish you in fresh, local, sustainable ways.

He is the author of two books, can be seen on TV, and on the radio. Follow this LINK to hear a recent interview with him on NPR talking about food issues and his upcoming book "Vegan Soul Kitchen."

2. Urban Roots: Congratulations on the harvest!
Austin's Urban Roots is an up-and-coming project teaching urban youth farming, marketing, and cooking skills. They had an amazing harvest this year and much to celebrate. Check this story in the Austin Chronicle 10/2/08.

3. Will Allen: Urban Farmer wins MacArthur Fellowship
Congratulations to Will Allen and Growing Power in Milwaukee Wisconsin for their success in creating a model for large-scale community-based urban organic food production. Mr. Allen stresses that tomorrow's solutions to food problems can and must come from our youth.

In Austin, Passport:ATX will connect youth to urban agriculture projects such as Urban Roots, Quilombo Gardens, Rhizome Collective, and others.

Presentation Video in the Works!

2008-09-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

The new Passport:ATX presentation 1.0 is in the works. This presentation was jump-started by one of my first assignments in the Masters program in Educational Technology at UT-Brownsville. In the class, I am using Powerpoint and Keynote for Mac and getting to apply the skills that I already have in web design and photoshop to work on the Passport presentation.

This new presentation will help potential partners and participants to better visualize the scope and possibilities of this Passport:ATX and hopefully invite more support and collaboration.

Back To School!

2008-08-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

It's official! Starting tomorrow, August 20, I begin a the program for a Master's Degree in Educational Technology at University of Texas-Brownsville.

I hope that this program will give me a better idea of how to design elements of the online website for Passport:ATX and to link me up with mentors and collaborators working in the fields of educational technology.

I am continuing to work on arranging meetings with Austin collaborators and applying for grants. The next one is A Glimmer of Hope (trying for the 3rd time! 9/30/08 deadline), as well as Echoing Green (December 2008 deadline for first round).

Steps forward! A meeting with Councilman Mike Martinez

2008-06-04T14:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to City Hall and met with Councilman Mike Martinez. I had not been to the new Austin City Hall building and it is pretty amazing. It incorporates lots of natural features (local limestone, plants, rain collection, passive solar) and is a refreshing place to visit and work.

The meeting was encouraging. Councilmember Martinez and I brainstormed a bit and he was very much into tying cool volunteer service projects into the card (like repainting the Cesar Chavez mural on South First Street), offered some good feedback, suggestions, and contacts of colleagues that can help move the project forward.

Adelante.

Summer 2008: Status Update

2008-05-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

In the midst of preparing to get married, I offer these reflecting a lot on the present status of the project.

We received a call from the office of City Councilmember Mike Martinez, and have a meeting scheduled for the first week in June. Exciting stuff, and it brings the sweetness of possibility to the idea in the moment when disappointing news came back from all three grant applications.

A project of this nature and scale will only be possible with help and collaboration from a lot more people and institutions, and will most likely take longer than I hoped to get it running.

Patience.

DONATE ONLINE!

2008-03-31T16:41:00.001-07:00

You can now donate to Passport:ATX online!

We're getting our individual donor letters out this week and have also added a permanent button to the sidebar on the right side. Clicking on this button takes you to Justgive.org, a service that verifies, processes, and manages credit-card transactions to non-profits.

As a processing fee, they'll take 3% of the donation, which is very reasonable considering the quality, security, and accounting they provide for every transaction made to every non-profit.

A Glimmer of Hope Grant turned in

2008-03-31T14:23:00.000-07:00

At approximately 3PM today, March 31st, I turned in a grant application to A Glimmer of Hope Foundation. They have four funding cycles per year, which is pretty impressive for a foundation. I had submitted a proposal to them back in January, which was rejected, but with much positive encouragement.

I tightened up our budget and made some notes that make everything a little bit easier to understand. One of the difficult things at this point in our evolution is how to document all the free access/rides/programming that will be offered to youth participating in the program and figure out how to show that in the budget along with all the other donations and in-kind contributions.

To the project narrative, I added some key updates which demonstrate that the project is much further along than it was back in January. A few other letters of recommendation had arrived since then, so I included them in the packet as well.

Time to light the candles and pray...

Arthouse is on board!

2008-03-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, Chale Nafus, member of the Passport:ATX advisory board took me to Arthouse at the Jones Center to meet executive director Sue Graze. We got to speak at length about Passport:ATX, existing youth programming that they're doing, and an expansion to the museum that would triple its size beginning in January 2009.

I also got to show them pictures of my home garden, inspired by an Arthouse exhibition last month by Fritz Haeg entitled "Edible Estates:Attack on the Front Lawn."

The verdict: They're in! Welcome aboard, Arthouse!

Meeting: CIS and Austin Voices for Youth in Education

2008-02-12T13:31:00.000-08:00

This morning I met up with Tim Eubanks of Austin Voices for Youth in Education and Emily Bessey, of Communities in Schools to present the Passport:ATX concept and to see how we might collaborate.

It was a great meeting. CIS has a presence in 13 area high schools and does case work for as many as 100 students in each school. Ms. Bessey was into the idea and felt that it would definitely benefit youth that she works with. Our next step is to lock down a date for a lunchtime focus group with youth, the first one to be held at Reagan HS in Northeast Austin.

Ransome Center Rules!

2008-02-12T13:20:00.000-08:00

In keeping up with my research for Passport:ATX--regular visits of the museums and cultural institutions in Austin--I made a visit to the Ransome Center on 21st and Guadalupe, right at the corner of the U.T. campus.

The current exhibit is a combination of a retrospective of Jess, a San Francisco-based visual artist who was one of the first modern artists to put develop collage, not only of images but of text. The huge collection of Jess's paintings, posters, collages, and books was accompanied by a retrospective of the Beat Generation, a visual/musical/poetic/cultural movement that took place in the 50s and 60s where jazz, drugs, civil rights, travel, and freedom began rebelling against established US white cultural norms and started to establish a new aesthetic.

The exhibition was great...so great that my head started to spin and I had to come outside for fresh air...so much information and beauty and history!

I will have to come back another time and take deeper looks at everything I skimmed over. The exhibition is up until August 3.

Also of interest. In the lobby of the Ransome Center there is a Gutenberg bible on display, a copy of published sometime in the 1450s, and only one of five complete copies in the US and 41 worldwide. It was in Latin, and in a Northern European script that was hard to read. Every three months they turn the pages so as not to damage the spine. Also on permanent display is the first photograph ever taken! It's actually a heliograph, from France, from the 1820s. It's not much to look at, literally, as the image is very dim and hard to make out, but what it represents is revolutionary in so many ways...

Free Public Transit

2008-02-11T22:16:00.001-08:00

Success stories worldwide of free public transit.

If these cities can do it, why can't Austin?

Echoing Green grant Phase II grant submitted.

2008-02-11T22:14:00.000-08:00

After weeks of work, stress, worrying, critical thought, and revisions, the Echoing Green phase II grant was submitted today. Notification is April 4.

Trip Report: AMOA and Arthouse

2008-02-05T04:33:00.001-08:00

Getting into the spirit of the project, I visited two downtown museums last Tuesday: Arthouse and Austin Museum of Art (Downtown).

The Austin Museum of Art featured an exhibition by Roy Lichtenstein, spanning his career from 1950s to the present, and while it was not massive, it showed his immense influence on art and graphic design and the blurring of those worlds. Tuesday suggested admission is $1.

The trip Arthouse changed my life! The current exhibit is called Fritz Haeg: Attack on the Front Lawn. Fritz Haeg is an architect and gardener whose current work involved taking public spaces and figuring out how people can grow delicious food on them in beautiful and stylish ways. The process of design and building brings many people together from the community, and the result is neighbors getting to know each other and work together while growing their own delicious organic fruits and vegetables.

I have been wanting to get deeper into gardening in Austin since I moved here from the concrete jungles of North Brooklyn two years ago. The visit was the catalyst in me tearing up my own patchy front lawn and putting in vegetable beds. I'm already feeling the positive results making friends with several neighbors I've only known in passing, and seeing other friends who pass by on bikes or in cars.

The other cool thing about Arthouse is that it's always free.

Back to School: Social Entrepreneurship at University of Texas

2008-01-31T23:13:00.001-08:00

My partner Courtney Morris and I are enrolled in a social innovations course at the University of Texas, offered through the LBJ School of Public Policy and sponsored by the RGK Institute for Philanthropy and Public Affairs. We're two weeks deep and the class is giving me a lot of critical insight into the development of Passport:ATX and the nonprofit world in general, which is quite a bit different from the music/entertainment industry that I've been navigating for the past twelve years.

There are about 17 students in the class, all with some great ideas and serious motivation. The class is taught by seasoned pros and the readings are very good. I especially like the case studies that we've been reading. Last week we compared two non-profits: the WEF (World Economic Forum) and the Aravind Eye Institute.

This week, we focused on the idea of a mission, and drafting the mission statement. The one I had been working with so far (and have submitted to two granting institutions) is:

The mission of Passport: ATX is to connect youth to culture and to partner Austin’s technological, transportation, and civic and cultural institutions as a collaborative partners in a community education network.

For this week's class exercise, I was inspired by Peter Drucker's exhortation to "make it fit on a t-shirt" and I decided to try out with this nine-word mission:

"Community mobilizing and empowering youth through the arts and technology"

Reflecting on the latter mission statement, it's a lot more vague, and centers on ideas of community-based arts education stuff. I think the first one would have gone over better with the workshop group and is better in general. It is more descriptive and dynamic, despite being a mouthful and not reading well on a t-shirt. I need to figure out at one point in the basic framework whether to work in the scalability (i.e. we can connect 40 to 40,000 students) and exportability (after incubating the concept in Austin, we can consider applying this model to Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles).

We also discussed old school vs. new school mission statements. Older school ones tended not to have values statements embedded into them, and tended to be shorter, more vague. Newer ones had all types of combinations of the mission (the lofty, inspirational) and operational mission: brief description of HOW this mission might be achieved.

I need to figure out how to make or embed the following point early on: Mass transit, libraries, and museums are stuff that the public has already paid for. When many American students are stuck in substandard schools suffering from massive funding cuts in arts and culture, why shouldn't we put to good use the best of what our cities already have to offer to meet the needs of our youth?

Website up, under construction

2008-01-31T23:11:00.000-08:00

The passportatx.org website has been reserved and paid for! We better get this thing off the ground. For the time being, the blog will serve as the interim website, giving friends and community a behind-the-scenes peek at what this venture looks like.

Enjoy the ride!

Passport:ATX An Introduction

2008-01-17T21:43:00.000-08:00

Describe your organization’s Mission, History and Purpose.

The mission of Passport: ATX is to connect youth to culture and to partner Austin’s technological, transportation, and civic and cultural institutions as a collaborative partners in a community education network.

We are a new organization, building on work done by our sponsoring non-profit, Cimarron: Youth Building community.

The purpose of Passport:ATX is to empower youth to develop skills for mobility, literacy, and social capital and to participate fully in the cultural life of the city.

We believe that a cooperative, multi-faceted effort is needed to make accessible Austin’s cultural resources to youth in all areas the city, particularly in areas suffering from poverty and social exclusion. Making this connection is vital to the survival of the youth, the institutions, and the city as a whole.

Narrative and Project Design: State the concept, goals and objectives for the project. Describe what’s unique and innovative about the project. What is the target demographic for the project?

The concept is to facilitate a collaboration in a community-based learning initiative that weaves together the public libraries, CapMetro bus/rail system, school district, police, public health agencies, museum consortium, parks, local businesses, volunteer service opportunities, and other non-profits serving youth. Passport:ATX is the vehicle through which youth navigate this network.

Youth apply and receive a passport-style booklet that they travel with through the city. Upon visiting a site, their passports are stamped and the trip is logged. A record of each trip is then uploaded to our database.

Data collected about each passport visit serves the following functions: 1) for institutions to assess youth participation and 2) to provide youth a way to build their own positive “social credit record”; 3) as a tool for parents, caregivers, and teachers to better guide and direct the youth.

Online via a Myspace/Facebook-styled website, youth can blog about their journeys, offering feedback both to the partner institutions and to each other, building friendships with youth across the city with whom they share common interests.

Passport:ATX targets low-income immigrant youth and youth of color living on the urban periphery. The program is scalable and we aim to eventually implement it to youth city-wide.