Central Park

The Daily Plant : Thursday, June 13, 2002

Congratulations Parks Graduates! Forty After-school Staff Complete New Training Series

In mid-March, the first drama class in a series of four took place at Carmine Recreation Center in the West Village. After-school staff from four boroughs met—some of them for the first time—and immediately set about the work of learning to teach drama. From instructor Rosemary Hochschild, they acquired an arsenal of drama games and also staged and rehearsed a short play. Today those class members are directing their own theatre pieces at the centers where they work. Lisa Henry and Nicole Steeley, after-school coordinators at Hamilton Fish Recreation Center, have already directed their first play, The Rosa Parks Story.

Over the course of a three-month training series, as many as forty after-school staff gained expertise in arts education and program management. They choreographed dances, manipulated plaster and clay, composed haiku and short stories, and studied problem-solving strategies under the tutelage of Rosemary Hochschild, Sarah Horowitz, Jennifer Jarrell, Heather Klein Abel, Kenya Lewis, Melanie Pappadis, Julia Schaffer, and Debbie Weiss. Additional training was provided by New York University’s award-winning Creative Arts Team (CAT). In April, Christopher Lyboldt, of CAT, offered a lively two-hour training in the use of drama to address social issues with children.

The after-school staff development series culminated in a banquet for participants and teachers. In a room decorated with children’s art and poetry as well as photographs of their dance and drama rehearsals, graduates received certificates of completion. Deputy Commissioner Kevin Jeffrey delivered a keynote address, urging graduates to remember that their work as sports and arts teachers provides a necessary social service, functioning as drug and violence prevention as well as education. After school lets out and before parents return home from work, children are at their most vulnerable. They are susceptible to a range of negative influences between the hours of 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. They turn to local parks and recreation centers for social and recreational enrichment. Following Commissioner Jeffrey, visual art consultant and instructor Jennifer Jarrell inspired guests with a description of the most sophisticated projects she’s undertaken at centers thus far. All five recreation chiefs, Mary Cali, Chris Clouden, Mike Dockett, Laura Gili, and Iris Rodriguez, awarded certificates and additional honors to after-school staff in their boroughs.

Parks’ after-school program serves 3,000 children at 29 locations, and every year the programming improves. The consultant initiative, through which teaching artists share their specialties with children, has expanded dramatically, from 3 consultants in 1999 to 38 in 2002. This training series marked an important step in the maturation of the after-school program.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the series and attended its final celebration. Thanks also to host recreation centers, Carmine, Hansborough, J. Hood Wright, St. John’s, and St. Mary’s. And congratulations to the graduates. From the Bronx, Lourdes Alfonso, Arlene Belton, Janeth Delgado, Carolina Frierson, Norma Llanos, Darlene Mitchell, Teresa Murrero, Yesenia Ortiz, Zakee Pickney, Fermine Prevost, Tuwanda Ruffin, and Tony Revelli completed coursework. From Brooklyn, Gladys Amaya, Denise Armour, Carmetter Caballero, Clarese Dawkins, Adrienne Johnson, Mitch Kyser, Tammy McKnight, Lizette Mendez, Ellis Mercer, Bernelle Mitchell, and LaVerne Torrance graduated. From Manhattan, Carolina Casierra, Camielle Griffith, Pearline Hanten, Lisa Henry, Felicia Johnson, Durice Jones, Sharon Mason, Ruth Mendin, Wanda Mojica, Carol Smith, Nicole Steeley, and Kerterra Williams graduated. Queens staff Andrea Kominski, Seamus Moloney, and Gigi Vaughan and Staten Island staff member Nicole McCombs also graduated from the series.

(Thursday, June 22, 1989)

Onstage, a tragic tale of love and war was unfolding. But offstage, the mood was festive, as thousands of New Yorkers picnicked on Central Park’s Great Lawn during Verdi’s opera "Il Trovatore" on the opening night of the 23rd Metropolitan Opera in the Park concert series.

This year, the Metropolitan Opera will offer Donizetti’s "Lucia di Lammermoor" as well as the Verdi opera set in 15th century Spain. Chemical Bank is sponsoring the series, offered in association with Parks and the Department of Cultural Affairs, for the 12th year.

"The land of faery,
Where nobody gets old and godly and grave,
Where nobody gets old and crafty and wise,
Where nobody gets old and bitter of tongue."

William Butler Yeats
(June 13, 1865–1939)

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center