Tuesday, November 26, 1996
ARTS:
Mentor program gives at-risk children opportunity to succeedBy Daniel Jimenez
Daily Bruin Contributor
Ruben Guevara had not slept in three days. Greeting guests at the entrance of the Los Angeles Theater Sunday, only a faint semblance of exhaustion crossed his face as he answered questions and enthusiastically directed guests to various parts of the spacious room.
Guevara, a fourth-year world arts and culture student at UCLA, had worked too hard, and a lack of sleep would not thwart his efforts to direct the fourth annual Arts 4 City Youth festival.
"Ruben has been through so much, you don't even know," said Willie Loya, director of the Pico Rivera Center for the Arts and co-assistant director for the event.
Founded by Guevara in 1993, Arts 4 City Youth provides free art instruction through mentors for at-risk kids. This year's festival, funded by the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the world arts and culture department at UCLA, featured visual art exhibits and poetry readings by several disadvantaged students.
The students represented six housing projects and seven elementary schools in East Los Angeles, Downtown and the Pico Union, said Sarah Streng, co-assistant director of the festival.
The art display also included a small exhibit of paintings from three of the mentors. For Guevara, mentors are crucial for the long-term success both of the program and the students. "To keep the students interested and coming back, we are trying to develop a long-term and supportive relationship between the students and the mentors," Guevara said.
Admiring the work of his own students, Vincent Oliva, a mentor in the program and former UCLA student, stood in front of three muslin cloth banner paintings depicting Mayan warriors. Oliva knows from personal experience how crucial the role of a mentor is in a child's life.
"When I was growing up in Ontario, I wanted to do something more positive other than gang-banging," he said. "I was fortunate to have a mentor that gave me direction and allowed me to go to school and realize my dreams."
The muslin cloth paintings were part of a larger exhibit which some parents and guests viewed as a tangible representation of the students' hard work and affirmed the support of the mentors.
"Art is life, and you have to have people show up here and support the results and embodiment of the students' effort and hard work," said Jean Rebholz, a fourth-year world arts and culture student.
The young students themselves, accompanied by their parents and wearing beaming expressions of pride mixed with awe, are the ultimate concern of Guevara and the other festival participants.
"One of my long-term goals for the kids is to create a community of culturally sensitive artists and leaders to take us through the 21st century," Guevara said.
The importance of influencing the adult community by starting with young kids was not lost on other festival participants.
"Once the students' flexible minds are influenced or molded, this will be extended out to the parents, which is the core of learning. Through the children, the parents will become more involved," said Frances Awe, a graduate student in ethnomusicology and the main performer in the Nigerian Talking Drum Ensemble.
Other world dance and music performances throughout the day displayed a variety of colorful dance styles. Guevara felt that the solo Korean dance performed by Sen Hea Ha, a graduate student in the world arts and culture department, was a prime example of the cultural diversity displayed by the event.
"I have been in arts a long time, and I did not even know that Koreans had that style of dance or drums," he said.
Poetry readings preceded the multi-ethnic performances, featuring three elementary school-age students reading various poems describing their role as artists, their parents and their friends. In one poignant moment, a student reading a poem written in a letter form to her friend broke down in tears and could not finish her reading. The crowd was moved to silence.
Guevara said the readings expose and hopefully promote a multicultural identity. "By exposing kids to different art forms, I hope to create an inter-barrio dialogue," Guevara said.
GENEVIEVE LIANG
Catheleen Coreas, 12, shows her parents the Dia de los Muertos papier-mache skeletons that she and her brother made.