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What\u27s News At Rhode Island College

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Rhode Island College 
Digital Commons @ RIC 
What's News? Newspapers 
3-29-1999 
What's News At Rhode Island College 
Rhode Island College 
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Pina, Tatiana

Rhode Island College
Digital Commons @ RIC
Rhode Island Training School Youth Program
5-20-1999
Young words of wisdom
Tatiana Pina
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CULTURE WATCH 
oung words of wisdom 
THURSDAY, iVIA i Lu, ] ;:~:;, J E9 
AS220 project takes teens from prison to poetry 
By TATIANA PINA 
Journal Staff Writer 
CRANSTON - Seventeen-
year-old Jonathan says that if he 
could have anything he would 
cure his mother's cancer, buy her 
a car and get her a license. 
The other part of his dream 
would be to get his two younger 
brothers out of the environment 
they're in so they don't end up in 
the Rhode Island Training School 
like him. 
In prison there are a lot of 
things that make him mad. Fellow 
inmates can provoke him; the 
guards tell him what to do. He 
doesn't want to end up like his dad 
and uncle in prison. He doesn't 
want to be poor. 
It makes him mad enough to 
take a swing at somebody ... but 
instead he grabs his pen and 
attacks a piece of paper. He writes 
about his life. 
"Poetry makes me happy 
when I feel sad or lonely," says 
Jonathan. "It has changed my life. 
After I write, you'll see me running 
to find Demian (Demian Yattaw, 
his poetry teacher) or I'll be calling 
my friends to see what they 
think." 
Muse Union 
The influence writing poetry 
has had on Jonathan and others at 
the training school inspired 
AS220, a Providence arts center, 
which has been working with the 
training school and Yattaw, to 
embark on a project called AS220 
Muse Union. 
The goal of the project is to 
give youths a place they can go to 
express their creative impulses, 
says AS220's Umberto Crenca. 
The program is timely, says Cren-
ca, given that the recent shootings 
in Colorado jarred the country into 
looking at youths and how to pro-
vide an environment they can feel 
apart of. 
For starters, AS220 will work 
with the training school, Mount 
Pleasant High School and the Met-
ropolitan School. Students in each 
will meet to set an agenda for the 
type of project they want -
Writing 
to escape 
Zak says he uses his poetry 
to escape the training school. 
He is there for stealing a car. 
He says his day at the training 
school starts a 6 a.m. When 
school gets out, the inmates 
have one hour to themselves. 
Zak uses this time to write 
poetry and read mystery nov-
els. 
"In here, you think about 
everything," Zak says. "Every 
noise can be heard here. If the 
neighbors have a dog and he 
barks I start to think about 
my cockatiels and all the 
noise they used to make. 
They used to wake me up and 
make me mad. Now I wish I 
could be there hearing them." 
recitals, theatrical presentations, 
dance, art exhibits or anything the 
students can come up with. 
"Everyone has a spark of cre-
ativity that has to come out in 
some form," Crenca says. "The 
hope is to allow the kids to express 
themselves in their own ways." 
Not all students excel in sports 
or academics, Crenca ~ys. "There 
exists a need to give students a 
new outlet to channel their cre-
ative energies and the need to 
make all people feel included." 
AS220 will provide a space for 
youths who have been released 
from the training school and who 
want to continue with poetry. 
Poetry reading 
Tonight from 5 to 9 AS220, 
115 Empire St., Providence, will 
sponsor IMPACT, a program of 
poetry by tbe training school stu-
dents. Those who have been 
released from the training school 
will recite their poetry. A book of 
250 poems written by the students 
will be made available to the pub-
lic. Poems by the students will be 
Rapping and raving 
Evan says that each time he sits down to write poetry, he thinks 
about the day he was arrested and how the police put handcuffs on 
him for bringing a weapon to school. He says he was already rap-
ping when he heard others raving about the poetry class and asked 
to join. 
Quickly he writes a poem about the chaos in Littleton, Colo .. 
Kaos 
In the kaos I blank out and open fire 
In the kaos I will be an outcast no more 
In the kaos I see friends and foes fall to the blood soaked floors 
In the kaos I load, aim and squeeze at all enemies 
In the kaos I feel no remorse for my actions 
In the kaos I close my eyes and feel no more distractions 
In the kaos time seems to stand still 
In the kaos I will continue this rage until my goal is fulfilled 
In the kaos I see my time is up now 
In the kaos I take my own life to be a part of the crowd 
An outlet for pent-up anger 
Mino, who is doing time for armed robbery says the poetry class 
has given him an outlet for his anger. "I have a lot of anger pent up 
in my head," he says. "I can let it out through poetry instead of tak-
ing it out on somebody." 
An excerpt from his daily writings: 
Bad memories flipping through my mind like a devil's photo 
album 
They tum off my light and I lay in my blue hard bed 
My eyes are getting heavy like miniature weights hang off them 
As I close my eyes, one final tear drops onto my soft white 
pillow 
Making a sound like a rain drop on a car window. 
on display, written in calligraphy 
by various local artists. 
Arlene Chorney, director of 
educational programming for the 
training school, says several stu-
dents who have been released 
from the training school asked to 
return to the poetry classes. 
"It's sad that they would want 
to return here because there is no 
, other place to go," she says. 
Crenca says the idea for the 
Muse Union came out of working 
with Yattaw and the kids at the 
training school .and a program 
AS220 does each month in which 
people from AS220 visit area 
schools to talk about the arts. 
"We were running this pro-
gram where we visit schools for a 
few minutes and talk about arts 
and then someone told us that 
seven kids had been released from 
the training school and had 
nowhere to go. That kind of put a 
reality check on things for us. We 
figured we could spend a couple of 
minutes with students or do some-
thing more permanent with them 
and substantive." 
J 


Young words of wisdom

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Susa, Connie

Rhode Island College
Digital Commons @ RIC
Rhode Island Training School Youth Program
10-1-1999
Projects Inspire Training School Students
Connie Susa
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• 
National Study Identifies Best Practices 
A cross case analysis recently published in 
Exceptional Children suggests that there 
may be a set of practices common to model 
transition programs throughout the 
country. 
Susan Brody Hasazi, Katherine S. Furney 
and Lizanne DeStefano investigated the 
implementation of transition mandates in 
the Individuals with Disabilities Educa-
tion Act (IDEA) at nine diverse sites. They 
recommend that educators and adminis-
• 
trators at every level may improve out-
comes for students if they adopt these six 
practices. 
1. Promote self-determination through 
instruction and student-centered planning. 
A distinctive feature of the model sites 
was their systematic approach to promot-
ing skills and beliefs related to self-
advocacy and self-determination. Using 
curricula specifically designed to teach 
self-determination skills and student 
leadership of planning meetings was key. 
(See articles introducing this concept to 
students on page 8 of this newsletter.) 
When used early and in combination with 
person-centered planning strategies 
designed to promote student and family 
participation, it was particularly effective. 
2. Develop sensitive approaches to inter-
See "Best Practices" on page 11. 
Projects Inspire Training School Students 
Arlene Chorney, principal of the Rhode 
Island Training School, recently said, "We 
give our students as wide a range of 
experiences as we can here because we 
hope to turn them on to education and 
learning." Several forms of artistic expres-
sion over the last two years have given the 
students at the youth correctional facility 
something concrete on which to rebuild 
their self-esteem as well as academics. 
One example is Impact, the book of poetry 
that they just published. Demian Yattaw 
began substitute teaching at the Training 
School shortly after he earned his master's 
degree in creative writing three years ago. 
As he recognized the raw emotion and 
honesty in the poetry his students wrote, 
he started an after school writing group. 
Yattaw uses a variety of methods to teach 
poetry, including single word exercises, 
repetition, journaling, the creative use of 
white space, observation, memory exer-
cises, free association and improvisation. 
In each, he pushes his students, more 
than half of whom have IEPs, to "exca-
vate the meaning of words." 
Ultimately, Yattaw edited their verses into 
a 171 page anthology, whose proceeds 
support additional project-based learning 
at the Training School. 
Calligraphers framed forty of the poems to 
display at AS220 on a recent gallery night. 
Members of the arts community also 
joined parents for an arts night at the 
Training School that included poetry 
readings, displays of visual arts and the 
performance of a short play, Everyman. 
Based on its success last year, Janet 
See Projects Inspire oli page 11. Univer~itf Affiliate~ ~ro~ram of Rl 
Projects Inspire 
Continued from page 1. 
Roderick directed another theater project at the Train-
ing School this year. She collaborated with youth 
worker, Anne Melville, who led a puppetry class in 
which the students crafted characters from the classic 
novel, Frankenstein. A Russian videographer, Andre 
Aloshine, filmed the production. 
The Training School is also one of three accredited 
schools to establish a ·chapter ofthe Muse Union. In 
fact, they hosted the first meeting in which students 
and staff from the Met School and Mount Pleasant High 
1"''-·"v'J' participated. Together with AS220 where the 
association of arts clubs emanated, they drafted a 
mission statement and constitution. 
TRi\NSITIONS 
Umberto Crenca, Director of AS220, is committed to the 
students. He teaches in an after school painting class. 
When the artists complete the course requirements, 
they receive a certificate from the Community College of 
Rhode Island. Seven of the youth who have been re-
leased have continued their poetry studies with Demian 
Yattaw at the Providence-based arts venue. 
The RI Council on the Arts has just awarded the Train-
ing School a grant to coordinate more project-based 
learning activities. "When people feel supported, they 
are willing to try new things and expand their ways of 
thinking," Chorney said, perhaps as much of the stu-
dents and her staff, as of herself. 
OcTOBER 1999 PAGE 11 


Projects Inspire Training School Students

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Staff Photographer

Rhode Island College
Digital Commons @ RIC
Broad Street Studio Youth Program
3-31-1999
Youth Arts Song and Dance
Staff Photographer
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INSIDE: Metro Neighborhoods C-4 • PENSIONS: Council forms study panel, assails bailout pl an I 
METRoEnmoN 
SERVING PROVIDENCE AND EAST PROVIDENCE 
Song and Dance 
Stepping up to the microphone to remix some of their 
favorite songs are Jasmyne Williams, Briana 
McDonald, Holly Fresneda and Gina Guinta, above 
from left, all fifth graders from the Sackett Street 
Middle School. The youngsters in Joe Auger's sound 
studio were taking part Monday in a program at AS220 
in Providence, 
which is part of 
the Youth Arts 
Conference. At \ 
right, lim 
O'Keefe works 
with student 
Mike Brown in 
his electronic · 
studio at AS220. 
And at left, fifth 
grader Franshely 
Alcanta stretches 
into a theatrical 
movement class. The Youth Arts Conference is sponc 
sored by AS220, Very Special Arts Rhode Island and 
the Providence School Department. 
Journal Photos by MICHAEL J. B. KELLY 


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