Education Initiatives

Education: Youth Arts Workshops

Marafiki Arts has produced a series of hands-on workshops for youth in North and West Philadelphia that combine teen discussions, video documenting, silkscreen printing, entrepreneurship and exhibitions. By creating a forum for teen expression, this initiative addresses contemporary issues that challenge teens, helps us to gain an accurate and realistic understanding of teen culture, and helps teens learn from traditional African textiles. The teen discussions are video recorded, transcribed, visually interpreted into images, and pared down to essential messages. These messages are retold through video documentary, silkscreen-printed media and an exhibition to interpret teen issues and values for the community. Our use of traditional African textiles in these workshops serves as a vehicle for gaining insight and perspective into youth culture while fostering creativity and entrepreneurship.


Mill Creek Community Partnership

Marafiki Arts has partnered with MCCP to provide hands-on workshops on textile printing and dyeing. Marafiki worked with Mill Creek Community partnerships on several projects through “Fine Art Through Our Eyes” young artist workshops. Over the past several years, Marafiki has offered specialized workshops devoted to printing and dyeing. Marafiki has given students a strong knowledge base in textile design and in how partnering organizations can achieve the goals of making art, culture and history accessible to youth and their community. Last fall, teens from the Mill Creek Community participated in textile design and entrepreneurship workshops at the Mill Creek Center. They developed designs for “kangas,” East African pieces of cloth used to send messages that address social, family, economic and political issues.


Kensington Neighborhood Advisory Council

Marafiki Arts partnered with KNAC in a series of workshops held at the Crane Arts Center in 2008-9. A facilitator from Random Acts of Theater assisted the students in writing “messages for change” to be printed on kangas. The messages focused on neighborhood issues, including drugs, violence and pollution. Marafiki Arts staff worked with students to design images for the messages and to then screen-print the designs onto the kangas. DZIFA Mass Dance Theater collaborated with students to create a music and movement presentation for the community, family and friends on December 19, 2008. The exhibition was photographed and shown as a slide presentation projected onto the exterior wall of the Crane Arts building in Spring 2009. Crane Arts generously donated the space for the workshops and the final presentation.