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| Welcome to Cafe Cultura's May 2015 newsletter! We are excited to keep in touch with you as we work to fulfill our mission. #CafeCultura #XpressYourself #TellingOurStories |
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| Café Cultura is an award-winning arts, culture, and youth development organization that promotes unity and healing among Indigenous peoples through creative expression while empowering youth to find their voice, reclaim oral and written traditions, and become leaders in their communities. |
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Cafe Cultura's Open Mic
w/ spoken word, music, art, & community!
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Spread the word...Bring your family & friends!!!!! VOLUNTEERS PLEASE ARRIVE AT 6pm :-) Note: Make sure to come early to sign up and get a good seat.
WHAT: All ages open mic (alcohol/drug free event)
WHEN: 2nd Fri. of every month....May 8th; June 12th (Art in the Park @ La Alma/Lincoln Park Amphitheater)
--->Doors open w/ Vendors, Food, & Live Art @ 7pm --->Show starts @ 7:45pm
WHERE: Denver Inner City Parish/La Academia (9th Ave & Galapago St)
$3 (nobody turned away)
Everyone is welcome!
Featured performers:
---->Night Oblivion is a drum & dance company made up of elementary school students from SOAR Charter Elementary, located in far northeast Denver. These highly advanced 8-11 year old children perform traditional music from Guinea and Mali, West Africa. They have been featured in the Westword Magazine, have received City Wide Honor for music and have performed for/with Cleo Parker Robinson dance company, Angela Davis, Mayor Hancock, and the Black Arts Festival.
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Black Actors Guild
: Started in 2009 five African-American students from Denver, CO, the Black Actors Guild is now a multicultural and diverse group of artists with the vision of crafting original, engaging content. Our artists are professionals who spend their days making at that provides a one of kind experience in the realms of education and production.
Community Feature:
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The Woodbine Ecology Center
is a unique educational center that offers courses, workshops, and events. At Woodbine, we come together, people and communities from varied backgrounds and histories, to address the fundamental social and ecological issues of our times. By promoting and integrating indigenous values and sustainable community we seek to re-establish our balance in the circle of life.
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| ---->Art by David Ocelotl Garcia is a Mexican artist who expresses himself through many mediums, including sculpture, painting, music and dance. His work is culturally diverse and inspired by tradition, history, nature, balance and everyday life. "My art is the evolution of my past reflections of the future." He has been featured in the Westword and El Semanario. www.ocelotlart.com
#CafeCultura #XpressYourself #TellingOurStories
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We continue working with our partners to allow youth participants opportunities to express themselves and tell their stories through the publishing of books and coordinating showcases. They currently include Heart & Hand, Contemporary Learning Academy, and Escuela Tlatelolco.
Here are a few excerpts from poems participants are currently writing:
"I will always remember the bright light
Illuminating your soul,
so passionate,
so proud.
The wind whips our hair
and fishing lines
while our skin bumps
from the early mountain air.
You're not remembered as a cancer patient,
but as the star who made me smile.
Your strength pushes me
to keep pursuing my dreams
when I want to give up and cry.
What I do,
I do is for you."
-CLA student (age 16)
"The words I hear from others
are becoming my worst enemies.
As I walk to the stage,
I talk louder,
so I get the strength
to push away the pressure.
"You can do it."
I see my family
and my people
in the audience
cheering me on.
They want me to do my best.
I stand with confidence
looking toward my future."
-Heart & Hand participant (age 10)
"I come from a place
where I feel more freedom
than in the "land of the free."
For once,
I do not feel big brother
watching over my shoulders.
I will always remember my roots
and hold my pride up high.
I am thankful to come from a paradise,
where trees stand tall and green,
full of land and potential
for a better future.
I run free
hoping to stay for a lifetime.
"
-CLA student (age 16)
We are excited to make our recent youth-written books available online. To access each collection of powerful spoken word poetry from participants in our workshop series, simply click on the book cover.
Make sure to read future newsletters for more updates.
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We are running to
empower you
th in finding their voice through Cafe Cultura's "Telling Our Stories" spoken word workshop series (publication of books & community showcases from participants); donations are tax-deductible.
Supporters of Cafe Cultura are running in the Colfax Marathon on May 17 to fundraise for our increased work in the community...specifically to conduct more spoken word workshops for youth.
Help fund our workshops and support young people in telling their stories!
(visit
issuu.com/cafecultura/docs/la_academia_speaks_vol_2_online
for an example of what the students produce)
Community members have said:
"They [Cafe Cultura] provide a format for youth to express themselves in a positive, creative manner...inspiring words of the next generation of Native Youth."
"My most memorable moment was going to a workshop...and finding something I didn't know I had inside."
You can also send a check to:
Cafe Cultura
1029 Santa Fe Dr
Denver, CO 80204
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Thank You Dinner
May 16th @ 5:30pm...1029 Santa Fe Dr
We would like to invite you (yes, you) to join us for an appreciation dinner for those who have supported Cafe Cultura in some way. If you have volunteered, spoke highly of us in the community, donated money, participated in a workshop, ran (or will run) in the Colfax Marathon, attended one of our events, connected us with resources/people, read during an open mic, or even shared our status update, please make plans to eat with us.
We will share some positive energy with our runners. The majority will be up very early on Sunday to run in the Colfax Marathon.
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Cirque du Soleil
Benefit Performance for Cafe Cultura
 
We are honored to work with Cirque du Soleil in hosting a benefit performance to support our Telling Our Stories workshop series. Tickets are now for sale for 2 Thursday 7:30pm shows: June 25 and July 23.
For information about the show and to purchase tickets, simply visit
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| Contact Information |
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Cafe Cultura
P.O. Box 11791
Denver, CO 80211
Office: 1029 Santa Fe Dr Unit #6
Hours: Mon-Thurs from 9am to 2:00pm
Fri from 9am to 5pm
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Make a one-time or monthly donation to Cafe Cultura!
You have the opportunity to invest in Cafe Cultura's work in the community. Click on the following image to make a tax-deductible donation. 
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| Xpress Yourself Basic Spoken Word Workshops for Youth (#XpressYourself) |
We have worked with numerous schools and organizations throughout Colorado to give underserved youth an opportunity to express themselves. Recent partners include: Adams 12 Indian Youth Meeting, UNC's Latino Boys Conference, La Raza Youth Leadership Conference, Contemporary Learning Academy
If you are interested
in having Cafe Cultura present at your school or organization, feel free to contact us. Our
basic version
is a
one time, 1 to 2 hour
session
. We have used this
highly engaging
and
culturally relevant
workshop structure for over eight years to encourage Chicana/o and Native youth to use spoken word to give voice to our stories of love, struggle, injustice, and celebration. They serve to
supplement and support Language Arts/English curriculum
. Workshop structure was designed by a spoken word artist with 4 years experience teaching at the middle and high school level with contributions from other poets and youth advocates.Click here for a detailed information sheet.
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| Cafe Cultura's Xpress Yourself: Hip Hop, Poetry, & Spoken Word workshops |
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Whether you are a beginner or an experienced poet, join us as we workshop poems you are currently drafting or will write during our time together.
WHEN:
Last Saturday of the month (May 30th, June 27th, July 25th)
TIME:
11:00 to 12:30pm
WHERE:
Cafe Cultura Office (1029 Santa Fe Dr)
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
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| Exciting Updates |
Thank you to everyone who joined us for Cafe Cultura's last open mic, especially those brave enough to share their work. Special thank you to our features (Summer Dreams...Felicia Gallegos Pettis & Sol Kidz...Carlos Lucero & The Traveling Chicano Exhibit) for impressing everyone with your talents. We also appreciate our community feature Rights for All People
...for sharing information about your organization and ways people can get involved. Shout out to the
students from La Academia @ Denver Inner City Parish for handling concessions.
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Fundraising @ Colfax Marathon
: We have 2 relay teams runn
ing on behalf of Cafe Cultura. You can sponsor a runner at
Support youth in finding their voice through our spoken word workshops!
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Cafe Cultura will be collaborating on an HIV/AIDS prevention research project with Assistant Professor, Ramona Beltran and the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work
. Funded by the Public Good Fund through
University of Denver's Center for Community Engaged Scholarship and Service Learning
, the project will work with several other Denver-based organizations to develop a culture-centered HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum for Indigenous youth and to support increasing education and participation in our annual Rise Up! community event to be held in March, 2015. Recruitment efforts are slated to begin soon, so stay tuned if you want to be involved.
-We continue to receive support from important members of the foundation community. Thank you to our recent funders: Bowen Family Performing Arts Fund (The Denver Foundation), Biennial of the Americas, National Association for Latino Arts and Culture Fund for the Arts, Seventh Generation Fund, Peyback Foundation, Hispanics In Philanthropy, Latino Community Foundation of Colorado, WESTAF, and The Chinook Fund.
-We were honored to have been selected for the
2013 Mayor's Award for Excellence in Arts & Culture (Youth Arts)
. Here is the video they produced for us:
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| 2013 Denver Mayor's Awards for Excellence in Arts and Culture - Youth Arts Award: Cafe Cultura |
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Performances/shows from Cafe Cultura poets:
If you want us to host an open mic featuring our spoken word artists, contact us ASAP. Funds will go to sustaining our organization and the work we do in the community (especially our workshops for youth).
-Feel free to
visit
our website
often for updates
(click on the image).
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