About SOCACT

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International Collaboration

June & July 2006

Durban, South Africa

A column written for the American Democracy Project

Art Explore!!

Making banners with Very Special Arts

 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

June, 2001

comes to indiana from Kwazulu-Natal

November 2000

Art Camp 1999

Another summer of art  and learning

IU-South Bend Psychologist Directs Social Action Project

Linking Nigeria and Michigan

International Collaboration

June & July 2006

Durban, South Africa

During June & July of 2006, the team spent four weeks in Durban, South Africa. We made chandeliers out of glass beads and wire with the crafters of Umcebo Trust. Umcebo is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping community members with special needs (including the unemployed) generate income by developing traditional Zulu arts as fine arts. When the pieces are identified as fine art, rather than curios -- as in curiosities -- the crafters earn more money for each piece. For details about the initiative go to Schedule.

Always Open Mic ~~~ Always free

Showcase for spoken word,

poetry, storytelling, singing, rapping, oral Interpretation

Thursday nights, 7-9pm IUSB Wiekamp Hall

      Books from last year's Jams are still available! Get your copy. Get a couple for your friends!

Remember, we're still looking for poets

to put into the anthology. Get published!

Art Explore!!

Making banners with Very Special Arts

 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

June, 2001

Art Explore was a five-day empowerment excursion into the lives and aspirations of children with disabilities from the Durban, South Africa area. There were children who were deaf or in leg braces, children in wheelchairs or on crutches, children who were mentally challenged, and one exceptionally bright child with no obvious disability. Some children were brought in from surrounding areas by their caregivers, some had no formal education, and most came from extremely impoverished homes.

Sobonakhona Drama Society, November 2000


Five members of Sobonakhona Drama Society came for three weeks in November 2000. The group is from Inanda township, outside Durban, South Africa. You can read more about the cultural exchange program they developed with SOCACT.  
 

Art Camp 1999

Another summer of art and learning

Someone was singing at the top of their lungs on the other side of the door. Further down the hall, a group of kids were making their way through a hip hop choreography. As you passed the last room on the left, you can hear the group leader assigning roles and checking costumes.

We are at Art Camp, the summer initiative sponsored by the Social Action Project (SOCACT). Youths got involved at sites in South Bend (Charles Martin Youth Center, First Presbyterian Church, Center for the Homeless) and Benton Harbor (Buss Housing Complex). The program started the first week of June and continued until Art Camp, held the first week of August. The five-day art camp was at Geneva Center in Rochester, IN. The summer program included group activities and discussions to enhance the abilities and talents of each participant. Along with creative sessions there was swimming, nature walks, and camp fires; walking the labyrinth, and checking out the gardens. The last day of art camp, each cabin presented their art, theater, and other creative works in the closing concert for parents and friends.

This year's art camp was a collaboration with Bittersweet Cultural Center, dedicated to preserving the legend and traditions of Indigenous people. The Center was founded by Patsy Clark, a woman of Shawnee descent, and her late husband Don Clark. Patsy is an award winning teacher, lecturer, environmental activists, and artisan. Her vision for the Center is to increase awareness, understanding, and respect among peoples of all racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds while working to preserve the history and cultural wisdom of Indigenous peoples.

The SOCACT initiative continues this fall with participants meeting at the same sites during the fall, winter, and spring. Each season will be celebrated with activities such as the Harvest Excursion in November and Global Play Day in February. In between, participants will showcase their creative works in venues around the Michiana area.

   IU-South Bend Psychologist Directs            

   Social Action Project

   Linking Nigeria and Michigan

In these days of specialization and turf wars, a cooperative venture which involves people from differing professional and personal backgrounds may seem out of step with the times. Yet the Social Action Project (SOCACT) is an international exchange program between Benton Harbor, Michigan and Abatete, Nigeria which capitalizes on the very characteristics which tend to divide people and places.

SOCACT Project Director and IU-South Bend psychology professor Dé Bryant believes that today's complex problems require equally diverse approaches in solving them. To implement this objective, she directs an international, interracial team of American and Nigerian educators, students, and professionals from various fields, including the business community.

Dr. Bryant, a specialist in community psychology, developed this exchange program to be fundamentally about education and empowerment by "acting as a catalyst for people taking charge of their lives." The SOCACT program encompasses social science research, as well as more personalized projects developed to empower members of the two communities. These "people projects" include the intergenerational program, Building Unity Between Old and Young (BUOY), and the Pen Pals/Sister Families program to link members of the two communities in a more personalized cultural exchange. SOCACT also has developed the Children's Community Theater in Benton Harbor to assist young people in working on self-esteem and self-expression.

In January, Dr. Bryant is taking American members of the team to Abatete to confer with their Nigerian colleagues. On this visit, they will also deliver books collected for the new public library and begin working with the community's educators and parents on curriculum binders for the model school. During this trip, American members of SOCACT will also gather information concerning the dance traditions of Abatete, which will be featured in the spring performance of the Benton Harbor Children's Community Theater.

Individuals interested in working on the Social Action Project are welcome, with course credits available for Indiana University-South Bend students. For further information, contact Project Direct Dé Bryant at (219)237-4447 or (616)925-7044.

SOCIAL ACTION PROJECT: THE 1992 NIGERIAN CONNECTION

This summer I went to Nigeria to establish a new site for the Social Action Project. It will be a community development project like the one currently running in Benton Harbor, Michigan. The plan is to send a team to do fieldwork in Nigeria and to bring a team from Nigeria to work in Benton Harbor. This trip was to lay the groundwork to make it happen. The journey to Abatete, Nigeria took me across the country; I traveled by car with two native Nigerians. Believe me, nothing teaches you more about a nation than traveling its roads! We stopped in cities with names like Nsukka, Benin, Onitsha, Oshogbo, Ife, Ibadan, Akwete, Ikot-Ekepene, Umuahia, Owerri, Arochukwu, Eziowelle, and (finally) into Abatete. I can't tell you all about my adventures here, but read some excerpts from my travel journal:

When I got to Abatete, I went to work. During my stay I toured primary and secondary schools. I also met with headmasters and headmistresses of all thirteen primary schools to hear their concerns first-hand. The Social Action Project is expanding into the community in summer 1993. For those of you interested in studying or implementing projects in Africa, contact me at (219) 237-4447.

Working with us will be a grand adventure!