HAPPY NEW YEAR – KORI IS 7YRS OLD!!!

This year may this proverb be relevant: WHEN THE THREADS UNITE THEY CAN TIE THE LION

A Rewarding 2009 To All! – We hope you had a restful holiday. All the leaders at KORI are excited at the prospect of a new year full of positive events with the young people. We will work hard to keep everyone up to date; however please do not hesitate to get in touch if you wish to know more!

A BIG WELL DONE!! The energy at KORI ARTS is vibrant with achievement, after a year of fundraising, 15 members of KORI travelled to Tanzania and achieved all their goals. Our six mentors (aged 17 – 25) were fantastic and have left the young people they worked with so enriched by their teaching and sharing. The three seniors (aged 11 – 16) and two juniors (aged 8 – 11) also excelled, engaging in teaching, filming and integrating with the Tanzanian school students. It was a joy to behold: we have some very special young leaders in the making and I hope you are all proud of them. The reports, film and exhibition of the trip are in preparation and shall be shared.

Seniors Project

The seniors are continuing their project on leadership. Last term they worked with the performance poet Shortman to prepare written pieces on Leadership. They will continue to develop their writing and performance skills with him for the first five weeks of this term. Then they shall be working with Alex Clifton from February 11th. He is the Undergraduate Lecturer at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He will be teaching Public Speaking to the seniors and they will conclude this work with a presentation for Haringey Councillors and Youth Council. Some poetry

Juniors Project Puppeteer Anna Orson will continue to teach the group about the intricacies of puppetry. This term they begin the making of table top and shadow puppets and devise the set for their play. They are creating the piece for a class of young special needs children in Swiss Cottage Special Needs School and will perform to them in March.

Mentors

The Mentors are becoming an official committee and will have their first meeting in March with the Trustees! This is to enable the talent of this group to have a real say in the direction of KORI’S work. The mentors are presently running after school clubs in Drama and football at St Paul’s primary school, working with children at risk in Tottenham for the Youth Offending Team and presenting their work in Tanzania to funders and schools.

Classes

Tuesdays

The classes of Dance led by Stephanie Grelet and African Drumming led by Uncle Adesose Wallace, continue to thrive. We feel that the classes have really benefitted by having consistent focused teachers. Please tell other young people about these classes. The drumming class is for both children and adults! £4 per class

Ka-Zimba – African Martial Arts Class

Wednesday

The group continues to grow in size and discipline under the guidance of Ndugu (instructor) Sola Adebiyi. Ka- Zimba’s allows the young people to grow in physical expression, self defence skills, cultural and self awareness: so important for these times. £4 per class

PARENTS / Carers

This year we are also keen to create a parents committee. We know many of our parents /carers value the work of KORI and would like to support the work in different ways. A Parents / carers committee that met monthly would enable parents /carers to be part of planning and to share their needs and ideas with the Leaders to support planning. If you are glad to be part of this please send an email or message to Odiri at info@koriarts.org / 07811319605

At half term we have a wonderful project of cooking, pottery and Singing at Hornsey Vale Community Centre Monday February the 16th to Friday February the 20th. It is completely free!

KORI is moving forward, after seven years existence we are ready to spread our wings and make our community proud of our existence. We are bringing back KORI ACADEMIC to support our young people in the community that wish to do well but need extra tuition and new ways of learning to do so. Campsbourne Primary School has offered us a base and support for this venture. If you would like to support this please get in touch.

Have a Blessed Beautiful 2009!

Odiri – KORI ARTS Manager