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Kids Arts 2000 Creative Arts Workshops

We Are the New Writers, Artists and Storytellers of The Universe

The Magical Children and the Genies

The Buttonwood Tree's summer arts program, Kids Arts Creative Arts Workshops, is unveiling this year's addition to the mosaic mural on Theresa's Wall, located in Middletown's historic North End. Approximately 30 students worked on the new pieces under the supervision of artist Jeffrey Greene.

In addition to the work of the children in the Mosaics program, approximately 30 additional students participated in the other offerings of the Creative Arts Workshops including: drumming with Hassan Sabir, dance and drumming with Sankofa Kuumba, and creative writing with Abigail Reynolds. Performances by the children, based on what they learned will be presented.

The following is a short story done by the writer's group in collaboration with Wesleyan artist Bob White: "The Magical Children and the Genies."This story and other stories from Sand Castle Lands can be found at: <http://www.wesleyan.edu/av/gronican.htm>

With thanks from all of the kids at Kids Arts to the true heroes of our adventure:

Counselors: Megan Link Later
                     Tamya Jarda
                     Casilda Cerutti
                     Joni McMillan		 Susan Allison & Stephan Allison
Sankofa Kuumba - Hassan Sabir
Jeffrey Green - Abigail Reynolds
Andre'

Kids Arts is sponsored by the City of Middletown Commission on the Arts.

NEAR, Inc./The Buttonwood Tree
605 Main St.
P.O. Box 71
Middletown, CT 06457
(860) 347-4957
http://www.stephan@buttonwood.org
http://www.buttonwood.org

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The Magical Children and the Genies


The future writers of America were busy with their writing, finishing up projects started during the summer or talking about some things they might write later on.


Everything was fine until Laurie began sniffing something odd, then Margot caught the scent, then Francine.



"Hey!" said Eric, "Something smells weird in here!  Leona agreed, "Yes," she replied, "There is a funny stink coming from someplace."


Little Alfie yelled, "Yo! This thing dropped on my head." He took the pancake shaped object to the room monitors who looked it over. "What do you think it is?" "I don't know," said Roger. Then everybody shrugged at the strange looking pancake and wondered where it came from. Frannie cried out, "Listen! I hear weird sounds."



Where could it be coming from?  And what can it be? They all looked up and down and all around.



What's that,  up there, in the ventilator! Oh yeah! I see it too. And me. I see it.  Hey! There's something going on in the trash bucket, look there!  Oh! Oh! I hear a funny sound in the teacher's desk.

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What's that up in the clock?  And sounds from the piano. What is it? Over here! I hear noises coming from behind the drums. Let's look there!



Then the kids started pointing. It's coming from there! And there! And over there! It's coming from everywhere!.

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They all agreed that it was a good time to go outside to get away from the strange sounds and smells. So they went out onto the playground where everybody started doing their favorite thing.



"There's funny stuff going on over there, in the magic circle," said Eleanor.



And indeed it looked like peculiar stuff was going on in the very center of the magic circle.



Finally when the magic settled down there was a giant genie sitting smack in the middle of the circle. "Oh! It's only a genie," said Mark. "We should have known," replied Isabelle. "Of course! Those smells were his way of telling us he was coming to visit."

The children  laughed as they knew all about genies and other magical creatures quite well since every one of the children were magicians by trade. You know -- they could turn words into magic and write the most wonderful stories and draw the most enchanting pictures. So - to these children - magic was just another part of their life. And genie's were a normal part of that world.

"Come on! Come inside with us!" said the children to the genie.

"Gronk!" replied the genie, which as we all know in genie language means, "Okay!"



Well, once they were inside the classroom, the children settled back into their wizardly duties of writing, drawing and other magical stuff. But the genie was so big it took up half of their space. That was okay though, since the children had learned how to share what they had with others. So the genie felt right at home.

"Where did you come from genie?" asked Flavia.

"Grumble grumble gromp gromp. Ubel goobel Obel gobel. Drak drak."

Now anybody who knows the language of the genie understands those words which mean: "I come from the magic of your imaginations."

"Oh, you mean we created you with our writings and drawings?"

"Yup! Yup!" said the genie who's name was Mucky Muck.

And everybody knows what he meant by "Yup!"



The children then began to write their stories and pictures and more genies began to appear from: the PA speaker.



and the piano . . .



and the wastebasket . . .



From the closet . . .



Even from the clock . . .



You know, those genies were also waiting for the children at the playground.

There were genies all over the school, the walls, the ceilings, the playground and the whole neighborhood.

It seems that the genies had been there all the time just waiting for the storytellers to bring them to life through the magic of their words. The children were happy since they now understood just how wonderfully talented and magical they themselves really were.

"I can make anything in the Universe and bring it to life with my words," said Gregory.

And so they could. Well, as you know, those children lived happily ever after, writing stories, and drawing pictures and making music and all kinds of wonderful and magical inventions.


-The End-

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Links:

NEAR, Inc./The Buttonwood Tree
605 Main St.
P.O. Box 71
Middletown, CT 06457-0071
(860) 347-4957
<http://www.near@buttonwood.org>
<http://www.buttonwood.org>