MEMORIES & MOMENTS: A WORKSHOP ON WRITING MEMOIR
India Home Desi Senior Center, Jamaica, NY (Queens)
At India Home’s Desi Senior Center in Jamaica Queens, older adults have been learning writing and revision skills utilizing Bengali texts, poems, and proverbs as inspiration. Led by teaching artist Sabbin Akter, older adults have met three times a week to create short memoir pieces. The works have been shared during a culminating event. Supported by the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, this program is one of 30 Creative Aging programs happening in NYC this year and is part of the Catalyzing Creativity Initiative.
VOICES OF OPERA
Minnesota Opera, Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota Opera has just begun their fourth Creative Aging program, “Voices of Opera.” Participants are learning proper vocal skills through the expertise of a world-renowned institution, and learning to sing in foreign languages.
The response from the community has been overwhelming, with program enrollment consistently exceeding 50. By the end of this year, Minnesota Opera will have offered six Creative Aging programs. Bravo! (Video from a 2017 performance is available above.)
Minnesota Opera is among 15 other organizations across the country being served by the Seeding Vitality Arts US Initiative generously supported by Aroha Philanthropies. In addition to providing seed funding to make these program possible, these organizations have received in-depth training and expert technical assistance from Lifetime Arts.
