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Proceeds benefit COSACOSA's youth programs citywide – including those where art meets science!
For the WPA's Federal Project Number One, the image was the message. We're in the thick of Spare A Dime rehearsals and tech set-up at the Bok Theater. In an homage to Federal Project Number One (the artists' initiative) during the song Changing Places, Spare A Dime's set animations celebrate the wide variety of civic posters created by WPA artists. These two (at left), about healthy eating and the value of science are some of our favorites, illustrating the wide range of subject matter tackled by WPA posters. They especially resonate with COSACOSA staff, as we're in the midst of testing new art & biology and art & healthy eating curricula in North and South Philly middle schools! (And it's ironic that Spare A Dime composer Kimberly Niemela was a chemist in her first career! Click here to buy Spare A Dime tickets – just $10 general admission! Proceeds benefit COSACOSA's youth programs citywide – including those where art meets science!
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The historic Bok Tech Theater now is Spare A Dime's stage. After nearly a year of planning, community interviews, writing, artwork creation, and music-making, the Spare A Dime cast and crew moved our set, gear, and rehearsals to the historic Bok Tech Theater today! With the help of our amazing professional tech crew (thank you, George, Walter, Terry, Mike, and Rodney!) and dedicated Bok students working with COSACOSA and Bok staff, the Spare A Dime stage was set in perfect time for our singers and musicians to rehearse. Please join us next week for our premiere performances – Thursday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. • Friday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. • Saturday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. General admission is $10. Tickets may be purchases online at www.pifa.org/events/10 or by calling COSACOSA at 215.385.2554 We want you – to hear all about the WPA in song and to see this gorgeous WPA-built space! Menu Mondays | Something from Nothing: Thrifty Foods from the 1930s Which one of the following classic recipes you know best just depends on where you're from. Being from the North and growing up in Philadelphia, my mother’s father was used to milk toast and often made it as a comfort food for her. My mother’s mother, on the other hand, was from the South, and in North Carolina, her people ate cornmeal mush. Alternatively, Johnnycake is well-known in the Midwest and other parts of the U.S. Each of these recipes uses soft grains to create its own filling and soothing effect. Try one; try them all – the best part being that, wherever you may be while making them, you can imagine all the people who've come before you, the many hands following the same simple recipes in an effort to bring nourishment and comfort in the face of difficult times. Cornmeal Mush Ingredients 3 cups water 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup yellow cornmeal 1 tablespoon butter Directions 1. In a medium saucepan, heat water to boiling. Reduce heat to medium; stir in salt and cornmeal. Cook, stirring regularly, until mixture is thick. 2. Spoon cornmeal mixture into a lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight. 3. In the morning, melt butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Slice cornmeal mush into 1 inch wide slices. Cook in melted butter until golden brown on both sides. Courtesy of Michelle O'Sullivan on All Recipes.com Johnny Cake Ingredients 1 cup cornmeal 1/2 cup milk 1/2 cup shortening 1/2 cup white sugar 1-1/3 cups cake flour 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 egg 1 cup milk Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease thoroughly an 8 inch square cake pan. 2. Combine cornmeal and milk. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir together the egg and milk. 3. Cream shortening, and blend in sugar. Stir flour mixture and egg mixture alternately into creamed mixture alternately. Blend in cornmeal mixture. 4. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve hot, with maple syrup. Milk Toast Ingredients butter 4 slices white bread or 4 slices whole wheat bread, toasted 2 cups milk 1/4 cup raisins (optional) 1/4 teaspoon salt ( or sugar!) cinnamon, if desired Directions 1. Butter the toast and place in two soup bowls. 2. Heat the milk with the raisins and salt. 3. Simmer for a minute or two, till the raisins plump. 4. Pour half the milk mixture over each serving. 5. Sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired. Courtesy of SilentCricket at Food.com "If you're not feeling 100% and would like something simple to eat, this may be just what the doctor ordered. My husband had this when he was growing up and didn't feel well...(I'd be tempted to use sugar instead of the salt, and raisins could be optional...)" What happened this week in 1935? Congress approved the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act. On April 8, 1935, the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, the legislation under which the Works Progress Administration was later created, was passed by Congress. The bill had been quickly approved by the House of Representatives, passing by a wide margin, 329 to 78. In the Senate, the bill was temporarily held up by a vocal minority arguing against it. Eventually they relented; the bill was approved and signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Act gave the President broad powers to design and enact work-relief programs by executive order. In the Act's first year, $5 billion (the equivalent of $85 billion today) was allocated for such initiatives. One month later, on May 6, 1935, FDR issued the executive order creating the WPA, creating work for 3.5 million people. Spare A Dime's projected sets unite city residents, past and present. Illustrations by artist Steve Teare animated by designer Gerardo McGarity-Alegrett create projected backdrops for Spare A Dime singers, while photographic replicas by city residents create visual counterparts to audio stories. We call this corner store our dimestore, where the character of The Merchant sings Pocket of Blues, a song describing the Great Depression. The Builder later joins her here to sing a duet, Change in the Making – look for a WPA poster to appear in the window!
Join us for Spare A Dime on April 18, 19, and 20, 2013! Get your tickets today! Spare A Dime animated images bring the urban environment to life. Illustrations by artist Steve Teare animated by designer Gerardo McGarity-Alegrett create projected backdrops for Spare A Dime singers. This cityscape appears as the character of The Builder sings Foundation of Hope, a song about searching for a job and for hope in a time of economic crisis.
Join us for Spare A Dime on April 18, 19, and 20, 2013! Get your tickets today! Community members step into the shoes of their 1930s counterparts. COSACOSA constituents citywide recreated historical photos for each Spare A Dime character as visual accompaniments to our audio stories of the Great Depression. Above, William Hilton, master craftsman and builder from North Philadelphia's Nicetown-Tioga neighborhood, recreates an image of of The Builder from Spare A Dime after the founding of the Works Progress Administration.
See all the photos we've created. Get your tickets to Spare A Dime today at www.pifa.org/events/10! Community members step into the shoes of their 1930s counterparts. As visual counterparts to the audio stories played in-between each song of the Spare A Dime cycle, COSACOSA constituents from around the city recreated the historical photos on which each character is based. Above, William Hilton, master craftsman and builder from North Philadelphia's Nicetown-Tioga neighborhood, recreates the historical stance of The Builder from Spare A Dime (before the founding of the Works Progress Administration, of course). Check back tomorrow to see his recreation of the post-WPA image of The Builder. And get your tickets to Spare A Dime today at www.pifa.org/events/10!
Spare A Dime's community stories create Gardens of Liberty. For over a year, COSACOSA youth, artists, and staff have collected stories of the Great Depression and our current "Great Recession" from community residents citywide. These interviews created the taproot of Spare A Dime, defining the project's characters and anchoring the storyline through their powerful interplay of hope and hopelessness in times of crisis. This summer, thanks to the support from the Knight Arts Challenge, the Kresge Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Union Benevolent Association, and other generous funders, these collected stories will also find a home in a new series of Site and Sound Gardens we're is creating with community members in North Philadelphia. Transforming abandoned lots into "sacred" spaces for our city neighborhoods, the new Gardens join COSACOSA's existing Healing Garden. The Gardens will feature two- and three-dimensional visual art plus temporary sound art exhibitions, including stories, songs, and poetry by neighborhood residents. Visit COSACOSA's website, www.cosacosa.org, for upcoming dates and times to volunteer to help create and maintain the Site and Sound Gardens. You can also read about the Gardens and other community-building efforts in the recently published Philadelphia edition of US Airways magazine! Best of all, hear our collected stories as part of Spare A Dime on April 18, 19, and 20, 2013! Get your tickets today! |
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