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SPARE A DIME
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Change: A Recipe for Hard Times

5/6/2013

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Menu Mondays | Something from Nothing: Thrifty Food (for Thought) from COSACOSA
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Today, May 6, 2013 is the 78 year anniversary of the founding of the Works Progress Administration.  In honor of the WPA (and the last of our daily blog entries for the Spare A Dime project), we offer you a different sort of recipe for Menu Monday:  The 7Cs™ – COSACOSA's trademark recipe for how we make it better.™

We'll occasionally update this blog with news about the Spare A Dime project, the cast album, and future iterations of both the songs and stories.  Thank you for being such an essential part of our process.  Learn more and volunteer at our organizational website cosacosa.org!

COSACOSA's 7Cs™
– Ingredients & Directions

• Conversation
We initiate dialogues bringing project stakeholders together to learn about each other, to research neighborhood histories, and to share concerns and hopes for their community.  In this step, project participants match their own needs and assets with those of others, and with those of the community at large.

• Cooperation
We engender collaborative strategic project planning among the project participants, guided by community leaders, project staff and professional artists.  In this step, project participants determine their desired outcomes for the project and the overall design.

• Community
We establish a feeling of solidarity among the project stakeholders.  In this step representative participants work as a team to share project plans with the larger community, to organize community response, and to invite broad public participation.

• Creation
We create community-specific public work through public participation.  In this step, project participants engage in hands-on collaboration with COSACOSA artists in free and accessible community workshops.

• Celebration
We commemorate and disseminate the work. In this step, project participants share their completed work with the larger community through openings, unveilings, performances, testimonies, and/or in print and online publications.

• Consideration
We engage stakeholders in ongoing reflection, review, and evaluation. In this step, participants assess the project's successes and challenges, gauge both its short- and long-term impacts, and propose models for replication.

• Change
We incite lasting intercommunity and interpersonal transformations to build community social capital and to sustain positive neighborhood change. In this step, project stakeholders impart the art and collaborative leadership competencies they have acquired to others and continue to work for the good of their shared community, both on their own and in continuing partnership with COSACOSA.

7Cs™ Civic Engagement Method @2010 COSACOSA art at large, Inc.

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7Cs™ Civic Engagement Method by COSACOSA art at large, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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Travel in time to a 1935 state of mind.

5/5/2013

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What happened this week in 1935? The Works Progress Administration was founded!
On May 6, 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was created by Presidential Order.  The WPA was the signature program of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's (FDR's) New Deal and the largest work program the nation has every seen.  In the midst of the Great Depression, the WPA created jobs for over 8 million Americans.

This 1936 film, from the FDR Presidential Library, explores the depth and breath of work offered by the WPA.  Then, as now, Work Pays America!  Enjoy!
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Spare A Dime redux, songs 13-16.

5/4/2013

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Our final week of daily blogging features a montage of performance images and songs.
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"Sweet and low or loud and clear,
there's a song each of us sings.
Come together, feel the power
of voices raised.
Though at times we strain to hear,
hope is calling; freedom rings,
always answering the sound
of voices raised."

-Voices Raised
a song about rights
sung by The Farmer,
played by Phyllis Chapell

words & music by K. Niemela
drawing by S. Teare
animation by G. McGarity-Alegrett

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"Our fate's bound
inextricably,
in justice and in liberty.
Rise or fall,
we'll always be
together, indivisibly."

-Indivisibly
a song about responsibility
sung by The Mother,
played by Venissa Santi

words & music by K. Niemela
drawing by S. Teare
animation by G. McGarity-Alegrett

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"You've nothing to fear
but the fear that has bound you,
so join hands together,
continue the dance!"

-Life Turns on a Dime (reprise)
a reminder of life's changeability
sung by FDR,
played by Bill Gross

words & music by K. Niemela
drawing by S. Teare
animation by G. McGarity-Alegrett

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"Can you see
your own reflection in me,
the frailty and the sublime?
Can you offer hope
and opportunity?
Brother, sister, neighbor
- citizens all -
can you spare a dime?"

-Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?
an iconic anthem from the 1930s
sung by the entire cast

words by Y. Harburg, music by J. Gorney
additional lyrics by K. Niemela
drawing by S. Teare
animation by G. McGarity-Alegrett

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Spare A Dime redux, songs 10-12.

5/3/2013

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Our final week of daily blogging features a montage of performance images and songs.
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"Change is in the making,
I feel it in the air...
I sense it everywhere.
It elates me, sates me.
I'm sure you will agree
change is not a part from me;
change is at the heart of me.
Change in the making
is what's happening to me."

-Change in the Making
a song about love & hope
sung by The Merchant & The Builder,
played by Khrista White &
Victor Rodriguez

words & music by K. Niemela
drawing by S. Teare
animations by G. McGarity-Alegrett

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"Being in the woods
I see the forest for the trees.
My conserving nature
is what is conserving me."

-Citizen Conservation
a song about the Civilian Conservation Corps
sung by The Veteran,
played by Lourin Plant

words & music by K. Niemela
drawing by S. Teare
animations by G. McGarity-Alegrett

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"Changing places,
the saving grace is
the work that we share,
side by side.
Can't deny
it's quite a ride
to reinvent our civic pride."

-Changing Places
a song about Federal Project
Number One
sung by The Immigrant,
played by Julian Coleman

words & music by K. Niemela
drawing by S. Teare
animations by G. McGarity-Alegrett

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Spare A Dime redux, songs 7-9.

5/2/2013

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Our final week of daily blogging features a montage of performance images and songs.
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"Life is a dimestore,
and we are its wares,
our dreams on a shelf
left where nobody cares.
A dime a dozen,
our story's the same:
nothing to hope for,
and no one to blame."

-Dimestore Lullaby
a song about escape
sung by The Mother,
played by Venissa Santi

words & music by K. Niemela
drawing by S. Teare
animations by G. McGarity-Alegrett

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"I call forth
a new progressive army:
citizens of ev'ry faith and party!
If you've eyes to see
and hearts to understand,
if your burdened conscience
cares for your fellow man,
step up for a better tomorrow!
Step up for a brighter today!

-Step Up for a Better Tomorrow
a song announcing the WPA
sung by FDR,
played by Bill Gross

words & music by K. Niemela
drawing by S. Teare
animations by G. McGarity-Alegrett

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"If you give a man a dole,
you save his body, not his soul.
If you give him work to do,
you save his body and soul, too!"

-Work Is Progress
a song celebrating WPA slogans
sung by FDR &
the Chorus of Liberty

words & music by K. Niemela
drawing by S. Teare
animations by G. McGarity-Alegrett

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