Mālama Honua Virtual Workshops
Dance, Sing, Art!
*all workshops will be facilitated via Zoom
We are offering the Mālama Honua curriculum for FREE to underserved youths via remote workshops. During this unsettling time of COVID-19, we feel that all youths should have the opportunity to participate in fun, engaging, educational, arts-based programming. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support our work.
Mālama Honua is a Hawaiian value that means "to care for our earth." This program is inspired by the theme of Mālama Honua and explores how we as individuals take care of the things we love and hold most dear. Students will be introduced to the idea of Mālama Honua and its values as they are expressed in the song (mele) and dance (hula) of Hawai‘i. We will also dive into visual art-making as a tool for discussion. Each lesson will have a hands-on art making component using easily accessible art materials and will encourage imaginative thinking and creative expression. Join us in these playful workshops as we make art, song and dance about our beautiful earth through the study of Hawai‘i.
From a past Mālama Honua workshop
Sea turtles made by elementary school kids
About the Teachers:
Rachel Sherk
Rachel Sherk, founder of MAPS, is a multidisciplinary artist who works in puppetry, experimental performance, video/sound art, and mixed media collage. Her projects involve place, landscape, vegetation, created mythologies and story. She has created time-based works performed at traditional venues such as 14Y and The Brick Theater, along with making works shown in nontraditional spaces such as at Cornwall Manor Assisted Living Facility, gardens in Brooklyn and beyond, and in country barns in both Pennsylvania and Maine. She has participated in artist residencies in Italy, Portugal and at the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Nebraska. Rachel has shown work both in the States and abroad.
Rachel's undergraduate degree is from Bennington College where she studied Visual Art, Literature and Sound. She has an M.A. in Puppetry and Community Activism from NYU's Gallatin. Rachel taught preschool at Saint Ann's School from 2012-2018. She was a teaching fellow at The Academy for Teachers in NYC in both 2016 and 2017 along with co-leading a story and arts-based workshop at the Little Chairs, Big Difference Diversity Conference. Rachel and Aaron have been co-teaching Ukulele and Songwriting classes, previously hosted at Saint Ann’s School, since 2012. Before teaching at Saint Ann’s School Rachel was involved with The Little Red School House, Rivendell Montessori Preschool and St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s. Rachel spends her free time thinking about puppets, playing with her rescue dog named Zeus, dreaming of forests and making experimental music on the toy piano.
'O Mariette Strauss ka ha'i mo'olelo.
'O Mariette Strauss ka ha'i mo'olelo. Mariette Strauss is a storyteller. She is a co-creator on the webseries Nannies, a producer at Manhattan Neighborhood Network, and has been a summer drama instructor at Harlem Grownfor 5 years. At Harlem Grown she has taught Shakespeare, playwriting, and ukulele. She majored in theater at Michigan State University with a BFA in Theater and has performed with the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival. Her latest short film This Could Be It screened at the Uptown Women's Film Festival in May. Aloha ʻĀina.