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Free Schools

Oct 24, 2004 outsideNews

It’s rare that I post anything from the news here, but it’s also rare for articles from the New York Times to move me to tears.

An excerpt:

Joseph Lolo, 16, had worked six days a week since he was 13 grazing and watering the local headmaster’s cows. The headmaster, Peter Mzungu, paid the boy $4 a month and gave him Sundays off.
Joseph had watched enviously as the headmaster’s children returned from school each day in their crisp uniforms. He longed to attend the public school the headmaster ran. But his family was too poor to pay the fees.
Then last year, Joseph heard that fees had been abolished. Slowly, his resolve to go to school strengthened. This year, he went to his father, a crab trapper, who told him he should keep looking after Mr. Mzungu’s cattle. The family needed the extra income. They live in two tiny, falling-down shacks. Only six of Joseph’s 13 siblings have survived. Hunger and sickness have plagued the family.
But Joseph said he asked his father, “What will save me if I don’t go to school?” Next, Joseph went to the headmaster, quit his job and asked for a spot at the headmaster’s school, Kadzuhoni Primary.
A tall strapping boy whose ears stick out from his closely shorn head, Joseph looks like a giant among the Lilliputians in the class of 83 first graders. The floor of the classroom is loose dirt and the children sit on ragged chunks of coral rock that tear holes in their shorts and skirts.

The article: In Africa, Schools Feed A Different Hunger

Freestyle Love Supreme

Oct 18, 2004 myMusic

the official press release:

Imagine a spontaneous fusion of live music, comedy and hip-hop. Six performers create a whirlwind of musicality as they riff off audience suggestions in a show that is never the same twice.

Freestyle Love Supreme is a joyful, high energy, one-of-a-kind event. This exclusive New York engagement will run at Ars Nova (511 W. 54th Street) from October 22nd through December 18th with an official opening scheduled for November 10th.

Freestyle Love Supreme chose its name as an homage to John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”, a nod to both its musical influences, which include jazz, soul, blues and hip-hop, and the expressive nature of Coltrane’s sound. The cast is comprised of six ethnically diverse performers: three vocalists/actors and three musicians. Two-Touch and Lin-Man trade rhymes while Mister Wright brings in melody and harmony. Arthur the Geniuses plays the piano and sings, King Sherman plays the sax, flute and piano, and Shockwave, a human beatbox, adds the percussion.

Freestyle Love Supreme is directed by Thomas Kail. It features set design by Beowulf Boritt (The Last Five Years) and costume design by Lisa Zinni. The lighting design is by Jeff Croiter (Matt and Ben) and sound design by Jorge Muelle.

Freestyle Love Supreme runs Friday, October 22nd through Saturday, December 18th. Performance times are Thursdays at 8 PM, Fridays at 8 PM & 10:30 PM and Saturdays at 8 PM. Tickets are $20. To purchase, call SmartTix at 212-868-4444 or go to SmartTix.com. Ars Nova is located at 511 West 54th Street, just west of 10th Ave. Subway: C, E, to 50th Street, N, R, Q, W to 57th Street, or 1, 9 to Columbus Circle. Beer, wine and refreshments are available at the bar.