The Parents at ALPHA tend to be pro-active, industrious, and creative individuals. “Lifelong learning” is a concept we are all exploring daily. We are an eclectic group of people from all over the city with a wide variety of interests and pursuits, often related to serving the communities we live in and beyond. Many of us are busy with exciting projects of our own that may or may not become and/or incorporate programming for the kids at ALPHA. We try to support each other if we can and share whatever knowledge and wisdom we gain with the ALPHA community whenever possible. Some of our projects are ongoing and noted on our Community Partners page, others are one time events, and other projects are ongoing but occurring outside of our little community.
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Our Plea to the Public to Modify Development
Ayelen Liberona and Joseph Johnson Camí.
10 years of community members meeting with the developers, 10 years of community meetings, 10 years of students learning about city planning, regulations, environmental concerns and impacts, 10 years of watching the development get bigger and bigger and now 2020 could be the year ALPHA loses its sunlight, the developers appear patient waiting out the protests but our voices continue to rise…please don’t take our sunshine away! Please continue to share to your network, ALPHA will not be the only ones impacted by this development the surrounding community will lose also. And you can sign our petition: https://www.change.org/…/councillor-joe-cressy-we-are…
The Mill Valley Animations
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The purpose of this project was to inspire creativity in children with Native American stories from Ontario. The focus was on stories of Ojibwe (Anishinaabeg) tricksters (e.g., Nanabush); stories were used to fuel kids’ experiments with stop-motion animation.
The project spanned two months and involved storytelling and animation sessions at two Toronto public schools: Mill Valley and ALPHA. To kick off the project, two professional storytellers from the Debajehmujig theatre visited Toronto to tell stories of Ontario tricksters. Debajehmujig, located in the Wikwemong First Nation, is dedicated to the vitalization of the Anishinaabeg culture through storytelling. After the Debaj performances, older children at both schools (Grade 4 – 6) worked with Robin Sutherland (an Ojicree artist and ALPHA parent) and Nick Sianchuk (a Toronto based stop-motion animator) to translate trickster-inspired stories into short (< 1 minute) stop-motion animations. At the end of the project, kids from ALPHA and Mill Valley had a joint screening of their work; they shared their stories with each other, parents and celebrated indigenous storyteller Duke Redbird.
Gender Odyssey Puppet Plays
Emily Chan, Diane Hamilton, Derek Horn and Gabby Morton
M.I.N.D. Music Videos
Derek Horn
Stop Frame Animations
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Ayelen Liberona
Itah’s Marvelous Bookshop
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Itah’s Marvelous Bookshop was ALPHA’s major project, with Emily Chan (ALPHA Parent and Teacher) at the helm, about Black history in Canada in 2017. It’s also a tribute to Itah Sadu, renowned storyteller, author and owner of A Different Booklist bookstore. Our class met Itah during our field trip to an exhibit honouring Toronto’s Black Canadian community. We were captivated by her spirit, humour and generosity. The play tells the stories of Viola Desmond, Fergie Jenkins, Harriet Tubman and Harry Gairey Sr. We also sing “Africville” by Faith Nolan. Of all the stories that we learned about over the last few months, these figures/moments in Black Canadian history deeply resonated with us.
The Walking and Talking Treaties exhibition was a collaboration featured in EFTO, orchestrated by ALPHA Parent and Teacher Emily Chan, and Maria Hupfield with Alpha Alternative School and Jumblies Theatre; displayed in the vitrines of the A Space Gallery, as part of the 2016 Images Festival.
Recently an ALPHA Parent has received the William P. Hubbard Award for Race Relations for his work with SKETCH – an organization helping to integrate the arts into trans-formative justice and equity practice – Julian Diego uses the arts to address conflict in organizations and communities. He has created programs that engage the whole body, mind and spirit, in moving through conflict and transforming triggers and moments.
Click here to read more about this award and his many accomplishments:
Julian Diego
Maryem Hassan Tollar is an alumni Parent, current Teacher at ALPHA, and renowned Egyptian-Canadian vocalist, known for her world music performances as well as original compositions. She is also currently involved in delighting audiences across the GTA along with a unique combination of musician/singers, immersed in diverse traditions from mysterious Sufi devotional love songs, to rousing Thracian dance.
Click here to learn more and hear tracks from this Juno and CMFA nominated goup: