When getting creative goes RIGHT!!!!!!

 I’m a product of Elm Creative Arts Elementary school, and Roosevelt Middle School of the Arts, during the time where the art programs were plentiful and robust. I can remember doing stained art projects, creating books and making paper from pulp. For a moment in my life I considered myself an artist. By the time I reached high school, writing heavy assignments started to take over those once creative pieces, and since I didn't supplement this in my spare time much, I feel my artistic touch vanished. While I do make candles in my spare time (I once operated my own candle business), when it comes to certain artforms my confidence level is ZERO!!!!!

                                                                          

When thinking about what to create for this blog post, I went out on a limb, took a change and created a Zine. Initially I was nervous and super self conscious about my diminishing lack of drawing capabilities, but I wanted to challenge myself and do it. Using different pieces of paper I recycled from past projects, adding bits and pieces of the original article in the form of images wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. I was actually having fun. According to Jenkins, “Many of the forms of expression that are most important to American youth accent this sampling and remixing process”. While I’m not an American youth, even at my age I felt a real sense of creative expression while putting my Zine together. 

My Zine was inspired by the piece from Mari Copeny, a young girl from Flint Michigan concerned with the harmful drinking water in her city. After noticing how sick the residents were becoming, and how the water stunk and was turning colors, she wrote a letter to my forever president Barack Obama informing him of what was happening. To her surprise the president responded back to her and even showed up to her city where he made a promise to provide the city with the necessary funding to make improvements to the water pipes. In my Zine I highlight some of those moments.

After completing this experience I would love to implement Zines as a way for students to display their creativity, and comprehension of a text. Every culminating task does not need to be lengthy papers, as I experienced myself while making this Zine, allowing students to get creative activates so much in their brains!!! I felt young again making this Zine!!

 If you're interested in making a Zine and it's your first time, check out this link for some ideas and assistance Bre.