| Name | Aaron |
|---|---|
| Last Name | Ellison |
| Home Address | 7730 Basswood Dr Chattanooga, TN 37416 United States |
| Organization Name | MNGK Garvey Program |
| Describe Your Role In The Organization | Aaron Ellison is the lead teaching artist for MNGK Garvey Program. He teaches classes for the organization's preschool movement and music program and for Capoeira Chattanooga. Bio Aaron "Cherokee" Ellison was born and raised in Chattanooga, TN. Movement of all sorts has always been a part of Cherokee's life. His older cousin, Anthony Byrd, taught him how to flip, he studied breakdancing by watching VHS tapes, and practiced moves while trying not to break his mother's furniture. His performance credits include dancing as part of a Chattanooga hip hop dance group called The Hot Boys. The group served as an opening act for Outkast and MJG 8 Ball. He modeled with Chattanooga's Ambiance Model and Talent Agency and also taught hip hop classes there. During his time at the agency he was cast in the movie Remember the Titans and won a speaking role. Cherokee eventually moved to New York and while there he honed his break-dancing skills at the legendary 14th St Union Square. When he moved to Atlanta his capoeira journey began. He trained with Communidade De Capoeira Atlanta. He continued to travel around the U.S. and eventually made his way back to Chattanooga, while continuing his training in Atlanta and Nashville. His trips to Nashville proved to be very fruitful because he was introduced to Mestre Gulliver through fellow capoeirista Zulu. Under the tutelage of Mestre Gulliver, Cherokee began teaching a capoeira class in Chattanooga and Cleveland. He also has visited Mestre in New York to study at capoeira intensives. During this time Cherokee also began to learn the proper technique to teach tumbling under the tutelage of David and Heather Pendergrass, owners of Cheer Madness Elite in Cleveland, TN. During a brief time in Baltimore, MD, Cherokee has had the pleasure of teaching tumbling at Inertia Performing Arts and hip hop at Wombworks Productions Inc. Cherokee has taught gymnastics and hip hop at the Creative Arts Guild in Dalton, GA. He was also a teaching artist with Full Circle Tap in Chattanooga, TN. He is currently teaching tumbling and break dance at Cheer Madness Elite. He and his wife Monica had a desire to make a larger impact in their community and founded Move N Groove Kidz in 2019, a mobile movement with music company that offers classes on site at preschools and K - 12 school in the Greater Chattanooga area. They are also the founding directors of MNGK (Move N Groove Kidz) Garvey Program non profit which offers movement with music to participating preschools at no cost to families and Capoeira Chattanooga. |
| Organization Address | 7730 Basswood Dr Chattanooga, TN 37416 United States |
| Website | https://www.mngkgarveyprogram.org |
| Best Phone Number To Reach You | 423-280-8610 |
| Alternate Phone Number | 423-445-2805 |
| Email Address | coachcherokee@mngkgarveyprogram.org |
| Alternate Email Address | mngkgarveyprogram@gmail.com |
| Please Describe Your Project In Detail | The Capoeira Program uses the art form, capoeira, as a tool to engage students in multiple disciplines. Students learn to identify their individual strengths and weaknesses while building community with one another. Capoeira is an Afro Brazilian martial art that combines dance, acrobatics, music (singing and playing instruments) and the martial elements. When a game of capoeira is played in community, all of the elements are present. The Capoeira program will be an inclusive program for 24 students in middle and high school with half of the students on the autism spectrum and the remaining students will be neurotypical. The Capoeira Program will offer students individual classes in dance, acrobatics, music and capoeira. The summer program will be 6 weeks long and serve as a creative outlet for students as well as a chance to build relationships. Monday- Friday students will take a 45 minute class in each style with a 15 minute break in between each class. There will be one hour for lunch. At the end of the 6 weeks the students will present a small capoeira roda for the community where they will demonstrate what they have learned over the summer. There are many students, both neurodiverse and neurotypical, that are not involved in extracurricular activities during the school year or during the summer. This program will provide a safe space for students to build strong, flexible, coordinated bodies and minds while building community with one another after being isolated for much of the summer in 2020 and even 2021. Schedule for the Program Monday- 9 am - 9:45 am Music (learning call and response songs in Brazilian Portuguese, learning to play percussion based instruments such as the pandeiro, agogo and reco reco) 15 min break 10 am 10:45 am Conditioning (exercises to build total body strength, to increase flexibility and to increase stamina) 15 min break 11 am - 11:45 am Tumbling (gaining confidence in being upside and bearing weight on the hands and upper body, exercises to learn and perfect, handstands, cartwheels, dive rolls etc) Lunch and extended socialization 11:45 am - 1 pm 1 pm - 1:45 pm- Dance 15 min break 2 pm - 2:45 pm - Capoeira (this class combines skills learned in all of the previous classes of the day) 2:45 - 3 pm- End of Day (checking in with the students and dismissal) |
| Please explain how your project meets the requirements of the American Rescue Plan | The Capoeira Summer Program meets the requirements of the American Rescue Plan because the movement and music arts of capoeira will be used to address the social, emotional and mental health needs of the students. This project will equip students with tools to learn how to manage their emotions and reactions to difficult situations and any possible trauma in life, particularly the collective experience of going through the isolation and other hardships caused by the COVID 19 pandemic. Movement and music helps to rewire the physiological system of the body. Making music, singing and moving collectively helps to reestablish a sense of community. Besser van der Kolk, psychiatrist and author of The Body Keeps the Score, has spent many years researching the range of ways to heal, notes the benefits of capoeira has in people because it helps people relate to their bodies and improves their sense of self control. Students will learn to apply the capoeira concept of physically avoiding or dodging movements to real life by learning to make choices to dodge or avoid negative energy or situations that happen in life. They will also have tools to work through their feelings so that they can release any negative feelings and not stuff them or hide them. |
| Where would your project take place? | The project will take place at RISE Chattanooga's 2 main facilities with gross area of over 14,000 square feet along with three parcels of land) located in the historic Glass Farms District in East Chattanooga. |
| How much will your project cost in total? | 22500 |
| Do you have any matching funding sources from other local governments, private entities, non-profits, or philanthropic entities for your project? | Yes |
| Please describe the source and list amounts of any other funding. | $9,000 for space- RISE Chattanooga is providing the space for the summer program at no cost to the MNGK Garvey Program. The typical cost for renting space is $50 per hour. MNGK Garvey Program will be using the space for a total of 180 hours over the cost of 6 weeks. The cost to rent is $9,000. $214.86 for Insurance- MNGK Garvey Program will cover the cost of all general and professional liability insurance and wokrman's comp for the program. $1500 for admin work- The director of MNGK Garvey Program, Monica Ellison, who is responsible for admin for the summer program will be donating her time. Ten hours of work a week is required for the execution of the program. She will work for 60 hours over the course of the 6 week summer program at a rate of $25 per hour. |
| What portion of the project are you asking the city to fund? | MNGK Garvey Program is requesting $22,500 to fund the pay for teaching artists for the 6 week Capoeira Summer Program. Each teaching artist is paid $150 per class. There will be 150 classes offered during the six week program. 5 classes per day (Music, Conditioning, Tumbling, Dance and Capoeira) 5 classes x 5 days = 25 classes per week 25 classes x 6 weeks = 150 classes 150 classes x $150 (cost of class) = $22,500 The teaching artists for the program will be Aaron Ellison and Monica Ellison. Aaron Ellison will teach music, tumbling and capoeira. Monica Ellison will teach dance and conditioning. Monica Ellison's Bio Monica (Coates) Ellison was born and raised in Baltimore, MD. Her early dance training began with Ms. Ava Fields who encouraged her to audition for TWIGS. Monica was accepted and danced in the TWIGS program from 6th-8th grade and graduated from the Baltimore School for the Arts in 2000. She earned a BFA in Dance Performance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. Highlights of her professional performance credits include ensemble work with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company 2 (Dayton, OH), principal work with Balance Dance Theatre (Brooklyn, NY), and guest work with Sudden Enlightenment Theatre (Queens, NY) including a performance in Seoul, Korea. Her last work before heading south was at the North Shore Music Theatre Company (Beverly, MA) as an ensemble dancer in the off Broadway production of Susan Stroman's CONTACT directed by Tome Cousin. Monica's teaching career began in Chattanooga, TN where she has taught ballet, pointe, modern and jazz for beginner- advanced levels at various dance studios. She has had the pleasure and good fortune to dance and choreograph many dances in Chattanooga including choreographing for two operas at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Treemonisha and The Gondoliers. She mostly recently taught as a lead dance instructor for the Creative Arts Guild/Ballet Dalton in Dalton, GA. Monica and her husband Aaron "Cherokee" had a desire to make a larger impact in their community and founded Move N Groove Kidz in 2019, a mobile movement with music company that offers classes on site at preschools and K -12 schools in the Greater Chattanooga area. They are also the founding directors of MNGK (Move N Groove Kidz) Garvey Program non profit which offers movement with music to participating preschools at no cost to families and Capoeira Chattanooga. |
| If funded, when would your project start? | June 13, 2022 |
| How long would your project take to complete? | 6 weeks |
| What milestones would you use to measure your project’s progress? | This is an example of how milestones will be measured during the program. This example is in regard to the capoeira class, but a similar outline will be used for the dance, acrobatics, conditioning and music classes as well as evaluating the sense of community being built by the diverse student body. Effectiveness will be measured each week. At the end of each week students will show improved 1. Body movements 2. Singing while playing instruments 3. Sense of global awareness 4. Community while working in pairs and as a group The effectiveness of improved body movements will be measured by the instructor giving verbal cues to students and the students executing the movements. ● At the end of each week students will either get closer to squatting properly which is great for the head tail connection in the body or they will be able to squat longer. Other examples include raising legs higher while executing moves, beginning with bear crawls at the start of the year, which will help students get comfortable putting weight on their hands, and building to au (cartwheels), basic handstands and basic head stands for some students and more advanced for other students. Cues will be given in Brazilian Portuguese which will also show that students are learning vocabulary from another language and culture. The effectiveness of singing while playing instruments will be measured by the instructor leading the students in call and response songs sung in Brazilian Portuguese and the students entering the song at the appropriate time with their voice and with instruments. ● Students will begin by focusing simply on playing the instruments alone and singing alone. Then both components will be put together. The year will begin with basic songs and will progress to more complex songs. The effectiveness of an improved sense of global awareness will be measured by the instructor asking students questions about the two geographic locations, peoples and cultures responsible for the creation of capoeira. ● Students will learn that capoeira comes from Brazil. Throughout the class students will learn that the roots of capoeira are African specifically from Angola. They will learn how capoeira spread from Brazil to the rest of the world. The effectiveness of improved community while working in pairs and as a group will be measured by the instructor randomly grouping students in pairs to execute movements at various points during class and by gathering all students as a group to work together at the end of class. ● Students will begin the program working in pairs that come naturally to them but through the course of the program will be challenged to work with others. Research has shown that making music, singing and moving together helps to create a sense of community. Each class students will do all three components throughout class and at the end of each class will come together as a group to practice all three components together. At the end of the 6 weeks, the students will demonstrate a mini roda (circle of movement) will occur to showcase the efforts of the students. This will be open to the community. |
| How would you ensure accountability and transparency throughout the project lifecycle? | MNGK Garvey Program has an open door policy. All members of the community are welcome to observe a class once an appointment is made in advance. In addition to this the staff and directors of RISE Chattanooga will observe classes weekly in order to see the program in action. |
| If successful, how would your project benefit the community? | This project will be beneficial to the community because it will offer a creative outlet to neurodiverse and neurotypical learners while fostering community among them after years of inconsistency and isolation due to the pandemic. |
| How will you attract community buy-in for your project? | MNGK Garvey Program will attract community buy in for the project by continuing to offer its free bi monthly capoeira events throughout the community at locations such as Community Haven and the Hunter Museum. The organization will also continue to hold free weekly classes on Friday nights at Avondale Recreation Center. These events are held consistently so that people in the community can experience capoeira. The organization will create and dispense flyers advertising the summer program information. MNGK Garvey Program is very fortunate to have RISE Chattanooga as a partner and can advertise to its much broader audience. |
| Name | Monica Ellison |
| Contact Information | monica@mngkgarveyprogram.org 423-445-2805 |
| Is there anything else you would like us to know about your project? | Please check out this video to see the work that was done in the community during the height of the pandemic using capoeira. https://youtu.be/Zp5MFyfeFt8 |