Reed Magazine Feb. 2001

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Founded by five artists in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts is dedicated to fomenting art as a form of community outreach. Today the EBCPA, one of a handful of such institutions in the nation, has a budget of $1.5 million and a staff of some 70 full- and part-time teachers; it reaches over 1,800 students a year. Tuition prices are rock-bottom, and many low-income students pay nothing at all. Some students acknowledge that if the center hadn’t provided a place to go, they’d have gravitated to, ahem, questionable pursuits.

 

It’s not just ars gratia artis, either. Simmons feels that the connection between artistic expression, self-esteem, and academic performance is a very real one. “Creativity is linked to perception,” he says. “We’re involved in research on how perception is linked to critical thinking skills. So in doing art we emphasize ‘effective experience’. We break down an artist’s repertoire and analyze it, and see how the students react. We put a premium on doing the work. And young people take that and apply it in other areas of their life.” Many students, and their parents, report that their grades and general outlook improve dramatically after getting involved with the center.

 

“Sure, these streets can be mean sometimes. But with a little effort people can turn themselves around. ”



Simmons and his daughter, Genevieve

Simmons and his daughter, Genevieve

 

The EBCPA isn’t just a place to hang out, however. “We’re interested in developing our students artistically, creatively,” Simmons says. “Sure, these streets can be mean sometimes. But with a little effort”—he gestures out the window of his cramped office—“people can turn themselves around. There’s a tendency to pathologize the poor, but all of us just need a chance to develop our creativity, to express ourselves.” At the heart of the center’s activities are the classes it offers, which range from beginning violin, chamber music, and ballet to West African drumming, capoeira, and Mien (Laotian) traditional singing. Additionally, the center’s programs produce a large number of public performances each year, from an inner-city vision of Sophocles’ Antigone to plays and films about date rape, teen pregnancy, gang violence, and substance abuse. It has brought in artists from as far away as Japan and Ghana, working in conjunction with schools and community institutions.


In a forgotten, almost invisible community, art can serve as town crier. Simmons recalls one example from the mid-1990s: The same week as the infamous “101 California” attack in San Francisco, in which a vengeful gunman invaded a law office and shot several victims, some 16 young people were killed in poor communities in the East Bay.

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