10/31/2018 0 Comments AWAP (As Wholesome As Possible)Happy Halloween from all of us here at Trenton Circus Squad! We’ve had a busy day embracing all the festivities of the season, hard at work preparing a Halloween-themed party for the Squad. In the morning, we split up to accomplish different tasks; Melea, Jean, and Betsy went to ShopRite to stock up on food, Isla and Claire went to the Princeton Surplus store to get furniture to renovate the squad’s office space, while Julie and Ben stayed behind at the Center for FaithJustice to bake cookies for our party (Ben played a CRUCIAL role: inspiration for Julie). We reconvened for lunch, a nice pesto pasta dinner, courtesy of Julie. It was very delicious. After lunch, we went looking for a party store to buy supplies for the party. We almost went to a very run-down store called Dollar Dollar Dollar Dollar Deals, but instead we went to Dollar Party Plus. We got streamers, which we put up in the factory, the circusy place where circusy things happen. Claire and Isla went to Pennsylvania on a failed trip to dispose of old filing cabinets. On the bright side, they brought a desk they picked up from the Surplus store into the office, and it looks really nice! Ben and Jean got some good footage during practice for a thank-you video for donors.
We ordered a big dinner from 1911 BBQ for the squad. We had wings, pulled pork, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, sweet candied yams, fruit and cheese, and lots of candy! They all thanked us for the feast. We had very good conversations over dinner. Ben talked to one of the instructors who had moved here from Jamaica five years ago. He talked about how circus helped him navigate the transition. After dinner, we organized an amazing costume contest. We split up randomly into groups of two and had ten minutes to put together a partner costume from the stash of costumes the Squad owns. Costumes included Shrek, Fiona and the Donkey; Traditional Irish Fairies; Ghostbusters; Sexy Clowns, and many more! We all had a good laugh, and in the end voting by applause made the team with an old man and his wife win. They then got to do face-paint for one of the instructors. After the party, we had a cookie-decorating station and bonded over sneaking on people to get frosting on their faces. We then cleaned up, hugged our friends good-bye, and went home. On the whole, we all feel like we’ve gotten to know members of the Squad on a deeper level today. We can’t believe tomorrow is the last day we’ll be spending time with them, and saying good-bye today was already tinged with bittersweetness because we know our time together is running out. None of us expected to make such good friends on this trip, and we will cherish the time we have left. Some quotes from the day: “It was such a mess” - Isla “Yeah, I feel like that’s just a theme of your life” – Betsy “Read this with an educated accent” “Say more.” – Betsy “More.”- Julie “No. Say more.”- Betsy “MORE.”- Julie “NO!”- Betsy With love, Jimmy Biscuits
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10/30/2018 0 Comments Unicycling is hardToday we slept in, which was for many of us the first chance to catch up on sleep since starting classes on September 12th. With this abundance of time we cooked up some delicious pancakes for a group brunch. Fuelled and ready to go, we set out once again for the Trenton Circus Squad Factory. With no further ado, we got to work on our projects.
While Isla and Claire were organising the office, the rest of the team got the chance to speak with Melea’s former aerial arts instructor and company director, Joanna Haigood. Facetiming in from the San Francisco Bay Area, she told us about how her background in dance influenced the way that she practiced and choreographed aerial arts. We learnt how Zaccho, Joana’s youth company, had a major impact on its members development by encouraging them to reflect and create. In this way, their young people grow in consciousness as well as technique Operating in a similar area to Trenton Circus Squad, the social aspect was also important to Zaccho and helped us relate their experience to the experience of Trenton Circus Squad. After our conversation and some more work on projects, we got a beginner’s lesson on the unicycle from a member of the King Charles’ Troupe, famed for their basketball on unicycles act. We found it to be ‘five time as hard as we expected,’ ‘hard, that’s like, yeah…’, ‘our left shins are bruised’, ‘wait, my right shins are bruised’, ‘OMG look at my bruise’, ‘spicy’. To conclude, a challenge. Nevertheless, we persevered and (most of us) got a little bit better. After finishing up, we had our second dinner with the squad, meeting new members and getting to know them better. We’re really enjoying this opportunity to meet students of different ages, it’s nice to mix with people of very different ages, which doesn’t happen often while at college. Their aspirations, interests and stories are a joy to hear, and remind us of life as a high schooler. After a break, we returned to the performance area, getting to see the advanced unicycling class while trying new tricks ourselves. A particular favourite today was the chinese pole, a tall pole with high friction that can be climbed up, hung off and slipped down. There we tried various tricks including the flying frog. After a tiring practice, we called it a day, cleaning up and heading home. Much love, Jimmy Biscuits 10/29/2018 0 Comments True poetry is saying nothing at all.We abruptly woke up to the sound of children screaming inside our building.
After breakfast, we hustled over to meet with Ben Thornton, outreach director of Anchor House. Anchor House is a program that addresses youth homelessness by sheltering young people and supporting them in their transition to adulthood. Our conversation with him was really enlightening and gave us insight into the complexities and nuances of the factors that lead to youth homelessness. For example, even the term "homelessness" is widely misunderstood-- many youth shy away from the term due to its connotations and are thus discouraged from reaching out for support despite their technically homeless situations. We also learned that the low visibility of youth homelessness in Trenton results in it being generally underacknowledged, despite it being a huge public health issue. Then we headed over to the Trenton Circus Squad factory and had an unscheduled appointment with the Trenton police. After successfully turning off the burgler alarm, we settled in to eat our packed lunches and start working on our projects. We then met Tom, the other founder (besides Zoe) of the Trenton Circus Squad, and after some brief introductions with Tom we had one-on-ones with Zoe to discuss our individual projects. This gave us a clearer idea on how to go about successfully working on our projects. Later in the afternoon, the youths of the squad arrived. Until dinnertime, the squad ran workshop stations for younger children to learn everything from tight-wire walking and unicycling to pole-climbing and silks. We had the privilege of being able to join in on these workshops, and learned all sorts of tricks from very talented young'uns. We had a wonderful time getting sore and falling off things. Over dinner, Julie chatted with a squad member who was learning both Chinese and Korean! Ben met a triplet who was also at the squad for his first time. We're looking forward to getting to know everyone better over the next few days. After dinner, we played ball-catching and person-tagging games with the squad. It was cool to feel like kids again after 2 months of pretending to be adults. Favorite circus tricks learned! Jean: trapeze Ben: climbing the Chinese pole Melea: rolling ball Claire: trampoline! Isla: duo lyra with Taj Julie: loved the silks even though they hurt Betsy: got disproportionately excited about making it 5 inches on a unicycle before falling And that concludes today's blog post! See you all tomorrow! With Love, Jimmy Biscuits 10/28/2018 0 Comments TalkingToday we went on a tour with Dave Brown of the Pace Center. First, we walked around the area nearby the Trenton Circus Squad and discussed the influence of historical legislation on the city’s current economic state (e.g., housing, education). We got coffee (and an incredible avocado espresso smoothie!!) at Trenton Coffee House and saw the second smallest bike of the week––a folding bike owned by the coffee shop’s founder. We talked to the owners of the Trenton Coffee House about how the lack of oversight and regulation can actually encourage creative endeavors in Trenton. On our walking tour, we met Shaun Jenkins and his vintage car Shadow. We really like Dave. We really like Shaun. It was interesting to talk to locals about the city. We had lunch at a diner where some more adventurous (and temporarily carnivorous) members of the trip tried scrapple. After our tour we drove back to the Center for FaithJustice. We discussed aerial safety and the watched performance videos by the trip leaders and other aerialists. Then we made dinner. ’Twas really delicious. Then we talked for hours about whether universal morality exists. Now were are writing a blog. Doce de leche is on the cooker. The theme of the day is talking. We talked to Dave and Shaun and the guys at the Trenton Coffee House. We talked a lot with each other. How can one blog post be so different from another? This blogpost is following the theme of diversity. A token blogpost. 10/28/2018 0 Comments On Trent onFree verse poetry of the day: Break out. FROKE out! Horizontal solidarity. Rota. Calamari. Salad. “Is this what marinara looks like in the states?” Ruth and Zoe. Groceries. More groceries. freezing. Hard or soft shell tacos? Is there a ghost in our house? More to come. Hey guys! Welcome to our blog, where we, the Social Circus Princeton Breakout Trip group, hope to document the ups (and downs) of our week long trip. We are currently in Princeton’s backyard of Trenton, NJ to work with the Trenton Circus Squad. The Trenton Circus Squad is a non profit organization that provides opportunities for local youth to learn and teach circus arts. Their mission is to encourage young people to realize their potential and power to set and reach goals, and share their knowledge with others. Not only will we be working and practicing directly with the Squad in the upcoming days, but also we will be creating a promotional video, updating the website, taking stock of the equipment, compiling relevant literature, sorting photos, and, most importantly, throwing a spooky, freaky, and creepy crawly Halloween party. Today started rough. We were stranded and starving at the Wawa. None among us had known such hardship, or tasted such “bad” food. But there was a rainbow at the end of the storm. It came in the form of a Chrysler. We rolled out and made it all the way to Trenton to meet with co-founder Zoe and Squad alum Ruth of the Trenton Circus Squad. We were given the run down on the organization as a whole and what we would be working on this week. From Trenton Circus Squad we trekked one store down to Trentini’s, the most Italian of all the spanish restaurants. As we “watered” and dined, we planned our groceries for the week. We seven retreatants, with trolleys three, did set upon that bizarre Bazaar with glee. Divide and conquer with a plan, with our trusty iCloud notes in hand. With a tip of the hat and a shallow bow, we came to the Center of Faith Justice. It is big, it is empty, and it is cosy. We love it. Dinner was specTACOlar. TACO bout a great first meal made together. But in all seriousness, we are super excited to see what is to come. After sitting down with Zoe, we were able to better understand the support we would be able to provide in whatever the Trenton Circus Squad needed. We hope that we will be able to develop relationships with the youth even over the short period of time. It has been great getting to know one another and getting to know Trenton. lowfive, JIMJ BCB (pronounced: JIH-mee BISS-kits) |
Trip LeadersIsla Weber '21 grew up in Indiana amongst a family of artists, musicians, and performers. She has been doing aerials for 8 years and teaching for 3 and is excited to share circus arts and the many benefits it brings with the Princeton community and beyond. In the case that she doesn’t run away with the circus in the next few years, she plans to major in Neuroscience on the Premed track (maybe Cirque Du Soleil is looking for a new onsite doctor?). ArchivesCategories |