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
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
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 |