ABOUT
MEDIA

In 2005, five individuals united with the mission of building KIPP AMP Academy. On that team, it was my role to create a school culture that held capoeira at it's core. Under my tutelage, almost 300 children have gained exposure to this culturally relevant art form. These students, ages 10 - 14, have matured physically, socially and emotionally through capoeira. They have not only developed the confidence to perform and explore their strengths and weaknesses in front of each other, but in front of audiences in major NYC arenas and in several other states. My students have benefited tremendously from their exposure to a culture that is different from their own, yet speaks so clearly to who they are. They have forever connected their Brooklyn realities to a major aspect of Brasilian culture, and the even larger proliferation of capoeira throughout the world. The plan is that the students' capoeira experience will come full circle in a trip to Brasil. In a service-learning trip, the students will have a chance to give back to the people and the art that have inspired us over the past four years.

 

BREAK…DANCE…FIGHT: My Introduction to The Art
In 1999 I started training capoeira. Almost instantly I fell in love with the art form, realizing more and more each day what a positive effect training was having on my life. In 2001 I wrote a proposal seeking a grant to develop community and school programs centered around capoeira.

 

BRAINSTORM OVER BRUNCH: The Concept
When the founding principal of KIPP: AMP  (Always Mentally Prepared) Academy contacted me about integrating capoeira into the school and essentially creating a theme around the art form, I dusted off the proposal I had written years earlier. It turned out to be the perfect fit for the new Brooklyn middle school with the well-known brand.

 

SEMPRE NA RODA: Year One
The first year of AMP we started with 64 kids from Brooklyn, 1 from Queens. I introduced them all to the fundamentals of capoeira, as I had learned them from Mestre Jelon and his students in Capoeira Brasil (now Capoeira Luanda). My students took to capoeira right away, and myself, my fiancé, and members from our capoeira family introduced the kids to something that we believed would affect their lives forever, if they let it. That first year was magical, and it was all about training. Every chance we got we lived and breathed capoeira. The energy of the art form permeated the entire school.

 

FOUR WALLS TO FREEDOM: Year Two & Beyond
Between years two, three and four, three more fifth grade classes were added to the KIPP AMP population. That's almost 300 children exposed to capoeira in four years. During that time, the kids trained physical capoeira, learned how to play music, sing songs and speak capoeira-related Portuguese. I introduced the kids to Liberdade, the classroom component of their capoeira experience, named after a neighborhood in Bahia, Brasil where cultural and historical pride reign supreme.

 

 Creative Commons License Cultural Thematices by Nicole Lavonne Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

 

  

 

    

“Capoeira has given me the ability to push myself. I used to never like to go beyond my limits, and now I always try to. It helps me come out of my comfort zone. In one word, capoeira is FREEDOM.”

- Zoe Sumner a.k.a. Zoom Zoom (founding 8th grader)



Program Successes

A great number of working elements contributed to the success of capoeira as the school’s cultural theme. An intentional blend of talent, knowledge and passion for the art form, and an understanding of the community we were serving were just some of the keys components. Some of the greatest accomplishments have been:
  • the introduction of almost 300 students to capoeira, Brasil and a world outside of their own

  • the creation of  a culturally relevant theme within the school

  • the creation of a Capoeira and Afro-Brasilian/diasporic curriculum

  • the creation of a staff handbook on capoeira and the culture of the school

  • Liberdade, the classroom component of the kids’ capoeira experience
  • a broadened, socially-responsible sense of self (for the students) achieved through a connection to Blacks in the diaspora

  • improved student health

  • the expansion of Mestre Jelon’s vision of bringing capoeira into the lives of Black children

  • the opportunities provided for capoeiristas

  • the introduction of intellectual (t-shirt) design into a public school setting

  • trusting, lasting relationships with the students

  • excellent parent communication and support

  • 4 batizados: 65 – 275 students (including those held at the Prospect Park Picnic House and the Brooklyn Lyceum)

  • 4 year-end performances in major NYC venues (including Lincoln Center and Madison Square Garden)

  • 4 holiday shows with a capoeira focus

  • out of state capoeira excursions with select students

  • a comprehensive, week-long 8th grade service-learning trip to Brasil