PASWORD and Project AWARE

• PASWORD & Project AWARE Rites of Passage – a cornerstone of the program’s structure, this culmination of each young woman’s involvement with PASWORD/Project AWARE celebrates her growth, development and artistic accomplishments throughout the program and hands her back into the arms of her family and community armed with words of wisdom from her elders and mentors within the program in a ceremony to acknowledge the circle of support within and around her…
• Looking Forward, Looking Back – In a stage production of music, dance and poetry developed by PASWORD Alumnae and performed at the Cunneen- Hackett Theatre, ancestors and descendants of today’s young women reach across time and space to offer their advice and words of wisdom to three troubled teens
• Pass It On – PASWORD Alumnae mentored Clinton Elementary School girls one-on-one, sharing ideas, field trips and arts-related activities for a full semester
• The Memories Project – an intergenerational mentoring between elders at the Vassar Warner Home and PASWORD girls culminating in a permanent installation of a series of co-created ‘Memory Boxes’
• Project AWARE – the sister program to PASWORD, developed in 2002 at the request of Beacon’s Rombout Middle School based on the dynamic success of PASWORD in Poughkeepsie
• UN60 – “Dohigesesdi – ‘Peace Over All Mother Earth’” – PASWORD Alumnae girls created ancestor dolls reflecting their individual heritages and dreamed a landscape (70”x80”) for them where they could live together in peace, reflecting the objectives of the United Nations on its 60’th anniversary celebration at the Presidential Library and Education Center in Hyde Park
• Clear the Air – PASWORD girls designed an anti-smoking campaign poster listing all the toxic ingredients in cigarettes for the Dutchess County Children’s Health Initiative for the Great American Smokeout. Sister program Project AWARE’s girls created a dramatic variation in which they surround the bier of a dead member at her wake, mourning her loss to a tobacco-related disease
• Word Is Bond – A PASWORD Poetry Slam – a poetry and spoken word performance produced by thirty alumnae and played to a packed house as an evening event at Mill Street Loft
• My Extraordinary Self – Performed on the stage at Bulldog Studios in Beacon, PASWORD & Project ABLE youth and teachers, family and friends watched Project AWARE Alumnae girls speak out their dreams and struggles in poetry, dance and fable and stand strong in a journey where they become powerful, mythic characters that reclaim a sulky, wandering sister…
• PASWORD Mural – Program girls beautified the back parking lot wall of Pro Guard Security, just off Main Street
• The PASWORD Quilt – Presented to Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus, this currently graces the main hall at Family Partnership. After studying styles and the history of quilting in the US, program girls developed their design and sewing skills working on individual pieces and arranging them into a group quilt reflecting their strengths, talents and cultures.
• PASWORD Mural II – A sense of safety & comfort – Program girls created a soft, gentle, flowing river scene to soothe the women and children who find their way to Poughkeepsie’s Children’s Resource Center, a counseling facility for young victims of Trauma & abuse– sometimes in the middle of the night
• True Stories to New Stories – a teen pregnancy & teen parenting production – drawing on oral histories shared by teen mothers and their families, PASWORD Alumnae Program girls created characters with poetry, improvisation, statistics and song to examine every perspective—and to offer alternative attitudes…
• New Faces of Immigration & Integration – a bi-lingual poetry & photography gallery exhibit – Mill Street Loft’ s contribution to the Poughkeepsie-wide celebration of the life of Alexander Hamilton. Through woven portraits and powerful, introspective poetry performed live in English & Spanish at the opening gallery reception, this PASWORD collaboration with Mill Street’s Latino youth program Habilidad offered teen perspectives on making a new land one’s home—without forsaking self or history…
• The Fourth Annual People’s Poetry Gathering, NYC – PASWORD & Project AWARE Alumnae were the sole teen contributors to I Am New York, a unique epic poem created throughout this national poetry conference that will be published later this year
• New Faces of Immigration & Integration – On the Move – the traveling version – part poetry slam, part portraiture in spoken word—and all teen voices and perspectives… this performance/exhibit expanded to include the voices of Project AWARE for its maiden voyage across the river in collaboration with the New Paltz Cultural Collective at their gallery & coffeehouse on Main Street
• Breathe Free / Respira Libre! – a tobacco awareness production and 5 PSAs – collaborating with Children’s Media Project PASWORD & Project AWARE Alumnae Program girls wrote, developed, performed in and helped shoot five public service announcements aimed at youth to be aired by Time-Warner & Cablevision beginning July 2006, and expanded their ideas into a live performance of drumming, drama, comedy & dance which premiered as a work-in-progress at Poughkeepsie’s Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center…
• Alumnae Mentors – a leadership initiative – the maturing young women of PASWORD & Project AWARE Alumnae Program develop group dynamics, communication, observation & leadership skills as they reach back to guide first-time participants on their journey through the PASWORD/Project AWARE experience…
• Breathe Free – On the Road – Alumnae Mentors take their newest Alumnae sisters into the schools with an assembly-length version of their tobacco awareness production…
• Party For Peace, Union Square, NYC – A Peaceways/Young United Nations-sponsored youth concert – Alumnae Mentors accompanied their program director to NYC to help offer the opening prayer and song at this concert celebrating the International Day of Peace
• Passing Words – Intergenerational reflections on the cares of today’s young women – In a dynamic “mentoring by example” exchange, nine Hudson Valley professional writers, performers & artists shared the stage – and gallery – with PASWORD & Project AWARE Alumnae & new graduates to let audiences know what’s really on girls’ minds…

For more information contact Joan Henry, PASWORD Coordinator at 845.471.7477