Asheville Earth Day 2012 was a great one for LEAF in Schools & Streets, which took in $4,000 in wristband sales at the Lexington Avenue festival.
LEAF Teaching Artist Erinn Huntley and some of her students gave the crowd a taste of their drama skillswith a couple rounds of “question tennis,” in which the kids must maintain a dialogue of asking questions back and forth for as long as possible, without making any declarative statements.
Play begins when the first player “serves” a question and the second player must respond to the question with another question.
LI program changes lives, reveals creative passions in students
The LEAF International Guatemala music program is at the Cedin school (Child Aid's Montessori Preschool Program) in El Tejar, Guatemala, near Chimaltenango. The school is based on a Montesorri education system that allows students to explore their interests, abilities and aptitudes.
The school provides education to children who are ages 3 to 10 years old and many of the parents can’t afford to pay for school so they donate what they have: beans, rice, paper, etc.
About 30 percent of the students are Mayan and the rest are Ladino. In 2001, 46 out of 111 children were underweight when they arrived at the beginning of the school year. However, at Cedin, the students receive two meals a day. After only three months, the children had reached a healthy weight. The children of El Tejar often start working when they are as young as 6, by mixing clay for bricks. El Tejar is known for the production of candles, textiles and musical instruments.
LI buys instruments mostly from local artisans. The local school offers many scholarships to the families so their children can attend.
Reyna Argueta Muñoz and Mario Figueroa Niche are two students who have benefitted from this program.
Bless these drums with the love that brings us together and may love rain down like thunder -- “Blessing of the Drums” - Author Unknown
When Adama Dembele plays his drum, it’s as though his heart is beating outside his body.
The experience is an intimate one, forged through 33 generations of his family who have also played this deceptively simple instrument - the djembe - a drum traditionally composed of wood and goat skin.
It’s so closely woven into his life that the home in which he was raised on the Ivory Coast was known as the house where the djembe is played.
“The djembe is made for deep communication between villages,” Adama says.
“Births, illnesses, deaths - there’s a rhythm I can play so that everybody can know what’s going on."
Hip-Hop gives kids the chance to shine at spring LEAF
She’s only 21, but D`jenné Henry has been dancing practically since she could walk. It’s something she has in common with the kids she’s teaching the basics of Hip-Hop dance at Isaac Dickson Elementary on this beautiful late winter day.
“I want to show them that if they can move, they can dance,” she said. “Whether it’s playing basketball or jumping rope, they can dance.”
LSS reaches out to Klondyke families through music
On this warm late winter evening, the community center at Klondyke Homes in Asheville is buzzing with kids thrilled to get a slice of pizza,to dance, sing and maybe even try playing a drum or two.
The kids are just having fun. And that’s a big part of the goal. The other is to engage them in playing music, regularly.
The LEAF International Guatemala music program is at the Cedin school (Child Aid's Montessori Preschool Program) in El Tejar, Guatemala, near Chimaltenango. The school is based on a Montesorri education system that allows students to explore their interests, abilities and aptitudes. 
