OtherWorlds Fair 2024
In 2024 youth used flora and fauna as a connecting theme for all of their work. They collaborated with other specialty groups and NYC-based youth organizations to collectively produce ten showcase projects, workshops and performances.
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Food & Science 2024
The youth in the Food & Science group explored different cultural dishes from each other's backgrounds all summer long.
Youth learned about ingredients and their uses, cooking techniques, cultural tradition and food waste. They researched, tested, and re-created familiar recipes with one another as a way of sharing their stories and connecting with one another. They archived their process and recipes in a website to share with the public that they called The Big Feast.
Using fresh flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables as tools for art-making, the group developed a workshop for the festival involving potato carving and printmaking with fresh produce! Festival goers were invited to play with their food and make their own colorful designs on fabric.
Youth collaborated with Collective Fare to test out their ideas and share their recipes during studio day.
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Music & Performance 2024
Youth in the Music & Performance group digitally produced music, learned about music histories, performed live music and choreographed dances that felt relevant to them and their experiences.
With choreography featuring African, Caribbean and Afro-Carribean styles taught by youth leads, the group was able to find cultural connections through movement. Working together to create original beats spanning multiple genres allowed youth to explore and share their unique personal tastes and learn about music production.
The team developed a percussive instrument making workshop to engage the public in the act of beat making! They used bells, wooden rods, and digitally fabricated parts to create paddles that allowed the public to experiment with percussion and make something they could take home.
Youth Collaborated with Building Beats to develop their dances, and learn new music production techniques in preparation for the performances during the fair.
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Fashion & Textiles 2024
Using fabrics, flowers, beads, hand-made patterns and their own creativity, youth in the Fashion & Textiles team spent six weeks creating custom garments that formed a collection inspired by the four seasons of their collective “otherworld,” which they debuted in a fashion show that brought together youth from all of the five studios.
The team showcased the skills they learned and shared the process with the public through a bleach dying workshop they created for the festival. They demonstrated for participants how to use stencils and work freehand with varying strengths of bleach to create unique effects on fabric tote bags.
Youth collaborated with Black Girls Sew to exchange sewing skills and get assistance in creations for the day of the fair.
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Storytelling & Narrative Media 2024
Youth in the Storytelling & Narrative Media group worked together to design and build an otherworldly mangrove tree, draped in charms, feathers and stories.
They chose the mangrove tree to bring their objects together because their tangled root systems represent interconnectedness and community, and their branches symbolize strength and adaptability. They built and finished custom longboards that were decorated with natural symbolism to transport them, literally and figuratively.
Using beading as a mode of storytelling, the team developed a bracelet-making workshop that invited the public to tell their own stories at the festival through the choice of simple words or phrases in response to prompts related to personal narrative, the seasons and positive memories.
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Design & Fabrication 2024
The Design & Fabrication team designed and built Big Bloom, an enormous spinning flower pavilion, through a thorough process of brainstorming, prototyping, and collaborative building.
The team started by modeling to scale, then built the foundation and flower of Big Bloom using dyed wood, welded metal, ball bearings, pipe, paper mache and silk. The result was somewhere between a gazebo and an amusement park ride, creating a larger-than-life flora that dazzled guests at the festival who could control its movement using a handmade wheel.
The team invited children and adults alike to engage in their flower baby scavenger hunt, hiding custom metal insects and creatures around the festival grounds to be found using riddles. The prize for all who participated was the opportunity to make and take home a seed bomb.
Youth collaborated with Green Guerillas to share and get feedback on their design processes.
See OtherWorlds Fair projects from other years: