Positive Cool Program for PCYC Students and Area Youth Produces "Phenomenal Dream" Production

It's 3:00 p.m. and school is out for the day.  It’s a time when some teens are more likely to get into trouble if they have nothing better to do.  

At PCYC, however, it's a time when about 20 teens and young adults stay after school each day to learn how to create their own original music and produce it on CDs.  They also learn dance, spoken word, monologues, and other aspects of the creative arts. 

What they learned helped prepare them to take part in a live performance of their artistic work before their friends, family, and general public held February 1 at PCYC’s Capri Theater in a production called “Phenomenal Dream.”

The auditorium was filled with standing room only, and the audience was supportive and enthusiastic.  Most of the students who either performed, or had responsibilities behind the scenes for the production had never been involved in such an undertaking.

The “Phenomenal Dream” production is only one example of the activities being offered in a new after school and summer program at PCYC specifically designed for teens and young adults.  The title, Phenomenal Dream, was inspired by excerpts the students read from Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” poem, and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

The after school program, “Positive Cool,” offers engaging and alluring activities, such as the creative arts, that capture the interest of teens,” said Kathleen Butts, Co-Director of PCYC’s Alternative High School.

While those who attend Positive Cool are mostly students at PCYC’s Alternative School, the program is open to all teens in the community, said Butts.  A few of the Positive Cool participants attend school in Hopkins . Students in the Minneapolis Public Schools can get additional class credits for participating. 

The activities include visual and theater arts, spoken word and music production, and dance and freestyle. 

The idea of using the arts to attract teens into healthier activities grew out of PCYC’s Alternative School experience of integrating cultural arts into the school’s curriculum, said Butts.

“I have always been a strong advocate of arts in the schools,” she said.  “If you have students who don’t like coming to school or community activities, what are you going to do to get them excited enough to come?”

“We have done this successfully in the past, but on a small scale, due to funding limitations,” she said.  Thanks to a two-year grant from the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support, PCYC was able to expand arts programming into a community wide program for teens throughout the West Metro area.

Why develop an after school program for teens?  “Studies have shown that it is the hours after school when teenagers tend to get into trouble,” Butts said.  She said that an incident that occurred last November is an example of how Positive Cool can provide an attractive alternative to youth who could be lured by the negative influences of a subculture that often includes gang activities, sexual conquests, and lack of academic achievement.

Last November a group with several police-identified members of a gang came to PCYC at the end of the school day, refused to leave, and were engaging in intimidating behavior. They were not connected with either the school or Positive Cool. The police were called.

Apparently they were looking for three young men at PCYC  who had engaged in some "wanna be" gang behavior earlier in the summer claiming, to be a rival gang of the Tre-Tre clique. All three young men are Positive Cool participants, and at the time of this potentially violent conflict, they were busy recording beats in the music production studio. Rather than hanging on the streets, these young men were learning how to use computer software to create and record original music. They are still coming to Positive Cool.

It will be at least a year before the effectiveness of the program can be fully evaluated. However, some other positive changes among the Positive Cool students who attend the Alternative High School have been observed including improved classroom attendance and less disruptive behavior. 

Positive Cool students are also holding each other accountable for commitments they make to each other.

For example, last January, one of the students asked her teacher if she could use the school phone.  She wanted to call another student who was absent from school and rehearsal.

“That is the kind of positive peer pressure which can be most effective,” Butts said. 

With the February performance under their belt, a group of six Positive Cool students are forming a “traveling troupe.”  They plan to do a mini performance for students at other Alternative Schools in Minneapolis . 

“They are crafting the positive messages they want to bring to other youth through spoken word presentations and discussions,” said Butts.