Flockstock ’09
Sara Fleetwood, GCSU alumna who earned a bachelor’s of art, coordinated all of the events going on this month to benefit a cause she is passionate about.
From June to July 2007, Fleetwood set out to do her part, after much correspondence with the director of Make a Difference.
“I was very impressed by the genuine interest (the director) took in me and my desire to volunteer. So the summer after my sophomore year, my best friend and I ventured off to Zambia for one month,” Fleetwood said. “It was such a wonderful experience that we are both going to return this year for a more extended period of time.”
Fleetwood’s passion for underprivileged children and families gave her the dedication to organize and plan Flockstock.
“We have actually been thinking about doing a month long fundraiser at Blackbird for over a year,” Fleetwood said. “After I got back from Zambia It became apparent to me that what we as Americans consider very little money can do a lot in impoverished areas of the world.”
John Fogleman, senior liberal arts major and barista at Blackbird, helped Sara organize the events for Flockstock.
“We originally wanted to do (Flockstock) about a year and a half ago but we didn’t have enough time to plan it. Seeing it come to fruition and actually happen is awesome,” Fogleman said. “The amount of community support we have received has been really mind-blowing.”
Beginning with the trip to Zambia, Fleetwood fell in love with the children and saw Flockstock as her way of giving back.
“My trip to Zambia was probably the best, most life changing experience I have ever had. Much of my time there was spent working in the orphanage just loving on the kids,” Fleetwood said. “We also worked in local schools teaching English and reading, working on gardens, digging a well, spending time with the young people at a local youth center and just getting to know the people and learning about the beautiful culture.”
According to the World Bank, 73 percent of the population of Zambia is living below the poverty line. The money raised for MAD goes to help educate and provide for underprivileged children in India, Zambia and Tanzania so they can begin to move out of this dire situation.
“Many of these people had so little but were still so joyful. It taught me a lot about appreciating what I have and to take nothing for granted,” Fleetwood said.
After returning from Zambia, Fleetwood brought her experiences back to GCSU to share with the community. The caged birds now on display at Blackbird are part of the Flockstock event and are also being used to help raise money for the children. In 2008, as part of her senior thesis exhibition, Fleetwood created these “BIRDS OF PEACE,” almost 400 hand sculpted birds and cages.
“The concept was inspired by the experiences I had and people I met while in Zambia. The birds represent the forgotten and subjugated people that have found themselves in situations beyond their control,” Fleetwood said. “The cages symbolize the conditions that have caused for oppression and injustice to become rampant.”
The birds are on sale this month to benefit MAD.
Another Flockstock event held to bring in an audience was a poetry night.
Poetry night on April 8 was held featuring Paul Grigsby, Tavias Bennett and Jerome German with Art as an Agent for Change. In addition to AAC’s act, it was an open mic night for the audience to present their poetry as well.
Paul Grigsby, GCSU alumnus and representative of AAC, was pleased to contribute to the Flockstock events.
‘”Art as an Agent for Change partnered with Blackbird’s poetry night poets and Flockstock to present a poetry jam for Make A Difference,” Grigsby said. “It’s a very noble cause, it creates a global effort to help those in need, I was glad that we were involved and a little grassroots organization from Milledgeville was able to help kids on the other side of the world.”
Fleetwood teamed up with the group for Blackbird’s poetry night and saw a large turnout for the cause.
“AAC seemed like a perfect organization to be involved with Flockstock because they are very focused on using their craft to make change,” Fleetwood said.
Blackbird will be hosting Flockstock all month, including performances by the Jazz Bandits, Friends of the Bird Jam and Sean McConnell.
“Blackbird is a perfect place to host something like this because we already host a lot of music, poetry, art and comedy events,” Fleetwood said. “The difference is that this month the proceeds will go towards a great cause.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Apr 17 2009. Filed under Features.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
