Faith Curriculum Library: Tapestry of Faith: Heeding the Call: A Program on Justicemaking for Junior High School Youth

Spiritual Preparation

The creative process often surprises people as they allow imagination to take hold. A painter may use different colors or paint a different scene than first imagined. A dancer may discover new steps when letting imagination unfold. Improvisational theater offers wonderful opportunities to encounter the freeing up of one's imagination. If you are able to experience improvisation in a group this may be a way to explore the intersection of imagination, vision and social justice work with youth. Much of the developmental process for youth is imaginative exploration. Youth is improv! Improvisation can be scary even as it is liberating. You can create a simple improv for yourself or with your co-leader. Start with an object (say, an apple) and then hold it out in front of you and finish this sentence, "This is... " You can use any words to describe the object. Try using different tones of voice. Allow yourself to express different emotions. Now consider doing something with the object (for example, toss the apple to your co-leader and then they finish the sentence). Let the interaction with the object unfold. After a few minutes of playing with this process ask yourself if your imagination came into play. Facilitating workshops with youth requires a lot of imagination! How does this feel to you? Now, consider how thinking outside the box moves the dream of justice for all of us forward. Dream!