“I am earth being rebirthed. I will rise from myself again and again.” — Joycelyn Shroulate
ESPAÑOLA — At 16, Joycelyn Shroulate knows who she is: a junior at New Mexico School for the Arts, a Santa Fe Youth Poet Laureate runner-up and a Scholastic Award Medal winner. She also grew up seeing the tougher side of Española. Adults, she said, aren’t fooling anyone.
“So, like growing up in Española, I feel like, just as kids, we see all the things that go on here,” she told a group of state and local leaders at the grand opening of Bowie’s Backstage, a Launch Pad for Young Adults. The 2,400-square-foot media center is the newest expansion of Moving Arts Española, a center dedicated to providing a safe space for youth to explore and learn skills in the arts.
Shroulate was one of about 150 people recently at the Española dome — everyone from state lawmakers and local politicians to beauty queens. The expansion is the brainchild of Moving Arts’ own alumni.
“Last year we held the first alumni leadership workshop,” said co-founder Salvador Ruiz Esquivel. “They explored what Moving Arts needed, and they said they wanted a space for young adults.”
Shroulate was on the alumni team. “The concerns were heard,” she said.
Distinguishing older teens as young adults serves a good purpose, Ruiz Esquivel said.
“It gives them a little more weight, a little more persona,” he said. “It puts a little bit more responsibility on their actions, and it lifts them up morally.”
“I am the smell of the food from the houses of my grandparents. I am from the taste of fresh tortillas and butter.”
“We like to ask the children, ‘Who are you?’ ” Ruiz Esquivel said. “It is so important that these children know who they are and that they have a voice to speak who they are.”
The children write their ideas down, the essence of their inner selves. Ruiz Esquivel then takes a photograph of the child and pairs it with their identity statement.
“This is their testing ground,” said Ruiz Esquivel’s partner, state Rep. Roger Montoya. “Once they find dance, drama or culinary arts, they use that base to build their self-esteem, and many times, to rise from the hotbed of trauma and violence and drug addiction, the things that really cripple human beings.”
It is the theme on which Moving Arts is built. The circus-like dome houses 16,000 square feet of arts learning space where instruction is offered in dance, gymnastics, drama, music, culinary and visual arts to as many as 450 students per week. Students come to learn to sew or play guitar, sing or dance.
Bowie’s provides an added layer with space more suitable for older teens. Rooms offer couches, desks with computers, still and moving cameras, performance areas and a small stage with drums and other musical equipment. There, students ages 13 to 25 enroll in classes for video and movie production, editing and music production along with counseling and comprehensive behavioral health services.
“Because of so much trauma that we have in the community — drug use, alcoholism, parents separated and children being raised by grandparents — the kids have introverted personalities,” Ruiz Esquivel said. “They’re shy and fearful, so we teach them self-esteem. To be themselves is very important, and we do that through the arts.”
“I am the smell of my mother’s arepas. I am the sweet and sour fruits in my parents’ garden.” — Ximena Ardilla
Ruiz Esquivel, who was honored in Washington, D.C., earlier this month by UniVisionarios as one of the Most Influential Hispanics for his work in founding and developing Moving Arts of Española, crafted the Bowie’s name.
When Moving Arts agreed to accept a $100,000 matching grant from the Thoma Foundation, it wound up falling $60,000 short of its financial goal, Ruiz Esquivel said.
“A couple of days later, a grandmother came to visit, and we had a long chat,” he said. “She asked me, ‘How much are you missing?’ I gave her the number. She said she would give us the remaining balance.”
The benefactor had two requests: that they name a room for her granddaughter and that she remain anonymous.
Instead, board members opted to name the entire media center after Bowie, the granddaughter who struggled in school, found a safe haven in theater, then worked to become a dentist.
“We decided on Backstage because that’s where kids like to be,” Ruiz Esquivel said. “It’s where all the action is.”
The Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation decided two years ago to add “a new strategic focus on education in rural areas of the Southwest,” said Sarah Rovang, a foundation grants program officer.
“When Roger and Sal shared their vision for a space where teens could learn to express themselves, feel safe and forge new friendships, I knew we had to get involved,” she said. “They’ve fostered the next generation of leaders. Moving Arts is a place where cycles are broken, hearts are healed and new paths are pioneered. It’s also a place of history and continuity.”
“With respect, I am a friend. With disrespect, I am a ghost.” — Qootsvenma “Taka” Denipah-Cook
“I think what Joycelyn was trying to say is that adults sometimes want to hide what’s happening around them, trying to protect the children, and not knowing that the children are smarter than we think,” Ruiz Esquivel said.
It is for this reason Bowie’s Backstage will also offer mental health and behavioral services.
“We’re partnering with organizations that are licensed and have the experience,” he said. “While we don’t want to give the impression that there’s a couch and a chair here and if you have problems come to Moving Arts, we want young adults to understand there is a place here if they need that.”
Since the media center opened last week, classes have begun. “Right now we have a group of eight who meet on Tuesdays, but we’re hoping to have as many kids as we can,” Esquivel said, adding the type of class will dictate the class load.
Moving Arts is working to help gifted children from Española Middle School who want to learn to make movies.
“We’re trying to decide if they need to come here or if we need to go there,” Esquivel said. “We’re very proud to be able to have a space to help support and guide the young adults in our community.”
