Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Hello all of you artists! My name is Alex and I am the Arts & Humanities Coordinator for the YMCA of Norwalk. I am new to the neighborhood, and have decided to call Norwalk home. I have also decided to make Norwalk the new Art Mecca for 2007 and beyond. But there are some road-bumps.

Study after study has indicated that art of all genres, not just music, soothes the savage beast. The beast that vandalizes property, disrespects its elders, drops out of school, shoots the neighbor, and perpetuates low self-esteem, poverty and crime in our very own town; Norwalk.

Art in all of its many forms allows us to communicate and disclose an array of emotions. Through art we exhibit our sadness, our happiness, our frustration, and our causes. It can, with the proper guidance, allow us to exchange guns for crayons, knives for paintbrushes and drugs for watercolors. Statements our youth currently believe can only be conveyed through violence and self-destruction can be heard loud and clear through creativity.

In the short time I have been in this town, I have realized Norwalk's enormous opportunity. If we, the artists ban together to share our blessed talents with the masses, there is hope. Hope of a future without evils, hope of a town respected for its color and unique perspective, hope of a place where violence is relegated to the movies, disrespect is traded in for empathy and poverty becomes extinct due to the new abounding wealth of talent.

Norwalk needs your help, the YMCA needs your help and I have taken it upon myself to ask for your help. Please take the time to share with me any and all ideas you may have that could help unite this community, that could help motivate our youth in a positive direction and that could help restore our faith in humanity...right here. ...through art.