photo credit: Arnold Aprill

The National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) and the Ford Foundation have awarded CAPE and Habla a grant to launch an initiative that will foster exchanges of educators and teaching artists across countries. The goal of the grant is:

To serve communities and schools in Mexico and the United States by deepening and documenting an international artistic collaboration based in multilingual and arts integrated teaching.

This February, 2010 CAPE creative director and founder Arnold Aprill, Chicago educator Mary Beth Werner, and Chicago teaching artist William Estrada will visit Habla to participate in conversations with local educators and artists. In addition they will be sharing their work with the Mérida community in the presentation listed below. This summer (2010) the Chicago team will return to Habla to teach in the Habla Summer Lab School, offer workshops to the community, and participate in the 2010 Habla Teacher Institute.

Join us for the first event!

What: The Arts in Education - Portraits of Chicago Classrooms

When: Friday, February 12th, 4:00pm-6:00pm

Where: Habla

The presentation will be in both Spanish and English.

For more information call 948 1872 or write us at contact@habla.org

“I am permanently changed as a person and teacher as a result of the institute.”

- 1st Grade Teacher Kelly Lane commenting on the 2009 Teacher Institute “A Cabinet of Wonders.”

Plans are underway now for the July, 2010 Teacher Institute

In 2009 educators, teaching artists, and educational administrators gathered at Habla from Brazil, the United States, Italy, and Mexico. They learned how to make “Books as Art Objects” and created and presented a multimedia performance for the Merida community.

For the 2010 Institute we currently have confirmed as workshop leaders and presenters: Cynthia Weiss, Arnold Aprill, Charly Barbera, Patricia Sobral, Karla Hernando Flores, Maria del Mar Patron Vazquez and Kurt Wootton for the 2010 Teacher Institute.

Read more and reserve your space for the 2010 Teachers Institute here.

Whether you live in Merida and would like to take classes year-round or if you are visiting only for short time, Habla offers a variety of Yoga and Tango classes Monday through Thursday nights. All of our arts and languages classes are taught by carefully selected, extraordinary teachers.

Yoga classes are taught by Daniela Evia who is a Yoga instructor certified by the Yoga Sivananda Yoga Organization. She studied B. K. S. Iyengar system with Bhanu Rao en Vyasa Veda Peeta, Center of Self Realization, in Bangalore, India. She has taken courses of therapeutic Yoga with Michael Stewart and of body alignment with Rosmary Atri.

Our Tango classes are taught by Juan Manual Coral, a professional Argentine tango dancer and graduate of the Centro Estatal de Bellas Artes de Yucatán. He has participated in many interdisciplinary performing arts projects including poetry readings, plays and contemporary dance performances.

Visit, write, or call us for more information.