Greet YOURSELF
In
Your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and TRAVEL
Back HOME.
All the HEMISPHERES of humanity
Are sitting around a FIRE
Chatting
While stitching thmselves TOGETHER
Into a great CIRCLE inside of
YOU.
Oh look again within YOURSELF,
for I know you were once the elegant host
to all the MARVELS of CREATION.
(Hafiz)
Song for the Cucuyo
By Virgil Suarez
caught them at sundown in the tall grass
by the plantain plants by the porch
of our house in Havana, put several
in clear marmalade jars, brought them
inside the house, as pets, for the night;
there on the nightstand, in the dark,
they flashed their incendiary illuminations,
flashes of fluorescence, like faint lights
of a distant tarmac to signal the passing
of fears, such fears that keep children
awake for so long: old men in cold rooms
sit in the dark, stained undershirts,
the sound of phlegm, fingers gone yellow
from cigarette smoking. This long, long
road through distant cities, wrapped
in strange light. Everywhere, cucuyos,
from Havana to Tallahassee, to light
this child’s way home.
The Holiday Lights remind me of Fireflies, or “Cucuyos” as they say in the Dominican Republic…
Cucuyo’s ever -changing path has led to a reformulation. Cucuyo will now be a SIX MONTH PROGRAM instead of a year-round program. We will work for four months with Dominican teenagers, and the last two are reserved for our Dominican and American combined program. Cucuyo is still its own entity and self-contained program, but now with less overhead, less paperwork pressure, less grant reliance and less anxiety! Our new slated launch date is February 2009. Anyone interested in participating in Cucuyo shall not fear inquiring into the matter. Our doors are open! You can volunteer teach, ask about the summer program for your son or daughter, support fundraising efforts. This would all be very welcome indeed.
Movement, energy, creativity! Dominican Relations Director AMY DEMMER is laying down groundwork to make Cucuyo a participant-driven program. ‘How can we design Cucuyo,’ she asks, ‘so that the teenagers and the Dominican community will know that it is theirs to mold and love?’ If anyone can begin to answer this subtle but complex question, oh yes it is our astute Amy Demmer. At her side, JOE GABLER, in all his creative glory, is lovingly nurturing Cucuyo’s newborn theatre program. LAURA, executive director, is working on the organization’s overarching structural plan—we’re talking specifics, the finer details.
Budget, fundraising, financing! Amy is developing an approximation of the living costs for the staff and a summer program budget so that we will be able to give the parents of American participants more information. STEPHEN continues to plug away at the papers that will transform Cucuyo into a non-profit organization. The ever ready MATT BACA has picked up another project for us. He is contacting American companies that invest in the Dominican Republic’s economic sector to see if an investment in People and the Dominican Community would also be of interest. Here in the ATHENS COMMUNITY, board development and fundraising are still in the works. We continue to attend to these matters and if any of you have assistance or advice to offer, Cucuyo and the staff would be oh so much obliged.
T-shirts! JOE has managed to curtail a small scale Cucuyo T-SHIRT crisis. The order was lost (we’ll say misplaced) twice— first by the distributor followed by our United States Postal Service. This not so fun adventure was followed by the news that all of the women’s smalls and mediums were left in the screen-printer a bit too long and now have a dark gray mark on the bottom hem. We have re-ordered the women’s smalls and mediums. However, if you’d like to go ahead and take the current shirt instead of waiting a couple more months, I will happily get it to you and at 20% off. We have extras of these discounted shirts which make great HOLIDAY GIFTS. They’ll get a great lookin’ t-shirt and you’ll have donated to a great organization in their honor. That’s two for one ladies and gents!
Art, theatre, cross-cultural exchange! Joe was able to introduce Cucuyo to yet another sector of our Athens Community. Seated at a beautifully arranged information table outside a Thalian Blackfriars show, Joe informed teatre enthusiasts about Cucuyo, its vision and what we offer. Thank you Joe and thank you JEFF MORRIS. Cucuyo’s viewbook (a species of informational pamphlet minus the tri-fold style) has been drafted for similar future events. Our talented board member/ artist/ graphic designer JEN CARTER, magic wand in hand, will pick up the project. The WEBSITE is still under construction, but JENNY VAUGHN, pixie dust in hand, will soon get it up and flying.
Feedback! Many high school teachers have fortunately caught that contagious Cucuyo bug as well. Oglethorpe teacher KATE HOBGOOD, proponent of Latin America and a generally better informed world has invited Cucuyo to speak with her class and permitted us to survey her teenagers. Athens Academy Drama department head LORRAINE THOMPSON enthusiastically extended the same offer! The Academy’s Spanish and French teacher RACHEL NORWOOD has expressed interest as well.
Have a delightful December, Holiday, and Tuesday. Ask someone for a foot rub. We all could use more foot rubs.
With much appreciation and gratitude for you and you and all our supporters,
The Cucuyo Staff–Stephen, Amy, Laura and Joe
Hello to you this afternoon,
I have a bit of news for you, the Cucuyo supporter that you are, so that you would get an idea of the way in which things have progressed and the people who are now involved. If you are new subscriber to this newsletter and want to know a bit more about Cucuyo and its vision, see the attached document. Dominican Relations Director Amy Demmer is now married! We will let her breathe for a second and then she will take over the finances and the research within Dominican communities. Here in Athens, we are working to establish relations and possibly cooperate with local community theatres. Already, Jeff Morris, president of student theatre group the Thalian Blackfriars, has agreed to do a fundraiser for us in the spring during one of their shows!
In other exciting news in the fundraising arena, (Really! Fundraising can be exciting!), we are now taking orders for t-shirts until the 17th of October. We will have a second round of pre-holiday ordering. Everyone loves t-shirts and especially when combined with philanthropy! So let us know if you’d like to order one or two. An enormous thanks to all who have already ordered one from us! The monetary and moral support that this gesture affords us is truly treasured by all of us here. They will be printed at the end of October by Joe Gabler, Cucuyo’s Theatre & Programs Director, who is a screen printer by day. Simultaneously, Joe is planning a big fundraiser–a very creative, theatrical and artsy one of course–for next spring after the staff returns from their research trip to the Dominican Republic. If anyone has any ideas or wants to be involved send an email to moreplease@cucuyo.org with Joe’s fundraiser in the subject line.
Cucuyo’s logo, lovingly designed by the talented board member Jen Carter, is what will be printed on the t-shirts. Jen is also in the process of getting us business cards, designing our letterhead and hashing out some informational material for Cucuyo. What a lady!
Soon we will be delving into grants. Volunteer Lauren Stephenson has put together a database of possible grants for us. We have also had a few private donations (marvelous, right?!), and now, it’s even easier because Cucuyo has an online donations account. One can donate online by sending an email to moreplease@cucuyo.org that states the amount to be donated. Then the donor is sent a secure online invoice and directions for entering their credit/debit card information. So all this is yes, so very exhilarating. If anyone knows of a business who might be interested in a philanthropic donation please let us know.
On the subject of research, Laura Vaughn, director of Cucuyo, has just returned from a trip to Nicaragua where she had an opportunity to research and speak with organizations that function similarly to the way Cucuyo will in the Dominican Republic. The directors of these various theatre groups, women’s cooperatives, and cultural centers of international exchange were extremely insightful, knowledgeable and generous. The teenage participants were absolutely delightful and helpful with their feedback as well. Here in the States, volunteer Matt Baca is getting input from parents of high schoolers’ by surveying in area schools. Joe Gabler has undertaken the same task in the Atlanta area.
A chunk of our time has also been spent appeasing various government divisions by sending them many papers loaded with legal jargon accompanied by a check (or 2…). We have submitted the required documents for becoming a legal incorporated entity. Oh yes, it feels good to have done that! The monster 501c3, which gives an organization its non-profit status was recently undertaken by Stephen Davis, Administrative Director. Boy is he brave.
The project keeps growing and the staff is happy to follow along behind it as it morphs and takes on its own personality. This character is really just a reflection of all the people who support it; people who offer suggestions, buy a t-shirt, or read all the way to the end of a newsletter. Thank you.
Laura Vaughn, executive director
(Joe, Amy and Stephen send out their gratitude as well for supporting their efforts!)
A warm hello to all,
I have for these here enthusiasts an update about the once merely conceptual idea of an arts & theatre exchange in the Dominican Republic that has been converted into an actual organization with the name CUCUYO. Cucuyo is a Dominican folk work meaning firefly. We are a currently unpaid staff of four (see attachment) with a host of collaborators (many of you all) that I have listed in a healthy database next to each of your many talents.
Let me tell about the current ‘going-ons’ of CUCUYO. We have picked and reserved a name. The objectives of the center have been outlined, edited, reconceived, established and edited once again. The articles of incorporation (a step towards ‘non-profitism’) have been drafted and now await the approval of the sharp eyes of a lawyer. A bank account has been established in CUCUYO’s name and lovingly awaits nourishment. In order to establish more details regarding the summer programs for American teenagers, a jovial research assistant has agreed to help with the surveying of parents. A logo is being designed (thank you Jen!) and website (jen-ny!), which we hope to have up by the end of the month. Finally, we have set some general timelines for fundraisers, research trips, paperwork filings…. We expect that the actual commence of operations in the Dominican community will be next summer (‘09) and the launch of the summer programs for Americans will be the following summer (‘10)!
At the beginning of next year, a meeting will be held for all of you guest teachers I’m counting on! We will need your skills as soon as next summer! Meanwhile if you’re moved to assist in the development of CUCUYO this year—helping with research, fundraising and publicity—let me know and I will happily pass you a task. From my heart, (and those of the staff and we’ll go ahead and include the future teen participants), I extend my warmest thanks for your enthusiasm and support of CUCUYO.
Wishing you all many pleasant moments,
Laura
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