Public Access

“Public Access!”
Compére Collective
Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY | 2024

About the Show

For two months, WHOOP DEE DOO artists collaborated with students (ages 7-17) from the Red Hook Art Project, young adult interns from RHAP, older adults from the Red Hook Older Adult Center, and community members from the Red Hook neighborhood to conceive and create a unique live show in collaboration with the Calpulli Mexican Dance Company! 

Beginning with the theme “ice cream,” students brainstormed set, prop and costume ideas - from an “ice cream cone chorus” to “rotten sundae toppings” to “a malfunctioning ice cream factory”. They storyboarded narratives, created characters and dialogue, designed drawings to expand on their ideas, and learned new 3-D sculptural methods using basic fabrics, cardboard and paper mache to bring their ideas to life. 

Throughout this project, the Calpulli Mexican Dance Company gave our participants a presentation on the history of Mexican folkloric dance, and our students collaborated to present an idea that would transform Calpulli’s presentation under our ice cream theme. Calpulli’s Co-Founder & Director of Arts in Education, Alberto Lopez Herrera, worked with our students to field their ideas and ensure the collaboration could be executed successfully.

This project will be live-filmed, edited, and presented on public access television in Brooklyn through BRIC, marking it as RHAP’s first production workshop and creation of an intergenerational televised program. This project is the latest in RHAP’s ongoing commitment to providing youth in the Red Hook community, particularly those from historically underserved backgrounds, with opportunities for creative expression and personal growth.

Collaborating Organizations

Students from Red Hook Art Project 

Performers

Calpulli Mexican Dance Company

WHOOP DEE DOO artists

Audra Brandt
Danny Crump
Sarah Dahlinger
Sofia Dixon
Emily Flores
Jeila Gueramian
Remi Hirschtick
Josh Pavlick
Carbon Therrien
Jaimie Warren

Collaborating Young Adult Artists,
Red Hook Art Project

Angelly
Paige
Rosana
Shaunte

Collaborating Student Artists,
Red Hook Art Project

Xiah
Mi'Kenya
Summer
Isabella 
Noah
Shardonay
Erika
Laila
Khloe
Ariel
Laila

Collaborating Red Hook-based Adult Artists

Valerie
Juana
Stanley
Nahisha

Extra Special Thanks

Tiffiney Davis, Executive Director, RHAP
Jacqui Painter, Artistic Director, RHAP
Alberto Lopez Herrera, Calpulli’s Co-Founder & Director of Arts in Education
Compére Collective

We are incredibly grateful to our supporters!!

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.