CULTURE LAB FOR KIDS
Big Feelings
An Immersive Puppet Play for Ages 6-10
Written by Heloise Wilson
Presented by Little Clouds and Culture Lab for Kids
Free admission. (Donations welcome.)
Saturday, October 5, 4pm
Sunday, October 6, 4pm
Saturday, October 12, 4pm
Sunday, October 13, 4pm
Time to travel the universe and learn about emotions with Smoll!
Alma is a little girl who had to leave the island where she was raised, listening to ancient myths and the sound of the ocean. Now living in the big city where she can’t see the stars, Alma struggles to cope and feels overwhelmed by “her bad feelings.”
One day, a scientist Muppet named Smoll shows up in the broken television in the attic. He has a message: He is an expert on feelings and wants to study Alma’s because grown-ups don’t know much about kids’ feelings. In exchange, he will take her out of the Big City and show her the universe.
The Big Feelings experience aims to create an intergenerational bridge and empower elementary school children with the long- term tools they need to spark necessary dialogues about well-being, mental health, and feelings.
Produced by Little Clouds, Big Feelings is a recipient of the NYFA Queens Arts Fund for “New Work” and created with the support of psychologist Christie Stiff.
Thanks to the New York Foundation for the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and NYFA Queens Art Funds.
Reverse Bloom
J. Pavone String Ensemble Student Composition Workshop - In collaboration with Western Queens Piano and Strings
For the first-ever student composition workshop hosted by the J. Pavone String Ensemble, the students of Western Queens Piano and Strings will co-create original pieces of chamber music with the ensemble.
In addition to taking part in the creative process, the students will experience firsthand how a chamber music ensemble rehearses new material and have the opportunity to discuss musical concepts with the group.
The students will hear their newly constructed pieces performed in concert on a program with other repertoire from the ensemble's newly released album, Reverse Bloom.
Western Queens Piano is a music lesson business established by Jessica Pavone in 2017 to offer private music instruction in piano, violin, viola, music theory, and composition. This event aims to provide those who study music privately an opportunity to engage in a group musical activity, expanding the scope of their musical education. In the same year, Pavone also created the J. Pavone String Ensemble to present her original music compositions for string trio that experiment with indeterminate techniques that alternate between metered and time-based scores and improvisational and notated instructions. The scores often include time frames that direct musicians to move freely between sections, creating an overlap of sonic textures, and the ensemble approach focuses on a vision of collective improvisation that prioritizes a collaboratively woven fabric, in contrast to the traditional improvisatory method that prizes the showmanship of the soloist. The group has performed at the Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival (Montreal), Bang on a Can Long Play Festival (NYC), Logan Center for the Arts (Chicago), Dartmouth New Music Festival (Hannover), NYC Winter Jazzfest, Roulette and ISSUE Project Room (Brooklyn), Firehouse12 (New Haven), Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (Asheville), the Garner Arts Center (Garnerville, NY), and The Rotunda (Philadelphia). Four studio albums have been released to critical acclaim from The Wire, The New Yorker, Pitchfork, JazzTimes, and San Francisco Classical Voice. Brad Cohen of Jazz Times described Pavone as "a free-thinker who can't be pigeonholed."
Reverse Bloom is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. With additional support from a 2024 Queens Arts Fund (QAF) New Work Grant administered by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York Foundation for the Arts.