Issue 1: October
Welcome to LASA DivCo’s first edition of Raptor Report for the year! This issue includes music, poetry, podcasts, and ways to get involved in the community. Thanks so much for subscribing :)
Our Picks
Music: Un Canto por México, Vol. II by Natalia Lafourcade
In her two-part project to help rebuild her home of Veracruz, México after a 2017 earthquake, Grammy-winning artist Natalia Lafourcade released the second volume of her project, Un Canto por México mid-September. It explores the wide-ranging influence of Mexican folk music, reimagining traditional songs along with original songwriting.
Art: Ludi Leiva
Ludi Leiva, a Guatemalan-Slovak artist, designed a spread for the Smithsonian’s IMPACT newsletter to reflect on the events of 2020. Entitled The Art of Collecting, the piece seeks to encapsulate the magnitude of our moment, bringing to life the processes by which Smithsonian curators preserve artifacts from the past year—from mail-in ballots to indigenous-made hand-beaded COVID-19 masks.
Photography: Vanessa Charlot
Vanessa Charlot, an award winning photojournalist, uses black-and-white photography to explore our unique human relationships with race, sex/gender, economics, and personal expression; reimaging Blackness for a new era. Entitled ‘Black Woman’s Shadow,’ the piece encapsulates the traumatic experience of a Black female artist living in modern America.
Podcast: La Brega
In a seven-part podcast series released in both English and Spanish, host Alana Casanova-Burgess defines how la brega or “the struggle” has defined much of life in Puerto Rico. Through narrative storytelling and investigative journalism, “La Brega” covers the spectrum of the Puerto Rican experience from Levittown suburbs to the horrors of Hurricane Maria.
Get Involved
LASA Application Mentoring
LASA recruiting and admission season is coming up, and the staff is looking for potential mentors that could meet with 8th graders at Title 1 schools in AISD. This would be a great opportunity to ensure that all students have a shot at applying to LASA no matter their middle school background. LASA long struggles to attract students from more than two or three middle schools. A strong mentoring program could expand our outreach to students from lower-income families. In order to be eligible to become a mentor, you have to have graduated high school, cannot have a friend or relative applying to LASA this year and must attend one of Principal Crescenzi’s training sessions. Here is the link to sign up: https://forms.gle/AjwnBVEJVD4KeJN77
Bull Creek Park Clean-up
On Saturday, October 16th, the Northwest Austin Civic Association is hosting a clean-up of Bull Creek Park from 9 am-12 pm picking up trash along the trails and helping with vegetation management. It’s a great opportunity to give back to the environment and preserve local parks. Make sure to wear long-sleeved shirts and pants to protect yourself from bugs or poison ivy. Additionally, if you can’t make it on the 16th, the volunteer event happens every third Saturday of the month. Here is the link to sign up: https://www.givepulse.com/event/225432-2021-Bull-Creek-Park-Clean-ups
Generation SERVE Volunteer Opportunities
Generation SERVE is a fantastic resource for students, or anyone else, to find a wide variety of volunteer opportunities. On the Generation SERVE website, there is a calendar that shows the different opportunities, dates and times, and how many spots are available. Some of the many volunteer opportunities they provide are helping at food pantries, delivering food, park clean-ups, and much more. There are even Teen Service Days, service opportunities created just for teens. If you're interested, make sure to check the calendar periodically, the available spots fill up very quickly! Here’s the link:
https://calendar.generationserve.org/calendar/family-volunteering/202110/44/28663
Coat Drives in Austin
Do you have any gently worn or new coats that you have no use for? Well, you're in luck because there are countless coat drives that will give your coat a new use. Located at the Domain, One Warm Coat is one of these many organizations. Don’t let your coat sit in a drawer unused! Donate it so that a child in need can stay warm this winter. Here's the link:
https://www.onewarmcoat.org/give-warmth/donate-coats/
SCARE for a CURE
SCARE for a CURE is a nonprofit that creates a state-of-the-art haunted house every year with proceeds going towards resources for people with breast cancer. In its inaugural year, SCARE raised $5,000 to support breast cancer recovery and the following year raised $10,000, enough to award scholarship funds to four students affected by breast cancer. The haunted house is located on 14219 Littig Road, Manor, TX, and is looking for help setting up and decorating, make-up artists, actors, ticket-takers, and all sorts of other roles. If you’re interested in volunteering, visit this website for more details: https://scareforacure.org/volunteer/vfaq/
Student Submissions
Transatlantic Elegy
Poem by Zachary Suri
Out of the dust, can you see it now, over there
The giant sits alone, a figure in a wrought iron chair
Arisen from the hole he himself has piled up
The giant looks around, wants your wine inside his cup
It is a lonely habit, overlooking all your friends
It is indeed a lonely hour, when they retreat into their dens
But you, giant over there, you behemoth in your gold-plated lair
You have not been forgotten, only tastefully ignored
They remember all your blessings, and they remember how you snored
It is a solitary sport, this galavanting hopefulness
The smile, the embrace, a recognition of your soulfulness
You sit as if in the impression of a painting on the wall
And they stand beside your picture frame, relating: recall!
We believed you were arisen in Kabul before the fall