By Anika Chowdhury Staff Writer
On Jan. 21, the Detroit LINKS chapter affiliated with Detroit International Academy gave a presentation on “Building Our Community through Arts” to the freshmen class.
Many prominent figures within the art community were present, including Charles H. Wright Museum’s vice president of assessment and community engagement, LaNesha DeBardelaben. The LINKS members made sure to give a thorough presentation on their plans for the rest of the year as well as discussing with the freshmen the significance of being creative and finding one’s own artistic streak and talent.
From the many demonstrations, one in particular, really impressed the students and staff who were present. Ronald Scarbough, a prominent artist within the Detroit community, randomly selected a student and during the session, proceeded to draw a portrait of her.
“I felt very special when he was drawing me because it’s not every day that you can get your portrait done by an artist so important in our city,” said Micah Dabney, the selected freshman student. The signed portrait is now on display in the DIA library for all to see.
The DIA staff became involved assisting with the presentations that went on and even learned several things themselves. DIA’s library administrator Shirlene Ayers was extremely fascinated by DeBardelaben’s PowerPoint presentation on African American works in the arts throughout history.
“As a history major myself, it was so fascinating to see aspects within our culture that I had never really known about before,” Ayers said. “I truly learned something new and useful.”
This chapter of the many LINKS-planned activities to better our community was a big success. The women of the LINKS program intend on staying with the freshment throughout their four years of high school to help them grow and support them as diligent members of our community.
“They had a lot of interest in us as individuals and were convinced we all had bright futures ahead of us,” freshman Yvonne Wright said. “I think they really will be able to help us because they are all fine, established women.”
