p:ear

The kids at P:ear draw and paint and play guitar with surprising talent. They speak in vagaries and gloss over details about their lives. Some have ambition and plans. Some are getting by. They're not so different from any kid. Except they're homeless.

TMBR caught up with Tmber member Nathan Engkjer to talk more about his big heart, how his work with p:ear makes a difference in the lives of homeless youth, and how being outdoors plays an integral part of this. Thanks for letting us in to your world, Nate. We look forward to swinging in and paying you a visit in the near future.

p:ear provides the safe space many of the kids, who live in shelters or on the streets, have never had. For years P:ear has been discreetly mentoring homeless youth. But not the homeless youth who need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps; the homeless youth who have no bootstraps, says Pippa Arend, a founder.

Local artist teams with p:ear to help youth through art

Homeless youth speak about the effect of p:ear

Director Pippa Arend on KZME's ArtclecticPDX

Keller talks about her exhibit at p:ear Gallery, a project 9 months in the making. Keller’s 20 photographs on display feature small, painstakingly detailed ceramic figurines in the likeness of street youth and staff/volunteers, based solely on written interviews in which the youth described themselves, their emotional experiences of street-life and their surroundings.

After collecting written information from the interviewees’ regarding their appearance, life on the streets, personal histories and more, Josiane Keller translated each into a ceramic sculpture and photographed these creations in settings also gleaned from the subjects’ statements.  Each subject has been endowed with rabbit ears – a symbol used by the artist to convey emotional vulnerability.  The photographs, along with the information from the interviews, will be on display for the month of October in the p:ear gallery.

Read more about the specifics of this project at Josiane Keller’s website:  http://www.josianekeller.com/

http://www.josianekeller.com/category/blog/

pearmentor.org/gallery/

Ryan interviews Josiane Keller about her art show http://www.josianekeller.com/category/now/ that is up for the month of October in the p:ear gallery, http://pearmentor.org/.  Keller’s photographs on display feature small, painstakingly detailed ceramic figurines in the likeness of street youth and staff/volunteers, based solely on 20 written interviews in which the youth described themselves, their emotional experiences of street-life and their surroundings.

p:ear Director Pippa Arend takes a walk through p:ear in preparation for Willamette Week Give!Guide 2012

On this episode of PROPcast, I sit down with two of the lovely ladies from p:ear

p:ear Transition Housing Coordinator Nathan and p:ear youth Ernest talk about the importance of outdoor activity and recreation.

Listen to an interview with Pippa Arend talking about p:ear on ArtEclectic, Sunday 3/18.

Some things that are part of our daily lives can become part of the white noise in the background of every day: the assumed, the presumed, the routine. However, what may be routine for many could be pleasurable obsessions for others. This film may give you pause to for praise of the common beverage of many Portlanders: coffee.

p:ear is a perfect example of the possibilities that come from creative Portlanders with passion. Founded in 2002, p:ear works with homeless and transitional youth ages 15-24, providing them with life skills and mentorship using art, education and recreation. We talk a lot about the need to focus on poverty in Portland, to create jobs, to train the underemployed. But p:ear does that every single day.

N. Scrantz Lersch cradles a 2-month-old baby girl in one arm as she uses her other hand to sketch the tiny child's portrait on a recent Wednesday. Lersch is sitting at a table in p:ear, a nonprofit day center in Old Town that offers activities and services to homeless and impoverished teenagers and young adults.

Although native to Chicago, Serna has never let go of his roots extending deep into the soil of Mexico.  When he collaborates as an artist he integrates his own life story into his work, as well as larger issues of Native American identity; while also wrapping each student's identity into a mural.  By sharing elements of his Aztec heritage this deepens the program with a rich cultural education

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