Urban Fine Art Fave - "The Perez Sisters"

PHOTOGRAPHY

Portrait of Perez Sisters - After freefalling three stories from a cable in a team building leadership exercise, Damaris is comforted by her sister Tasha.

B&W outdoor portrait by Joseph Dominick

City of Truth: Class #12 of 12

LEADERSHIP

At the beginning of this year, I was rocking my brain studying and preparing for a Leadership program I was calling "City of Truth" which I was creating from scratch for a group of young adults in the Bronx. Most of them attended the same church I did. Two of them didn't even attend a local church. Interestingly enough, this was not a church class, this was a Leadership class. My desire was to assist these 17 to 24 year olds in their transition from teenagehood into adulthood.

God was gracious and surrounded me with three adult friends who joined me in this endeavor. Big shout-out to Tasha, Terri & Damaris for their trust in me and all their hard work. Many times they had no clue what I was doing. Sometimes they even questioned whether they should be working with me. :)

But with a whole lotta faith, and a shear desire to please God with what He placed in my heart, I creted a curriculum and begun our first class on April 4th.

Classes continued basically once every three weeks. In the beginning I stayed pretty close to the curriculum. As time passed and the group of six to twelve young adults grew closer to each other, the curriculum began to change and grow. It was amazing.

I'm not going to make this post long, but I will say over the past eleven classes, teaching these young adults has blessed me tremendously. I really feel I have grown as man and a leader. Teaching about leadership brought leadership out of me.

So as I approach this last class this weekend, I pray City of Truth accomplished its goal of training and equipping young adults to be world leaders. A part of me is slightly melancholic at this point. COT has truly been a labor of love. Working with this group has changed my life.

I'm not sure when the next set of COT classes will begin. However I am sure that when God allows, the next group will be just as amazing as this one was.

City of Truth Leadership Academy

LEADERSHIP

I had so much fun shooting these photos and organizing this slideshow.

City of Truth Leadership Academy from Joseph D. Martinez on Vimeo.

The photos in this slideshow were taken at the Lord Stirling Outdoor Education Center in NJ by Joseph Dominick Photography.

City of Truth - "Poverty" with Cynthia Irizarry

Here is another beautiful writing from one of the participants in the City of Truth Leadership Academy. This is a reflection on the class, "What is Poverty?"

Introducing our guest blogger, Cynthia Irizarry:


The walls of my reality slowly crumble as i look upon their faces

the suffering crying silently through their eyes.

Mother, Brother, Sister, Father...

Person.

Made in the image of god just like me each one made

with a purpose just like me.

My inner being torn to shreds as my spirit weeps for theirs.

As i look at the faces of all the almost me's i see my blessings.

I see all the places and all the faces i could have been and i am angry with myself

how could i have ever let them fade into the background.

I remember that they are put here for a purpose and i wonder if their purpose is to suffer

and for a moment i am angry with god why would he choose these people to suffer?

Then quickly i realize it is so that he can be known because in our weakness he is glorified.

I close my eyes and as the images are imprinted in my memory i say a prayer......

My lord may i never take another blessing for granted, comfort the hearts of your children and may they know that they are your glory

In Jesus name i pray

Amen.

- Cynthia Irizarry

City of Truth - "Poverty" with Melissa Cruz

Two weeks ago "City of Truth" had a great class where we discussed "What is Poverty?" I had the privilege to teach the class to some wonderful young adults. We were challenged visually, orally, and emotionally to really consider what is poverty globally, nationally, and locally. How should we respond? And how does this connect to our faith?

I asked one of the participants to share her experience via poetry. Below is our special guest blogger, Melissa Milagros Cruz:



In the center of Poverty I sat and I stared
At the Hunger and pain that goes on out there
The tears fill my eyes as I looked to my left
And seen a baby feeding on his mothers breast
A malnourished human feeding on another who's the same
In a world with a great God, who gets the blame?
The strongest men couldn't stand the sight of their pain
The pictures have embedded themselves in my brain.
Immediately I remembered all the food I put to waste
Never Have I stopped to put myself in their place.
What If I didn't have enough food to eat?
Or enough water to keep hydrated?
Or a decent place to sleep?
What if I didn't have the chance to bathe everyday?
Or make the money that I basically throw away..
With each picture I saw, My heart ripped to shreds,
Each person not knowing the next time they'll be fed.
My mind wandered to the Lord and I asked him why?
Whats his purpose for creating a beautiful birth
in a world where he is destined to die?
No chance of survival in a world with less...
What a Beautiful, Horrible Life they were blessed..
Horrible in sight, materials and health..
Beautiful cause these people actually have wealth...
Not wealth with money or food or favors
But the wealth of knowledge of The Lord Our savior.
Though its hard to paint a pretty picture out of that place
But what they lack in food.. they make up for with FAITH

Melissa Milagros Cruz

Reproduction

"We can teach what we know, but we reproduce who we are." - T. Winston

CITY OF TRUTH

This Saturday is the first City of Truth Leadership class. Wow, time has flown by so quickly. We are about to go from Pre-production to Implementation. :o)

Based on the response from the pre-orientation and the orientation, we have about 12-15 young adults slated for the program. I am really excited.

Well, let me get out of here so I can work on this Saturday's lesson plan. I will post back to tell you how it went.

Laters!

Class Act

I got the word yesterday the Acting class I will be teaching is officially going to take place at Harvest Studios (via G-City Films). They will be getting back to me regarding the exact starting date.

This is very good news. Now I can begin my research. I always enjoy reading a great deal on a topic before I teach it. I want to refresh my mind, consider some new things for class instruction, as well as organize some good reading assignments for the students.

I haven't taught a series of acting classes in about two and a half years. Mostly I have been brought in as a consultant to do a workshop or to give notes during tech/dress rehearsals of plays. I am looking forward to teaching an 8 class course to Teenagers and a 12 class course to Adults.

As far as the Leadership class I will be teaching for the Young Adults (City of Truth), we still have one more meeting left with the administration. We need to clear up some issues regarding dates and location.

I have spent the last few months doing research on Leadership and Mentorship. It will be nice to begin working on the lesson plans for this when I return from vacation.

Day One

I am calling this blog PARALLELS. In my life I see many parallels between something going on in one part of my life and how there is a consistency in another part. This observation has proven quite helpful when talking and sharing with other people. Often times, a mundane task like me watching someone drive a car allows me to see a Parallel on how they may be in other areas of their life. I wish I was joking but this Christmas I drew a Parallel between how a friend was driving in certain conditions and what their relationship life was like. Within two weeks, exactly what I said in the Parallel came to pass. It is quite strange that who we are shows up in our behavior whether we are aware of it or not.

So I say all that to introduce you to my life, my journey, my walk. God has been very good to me and I look forward to what lies ahead.

From time to time I will be blogging about some upcoming projects, most namely a Leadership Development Curriculum (City of Truth) and an Acting Class Curriculum I am developing (through G-City Films). This year I will be doing more Leading and Teaching. I will also be doing some Mentoring of some young men.

Please feel free to leave your comments. Until then, I will chat with you laters.

- Joseph Dominick