Senior and D.C. native John Muller has set out to use poetry and theater to empower young people.
Muller and fellow D.C. local Justin McNeil, a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, started DreamCity - a group focused on using the arts to educate people in D.C. Dreamcity, which started in 2004, has about 35 youth members.
"When John and I first started DreamCity we set out to vocalize a city-wide voice that had been muffled," McNeil said.
DreamCity evolved as a reaction to the lack of hands-on learning students receive, Muller said.
The group is a registered student organization and is working with the Law School to achieve nonprofit status. Muller said he compares the organization, in ways, to a social movement in the style and spirit of the 1960s Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
"It's because we don't have formal training. We've evolved from all of our informal experiences," Muller said.
This summer the duo wrote and produced their own original play called "The 70," a work about the 70 bus that runs from the southwest Waterfront to Silver Spring station in Silver Spring, Md., and the characters the two co-writers encountered on the route.
"The 70" was shown to Professor Richard Sutton's sociology classes this semester - the Youth and Delinquency class and the Violence and the Family class.
"What intrigued me about 'The 70' is that so many people are totally unaware of what is going on in the city they live in. 'The 70' opens eyes," Sutton said.
The group uses the arts as a way to get others involved in the community while also focusing on education. For example, students learn how to address a business letter, write grants, and gain financial literacy and understanding.
"There are people who help us out, and who we help from the crack house to the White House," Muller said. They have received donations from more than 60 individuals and are working with 10 other philanthropic organizations, Muller said.
Muller and fellow D.C. local Justin McNeil, a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, started DreamCity - a group focused on using the arts to educate people in D.C. Dreamcity, which started in 2004, has about 35 youth members.
"When John and I first started DreamCity we set out to vocalize a city-wide voice that had been muffled," McNeil said.
DreamCity evolved as a reaction to the lack of hands-on learning students receive, Muller said.
The group is a registered student organization and is working with the Law School to achieve nonprofit status. Muller said he compares the organization, in ways, to a social movement in the style and spirit of the 1960s Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
"It's because we don't have formal training. We've evolved from all of our informal experiences," Muller said.
This summer the duo wrote and produced their own original play called "The 70," a work about the 70 bus that runs from the southwest Waterfront to Silver Spring station in Silver Spring, Md., and the characters the two co-writers encountered on the route.
"The 70" was shown to Professor Richard Sutton's sociology classes this semester - the Youth and Delinquency class and the Violence and the Family class.
"What intrigued me about 'The 70' is that so many people are totally unaware of what is going on in the city they live in. 'The 70' opens eyes," Sutton said.
The group uses the arts as a way to get others involved in the community while also focusing on education. For example, students learn how to address a business letter, write grants, and gain financial literacy and understanding.
"There are people who help us out, and who we help from the crack house to the White House," Muller said. They have received donations from more than 60 individuals and are working with 10 other philanthropic organizations, Muller said.
