Playing with a Purpose

Lake Erie Ink is going to the movies! Check out Playing with a Purpose, a series of videos celebrating and engaging youth with BIPOC writers and poets hosted by Amy Schwabauer! Using creative story play and literacy enrichment our teaching artists will bring to life stories and poetry written by BIPOC. Although geared for kids in grades 1-4, these videos are sure to inspire and engage audiences of all ages. MOST EPISODE INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING:

  • script timeline
  • Teacher Guide (including content standards)
  • Grown-up Guide for parent or guardian viewers
  • extension activities

Here’s a little more on the topic in a video interview with Amy herself:

We will have a total of 13 episodes released bi-weekly. If you would like to be regularly updated when episodes are released, subscribe to our YouTube channel and turn notifications on!

Huge thank you to the Cleveland Foundation and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards


Videos

Playing with a Purpose Episode 1  – I Am Every Good Thing

Click for our free Script Outline for episode 1

Click for our free Teacher Guide for episode 1

Click for our free Grownup Guide for episode 1


Playing with a Purpose Episode 2 – Gwendolyn Brooks

Click for our free Script Outline for episode 2

Click for our free Teacher Guide for episode 2

Click for our free Grownup Guide for episode 2


Playing with a Purpose Episode 3  – Renee Watson 

Click for our free Script Outline for episode 3

Click for our free Teacher Guide  – including a semantic word map – for episode 3

Click for our free Grownup Guide for episode 3


Playing With a Purpose Minisode – Another Look at the Harlem Renaissance

Click for our free Script Outline for Minisode

Click for our free Teacher Guide  – including a Venn Diagram – for Minisode

Click for our free Grownup Guide for Minisode


Playing With a Purpose Episode 4 – Zora Neale Hurston

Click for our free Script Outline for Episode 4

Click for our free Teacher Guide  –  for Episode 4

Click for our free Grownup Guide for Episode 4


Playing With a Purpose Episode 5 – Jacqueline Woodson

Click for our free Script Outline for Episode 5

Click for our free Teacher Guide  for Episode 5 

Click for our free Timeline Worksheet for Episode 5

Click for our free Grownup Guide for Episode 5


Playing With a Purpose Episode 6 – Nikki Giovanni


Playing With a Purpose Episode 7 – Langston Hughes

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZhOwFg6-BTU 

Click for our free Script Outline for Episode 7

Click for our free Teacher Guide  for Episode 7

Click for our free Grownup Guide for Episode 7


Playing with a Purpose Episode 8 – Jean-Michel Basquiat


Playing with a Purpose Episode 9 – Toni Morrison

Click for our free Script Outline for Episode 9

Click for our free Teacher Guide  for Episode 9

Click for our free Grownup Guide for Episode 9


Playing with a Purpose Episode 10 – Jason Reynolds


Playing with a Purpose Minisode 2 – Kwame Alexander 

Click for our free Script Outline for Minisode 2

Click for our free Teacher Guide  for Minisode 2

Click for our free Grownup Guide for Minisode 2


Playing with a Purpose Episode 11 – Octavia Butler


Meet the Playing with a Purpose Team!

Amy Schwabauer

Amy Schwabauer is a Cleveland based actor, playwright and teaching artist. In 2017, she was named Cleveland’s Best Actress by ‘Cleveland Scene Magazine’ for her performance in her one-woman show, “This is NOT About my Dead Dog”. Recently, doing a revival performance of  “This is NOT About my Dead Dog” at the BorderLight International Theatre and Fringe Festival in 2019. Other recent work includes touring, “The Events of the Warren County Fair as Observed by a Young Astronaut”, a toy theater adventure co-written and co-performed with Mike Geither.  “The Events of the Warren County Fair…” has toured across North East Ohio and to Toronto, Halifax, and Prince Edward Island, Canada. In association with the production, Amy and her collaborator Mike have taught numerous playwriting workshops focused in toy theater creation. In 2019, she taught a kid’s improv workshop and presented a workshop production of her latest solo show “The Boats Running Late and Other Fun Things I say at My Job”, in conjunction with the ‘River Clyde Theater Pageant’ in PEI Canada. Amy is a member of the Dobama Playwright’s Gym and has been a teaching artist for Dobama Theaters Young Playwright’s Workshop. In fall 2019 she was a collaborator and writer for her role as Virgil in “The Inferno” (Maelstrom Collaborative Arts). In 2018 she collaborated and performed in “The Junkyard”, a performance installation featured in the International Children’s Theatre Festival at Playhouse Square. She has been a teaching artist in multiple North Eastern Ohio elementary schools for both ‘The Musical Theater Project’ and for Playhouse Square’s Education Outreach. She has been a member of ‘The Midwives’ artist collective in Chicago since 2018. In 2016, she studied Sketch Comedy Writing at The Second City Theater Chicago. Since the outbreak of Corona Virus she has shifted gears towards creating online content; she has created and performed in a series of sketch comedy videos through her own production company ‘Schwab in the Attic’. She is a graduate of Cleveland State University’s Theatre Arts Program with a specialization in performance.

Jasmine A. Golphin

Jasmine A. Golphin is a filmmaker, artist and producer with an intense obsession with the craft of storytelling. Professionally, she’s spent the last 10 years managing film education and community outreach programs for nonprofit organizations such as MyCom, the Cleveland International Film Festival, and SPACES. Creatively, Jasmine’s writing has been published in The Vindicator, HitRecord’s Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, Shadow And Act and Alturus and her film work has been recognized by Octavia Spencer’s Short Film competition and the Short. Sweet. Film Fest. This year Jasmine joined Maelstrom Collaborative Arts as a cadre member and launched the abolitionist task force organization Black Spring CLE.