MAPS is a 14-year old arts and educational program dedicated to bringing poetry and music students together from different middle and high schools from different states and regions of the USA to collaborate and write completed, polished, professionally produced poems and songs. MAPS is excited to announce a new program working with the Alcides Figueroa School (AFS) in Añasco, Puerto Rico. (PR) Students from Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School (PVPA) in South Hadley, MA will work with the AFS students to create completed songs using the poetry written by the AFS students during the 2019 fall semester.  The program will teach collaboration and help students from different backgrounds and geographical places in the US come together around writing poetry and music. We have found the time the students spend together is profoundly positive and educational and builds bridges that can last a lifetime. We will plan to bring all the students together to spend both creative work time at AFS as well as community time out in the surrounding area in PR.  The Massachusetts students will learn about the local environs and Puerto Rico during their stay. The program will commence in the fall of 2019 with the AFS students in PR working on poetry writing throughout the semester. In December they will share their poems with the PVPA students and over the first two weeks of January, the music students will turn the poems into lyrics for songs they are writing.  Upon arrival in PR, the students of both schools will work together to review the poems and songs written using those poems as lyrics. They will also write a new song together using a poem from the AFS students and also practice together performing their poems and songs for concerts to be held in the local communities in PR. The students will come together around creative games and collaboration in order to better understand each other and the lives they lead.  There are plans to visit important landmarks while in PR and to understand the culture and better learn about the student’s lives, both in the PR and Massachusetts.  The time spent together will bring two different school communities together offering a unique educational experience. The trip is planned for January 27, 2020 with a return to Massachusetts (MA) on February 1.  Fifteen PVPA students and five teachers will fly from Hartford, CT to San Juan, PR and then be transported to Añasco where they will join with the AFS students to create an in-depth learning experience. Please help us reach our goal of $10,000 so we can send these hard working students to Puerto Rico!  Love, The team at MAPS

Natalia Jacobs

Kimberly Stillwell

Leigh Ellen

Rob Brogle

Jim Belcher

Giovann Giarratana

Dan Phelan

Brian Tuohey

Freddie  Shinholster 

Toni Wall 

Kelly Pramberger

Lui Rodriguez 

Helen Hancock

Cara Neth

PVPA Alumna

Jane Hopkins-Fisher

Beth Crosby

Magdalena Gomez

Pamela Perugini

Amanda  Vargas

PVPA MAPS Puerto Rico Trip

PVPA MAPS Puerto Rico Trip

Still $6,910 to go. Help us build momentum.