THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602230171
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK YOUNG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
At Cox High young artists don't starve, they just stay out late dining on coffee and cakes. At least that's what happened the night of Feb. 12 when staff and supporters of the school's arts magazine, Wingspan, feasted on friendship and brought their works to life.
The occasion was ``Wingspan Live!'' a coffeehouse benefit for the magazine held in the school library. Beneath dimmed lights, students, faculty and parents were treated to a blend of music, poetry and visual art performed by Cox artists. The room's broad, tiled floor held 20 round tables with blue tablecloths. In the center of each sat a unique objet d'art by one of the school's sculptors. Votive candles lit the centerpieces adding to the ambience of the 1950s ``beat'' generation's favorite hangouts. The aroma of gourmet coffee, freshly baked cakes and warm cider filled the air.
Bordering the coffeehouse area were 11 massive displays of paintings and photographs set up so browsers could fill their eyes while listening to music or poetry. Two of the featured artists were working extemporaneously. Jill Padgett, a senior, added brush strokes of red and black to her portrait of a woman's head and shoulders as others occasionally stopped to chat. Jason Sutton, also a senior, was positioned near the other corner of the room, shaping a box-shaped wet clay sculpture. ``It's kind of hard with everybody watching me but it's different. I like it. I like to hear everybody's criticism,'' he said of the night's experiment.
In addition to offering entertainment, organizers hoped to make a little money for their magazine that evening. They passed around a can with a slit in the top for donations and sold copies of their magazine, raising a total of $115. Despite winning three national and state awards for publications of its type, the high cost of producing Wingspan keeps the magazine's funds perennially low.
The coffeehouse was the brainchild of sophomore Grace Hsiu. Feeling that a disparity existed between the amount of attention and encouragement received by the school's athletes and its artists, she set out to take one small step to rectify it. Some of Hsiu's friends had attended coffeehouses in Norfolk and said this could be the right forum for their combination of music, poetry and art. Hsiu began to talk up the idea with other members of the Wingspan staff. PTA president Lynn Avery agreed to tie the promotion in with a PTA meeting, and the PTA Hospitality Committee, led by Gayle Reske and Sandy Weaver, offered to bake the cakes and serve the coffee.
Porter Mason and Tra Calisch, soft spoken co-hosts, set the tone for the evening, announcing each performer and effortlessly filling dead air when necessary. The spirit of the evening was more one of celebration and encouragement than of fund-raising. Every poetry reader or musician received applause. No rowdy hecklers stood to argue fine philosophical points. As in the coffeehouses of old, patrons and artists roamed the premises at will during the performances, eyeing the art and chatting with friends.
The longest reading of the evening came from literature teacher Katherine Angle, delivering a dramatic excerpt from ``Grandmothers,'' a recently published book of stories.
Following a humorous poem about higher math delivered by senior Jennifer Dziura, stocking-capped Ryan Sutelan grabbed the microphone and hollered a piercing non sequitur before launching into his brief poem.
According to the magazine's adviser, Lynne Carson, ``This is every bit the success we hoped it would be. It's a pleasure to work with creative kids like this. They're not all straight `A' students but they're all creative. That's what these kids are about.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARK YOUNG
Jill Padgett, a Cox High senior, adds brush strokes of red and black
to her portrait of a woman's head and shoulders at the Wingspan Live
coffeehouse, a benefit for the school's magazine and library.
by CNB