The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL) is hosting a free, two-hour street photography workshop on Friday, October 23, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Jamaica Arts Center, 161-04 Jamaica Avenue. Admission costs nothing, but JCAL asks people to RSVP in advance through the event's registration page.

The session, called Street Photography: Seeing, Connecting, and Telling Stories, is part of JCAL's Visual Voices education program.

Who is teaching

The workshop is led by Kash Gaines, co-founder and director of YAK Films, a media crew known for filming street dance. YAK Films reached a wide audience after a video with the dance crew Turf Feinz circulated online, and the crew has since filmed dance battles and street dancers around the world. Gaines also hosts the Yak Like You Know show and works as a dancer, filmmaker and photographer.

What the session covers

According to JCAL's listing, the workshop treats street photography as a way of observing people, telling stories and making connections, with more weight on curiosity and empathy than on camera settings. The two hours mix discussion and demonstrations with guided shooting exercises. It is an in-person session, and the listing does not ask for any particular camera, so a phone camera is a reasonable way to take part.

Also on view at the Jamaica Arts Center

The workshop takes place while JCAL's galleries are showing You Can Have That Chair, This One Is Taken, a Visual Voices group exhibition on view through November 27. It is curated by Jesus Caicedo, an illustrator and cook born in Colombia and raised in Brooklyn, and is loosely inspired by the story Babette's Feast. JCAL describes rooms that use scent, sound and food alongside the artwork. The nine exhibiting artists include Cheri Passera, Ingrid Yuzly Mathurin, Lina Soledad Rosario and Sabrina Santiago.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Coming up in November

JCAL's Thursday Night Jazz series continues on November 12 at 8 p.m. with pianist Idris Frederick at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center, 153-10 Jamaica Avenue. Tickets are $10.

About JCAL

JCAL has offered classes, exhibitions and performances in visual art, music, dance and theater in Jamaica since 1972, and says it serves about 50,000 people a year. It also programs the Jamaica Performing Arts Center on Jamaica Avenue.

Getting there

The Jamaica Arts Center is at 161-04 Jamaica Avenue at 161st Street. The E, J and Z trains stop at Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer, a short walk east, and the Long Island Rail Road's Jamaica station is a few blocks south. RSVP for Friday's workshop through JCAL's website.

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