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STORIES OF IMMIGRATION AND CULTURE
As an organization with a background in community radio and ethnomusicology, Jack Straw Productions is committed to helping individuals from different cultures preserve their stories and traditions, both for themselves and to encourage understanding in the larger community. Our audio production programs provide students with opportunities to talk and write about their powerful personal stories, to learn more about themselves and each other, and to raise their self-esteem in a safe environment working with families, community partners, and a team of artists and educators.
We have produced immigration programs with many different schools and community partners, each program designed to meet the particular student needs. In some cases, such as Kimball Elementary in Seattle, classes have had a majority of students from many different countries. At other schools, such as Hamilton Middle School in Seattle, we have worked with a specific ethnic group, such as Eritrean students. For schools with less diversity, such as TOPS in Seattle, we have designed programs where students interview immigrant community members or students from other schools.
Students create their audio stories through integrated arts curricula with teaching artists from several arts disciplines, including theater, writing, music, and audio media with sessions at their school, in our studios, and in various community locations. Our artist team works with students to select their topics, plan and conduct interviews, draft and revise written pieces, rehearse and record their stories, produce sound effects, select or create music, and participate in final audio production.
FOSTER HIGH SCHOOL: STORIES OF ARRIVAL 2011
Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices is a community partnership project between Foster High School, Jack Straw Productions, KBCS 91.3 FM radio and the Institute for Poetic Medicine in Palo Alto, CA. (Click here to go to the 2010 Stories of Arrival page.)
Seattle Poet and 2008 Jack Straw Writer Merna Ann Hecht worked with Foster High School students from around the world to write poems about their experiences for a project titled Stories of Arrival, produced with support from the Kalliopeia Foundation, the Tukwila School District, the Tukwila Arts Commission, Judy Piggott, the Seattle Chapter of Bread for the Journey, Ruth Keating Lockwood and the Washington Women's Foundation, 4Culture/King County Lodging Tax Fund, the Washington State Arts Commission, and PONCHO.
Students in our 2011 project came from Bhutan, Bosnia, Brazil, Burma, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kenya, Mexico, Moldavia, Nepal, Russia, Somalia, Turkey, and Vietnam.
The students came to Jack Straw Productions and worked with our engineers and teaching artists to enhance their performance skills and record their poems. In April 2011, National Poetry Month, KBCS Community Radio broadcast the Stories of Arrival poems. We have archived all of the students' poems below for your listening pleasure.
Foster High School is the only high school in the most linguistically diverse school district in the nation, according to The New York Times. The students are immigrants and refugees from Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kenya, Mexico, Tanzania, Vietnam, Nepal, and other places spanning the globe. All have left behind members of their family on their journey here. They will most likely be the first in their families to graduate from high school.
"In these poems, many voices have spoken with one heart. While each student has a unique story to tell, based on his or her experiences and memories, there are commonalities among the students that in a sense create 'one heart.' A heart full of memories and longing for friends, houses, gardens, and relatives that had to be left behind. A heart that misses the celebrations, colors, smells, sounds, and food of a motherland - village, small town, or city. A heart that is filled with loneliness and longing living in a refugee camp. A heart that has kept hold of strength, hope and resiliency, even as war, violence, and loss of loved ones have been part of a young life."
-Merna Hecht
"Through this shared experience, I have seen my class come together even more as a community. Students who are often shy or reluctant begin to speak out. Students share their anxieties and triumphs together through recording their poetry. Having students record their poetry for the radio is life changing."
-Carrie Stradley, ELL Teacher, Foster High School
Testimonials from Foster High School students:
"I appreciated that you guys gave us a chance to show our feelings and our thoughts into the studio."
"I learned how to work with the radio, and how to show my feelings in my poem to people. I'm glad that we worked together."
"I felt so excited because it is the first time that I hear my voice loud and real. It is so amazing."
"This program let my voice to reach other immigrant people."
"My classmates and I were so excited that we can show our emotions in our voice and let everyone listen to our real voice and real emotion."
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Teaching artist Gin Hammond and Foster student
Mario Ciric. All photos on this page by Sherwin Eng
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