John Muir Elementary: Exploring Our Cultural Backgrounds 2025
In the 2024-25 school year, Jack Straw’s artist team worked with three classes of John Muir 3rd grade students to create Exploring our Cultural Backgrounds: Voices from John Muir. This research and interview project culminated in a podcast series of 12 episodes, highlighting different perspectives from John Muir faculty and staff.
The program began in November with an introduction and training from Jack Straw teaching artists Carlos Nieto and Daniel Guenther to prepare students for the interview process. In December, Jack Straw audio engineers and teaching artists returned to the school to conduct and record interviews with John Muir staff.
In January, students worked with teaching artists Carlos Nieto and Jennie Cecil Moore over the course of six sessions to select interview audio clips, write narration, and create scripts for their podcast. Vocal coaches Sunam Ellis and Stephanie Roman then worked with students to practice reading their narration out loud and to prepare for the recording process.
The project culminated in February with three days of field trips to the studios at Jack Straw, where students worked with Jennie, Carlos, Sunam, Stephanie, and Jack Straw’s audio engineers to record their voices and complete their podcasts. Later, the classes held a listening event at school to share their work with each other.
Exploring Our Cultural Backgrounds: Voices from John Muir was produced by John Muir 3rd grade students and Jack Straw Cultural Center in Seattle, Washington.
The Jack Straw artist team included teaching artists Jennie Cecil Moore and Carlos Nieto; vocal coaches Sunam Ellis and Stephanie Roman; audio engineers Zeos Greene, Daniel Guenther, and Ayesha Ubayatilaka; photographer Sherwin Eng; web designer Levi Fuller; and Jack Straw Executive Director Joan Rabinowitz.
Special thanks to John Muir Elementary School teachers Sylvie Kovnat, Tracie Thompson, and Willy Sydenstricker, Seattle Education Foundation, Harvest Foundation, and Washington State Arts Commission.
Artists
Jennie Cecil Moore
Jennie Cecil Moore, Producer/Teaching Artist, creates content for public media and non-profit organizations including podcasts, radio, and print. She is particularly interested in language, culture, food, history, music…
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Sunam Ellis
Sunam Ellis is an actor, director, and teaching artist based out of Seattle. Her training began with her studies at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, and after receiving her…
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Stephanie Roman
Stephanie Roman (they/them) is a Mexican American actor and teaching artist based out of Seattle. Their training began at PCPA – Pacific Conservatory Theatre in California, and they later moved…
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