Part 3: Appendix: Two Workshop Guides

Transcription

1 Part 3: Appendix: Two Workshop Guides Guide 1: Where I m From and Ancestors Writing Migration Poems Overview This writing workshop has participants write their own migration poems, using the poem Where I m From, by George Ea Lyon, or Ancestors, by Moises Viavicencio Barras, as a mode. History Workshop materias were originay deveoped by mother-daughter team Jennifer Hirsch and Penny Hirsch as one exercise for a writing cass that they taught at Grace House, a transitiona home for women reeased from prison. Simiar to the UIC Latino Cutura Center s program on Migration and Transformation, the cass used the theme of migration to hep participants think about where they come from, where they re at, and where they want to go. It used a visua prompt paintings from renowned painter Jacob Lawrence s book, The Great Migration: An American Story to hep the group reate to the theme of migration. However, many of the participants had never ived outside Iinois so their stories focused on migrations between neighborhoods, between neighborhoods and prisons, and even, in one case, from one side of the street to the other. A number of women aso focused on thought migrations: evoving from one way of thinking to another. This workshop used the poem Where I m From. During the Connect project, University of Wisconsin Madison Arboretum s Latino Earth Partnership for Schoos Program used this activity but substituted the Ancestors poem, which was a good cutura fit for their focus on the Latino community. Both poems use the past to think about the present and the future, and either one can be used to hep workshop participants expore and write about their own ives. Needs Group Age, Size, and Time 5-20 participants, about 2 hours. This workshop wi ikey work best with participants midde schoo age and above Space A room with desks for writing. A circuar or rectanguar tabe is best since peope wi share their stories with each other. Materias One copy per person of the poem you are going to use, the worksheet, and the Where I m From or Ancestors poem tempate (beow) Pencis for everyone Tabe-tents for names 16 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

2 Big post-it pad and markers Faciitation The faciitator shoud have experience encouraging groups of peope to express their ideas. Expertise in writing or writing pedagogy is not required, nor is it in cimate change or the migration of peope or animas. However, the faciitator shoud become famiiar with the poem used. If that is Where I m From, she or he can aso visit Lyon s website (George Ea Lyon Writer & Teacher) to see other exampes of how the poem has been used as a writing too. The faciitator may aso wish to write her or his own poem to share with the group as an exampe. If the group is big, or if you think peope wi need ots of individua attention, it s best to have another person to hep with the writing parts of the workshop. Instructions Wecome and Introductions (+/ 10 min.) As participants arrive, give them the handouts (above) and a penci. Have them write their names on a tabe tent with the marker. Then ask them to have a seat. When everyone is seated, wecome them, expain the purpose of the activity, and ask them to introduce themseves, sharing their name, where they grew up, and where they ive now. If you are not going to focus soey or specificay on geographic migration, revise what you ask them to share accordingy. Read the Poem Together (+/ 10 min.) Lead the group together in reading the poem you ve chosen to read. Ask for a vounteer to read the first few stanzas and then go around the room unti the poem is finished. If anyone strugges with a word, genty hep them out. At the end of the poem, faciitate a short discussion. Ask peope: What stood out to you from this poem? What confused you? And finay: What memories from your ife does this poem make you think of? This wi get peope thinking about the types of detais they might want to incude in their own poem. Compete Worksheet and Poem (+/ min.) Now ask everyone to compete their worksheet (beow). This is where they wi write notes to use for writing their poem. Review the worksheet as a group to see if there are any questions or concerns. If you have written a poem to share as an exampe, this is a good pace to read it to the group and share a bit about your experience writing it. If you haven t written your own poem, or if you want another exampe, you can aso share the sampe poems beow written by Connect partners. Once you have shared a poem or two, have peope start working on their worksheets. After a few minutes, go around the room and hep peope who ook ike they are confused or not sure what to write. When peope are done with their worksheet, ask them to use ideas from the worksheet to compete their poem, using the tempates beow. Continue waking around the room to offer hep. Share Poems Out Loud (+/ 30 min.) Ask for vounteers to stand up and read their poems to the group. After each one, ask the group: What did you ike most about that poem and why? What parts did you reate to most? What woud you ike to know more 17 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

3 about (and aow the reader to respond, encouraging her/him to add a detai or two to the poem)? Continue asking peope to share unti everyone who wants to share has done so. Encourage peope who are reuctant to share for the benefit of the group. In between poems: Highight themes that are emerging, such as common memories, vaues, and practices. Write these themes down on the big post-it papers. Aso isten for issues or practices directy reated to cimate change, such as gardening, conserving water or energy, etc. (see ist above on cimate change-reated prompts for more exampes). Faciitate a Now and Then or Here and There Discussion (+/ min.) Encourage participants to compare their memories with their experiences today. Here are some questions you might ask: What is simiar and what has changed? Who were we before and after we migrated? (Faith in Pace s question) What vaues and meaningfu practices have we retained? What vaues and meaningfu practices have we et go that we d ike to bring back? What are some of the images, smes, tastes, or experiences that reate to the seasons (temperature, rain, snow), water, widife, pants, and other eements of nature? Have any of these changed over time because of cimate change? Are any cimate-friendy practices or technoogies described in these poems? How have they changed? Finay, ask peope to think about what they have earned from sharing their own migration stories and hearing others. Push them to think about the big so what s, such as Faith in Pace s message: that communities of coor have been resiient and can draw on their deep knowedge and extend their hospitaity to hep the natura word, and themseves, survive. Concude Thank peope for writing and sharing and te them about next steps, if there are any. If peope wi et you, coect their poems so you can review them to think about how to buid on key themes and stories in your cimate action work moving forward. Ideay, you shoud make copies of the poems and return the originas since at east some peope wi ikey want to keep them. If you think you might use participants poems in the future, et them know how you might do so and confirm again that you have everyone s permission. (Moving forward, aso make sure you honor your description of how they might be used; and contact peope if you want to use the poems differenty from how you originay panned.) 18 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

4 Moving from Stories to Action For some ideas about how you can use stories as a springboard for action, see Moving from Stories to Action in Part 2. Hepfu Links Jacob Lawrence, The Great Migration: An American Story: George Ea Lyon s website: 19 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

5 h Where I m From by George Ea Lyon I am from cothespins, from Corox and carbon-tetrachoride. I am from the dirt under the back porch. (Back, gistening it tasted ike beets.) I am from the forsythia bush, the Dutch em whose ong gone imbs I remember as if they were my own. I'm from fudge and eyegasses, from Imogene and Aafair. I'm from the know-it-as and the pass-it-ons, from perk up and pipe down. I'm from He restoreth my sou with a cottonba amb and ten verses I can say mysef. I'm from Artemus and Biie's Branch, fried corn and strong coffee. From the finger my grandfather ost to the auger the eye my father shut to keep his sight. Under my bed was a dress box spiing od pictures, 20 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

6 a sift of ost faces to drift beneath my dreams. I am from those momentssnapped before I buddedeaf-fa from the famiy tree. "Where I'm From" appears in George Ea Lyon s Where I'm From, Where Poems Come From, a poetry workshop-book for teachers and students, iustrated with photographs by Robert Hoskins (Absey & Co: Spring, TX, 1999). It can be found on Lyon s website, George Ea Lyon Writer & Teacher, aong with exampes of how peope around the word have used it as a writing exercise to prompt thinking about roots and traditions. 21 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

7 Ancestors / Ancestros by Moises Viavicencio Barras In Luz de Todos as Tiempos (Light of A Times) (Cowfeather Press: Middeton, WI, 2013) 22 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

8 In my chidhood the streams brought sacred beads that I hung on my chest ike those caendars on the was of my grandmother, a soitary midwife. My ancestors sang in the prairies where infinity ives. In my chidhood my brothers died in the swoen bey of the night. In a mud bed I found the thread of a answers. Under my hands grew the gasses and pates of the consteations. My ancestors ran from one city to another,vith seeds and fish of terrestria and natura Gods. They did not have the hours En mi infancia os arroyos trajeron cuentas sagradas que cogaba en mi pecho, como esos caendarios en as paredes de mi abuea, partera soitaria. Mis ancestros cantaron en as praderas donde e infinito. En mi infancia mis hermanos murieron en e vientre hinchado de a noche. En un yacimiento de barro encontre e hio de todas as respuestas. Bajo mis manos crecieron os vasos y os patos de as consteaciones. Mis ancestros tambien corrieron de una ciudad a otra con as semias y os peces de dioses terrestres y naturaes. No tuvieron as horas that the sun spends in the wings of cormorants. que e so pasa en as aas de os cormoranes. They did not have god on their side. No tuvieron e oro de su ado. The wind panted their bones and fesh E viento sembró sus huesos y carne in hisides of acahua and sience. en barrancas de acahua y siencio. My ancestors waked from one side Mis ancestros anduvieron de un ado to the other side of the earth quiety a otro de a tierra sin ruido, with their mouths in the ruinous waters y con a boca en as aguas ruinosas that rain eaves que a uvia deja after dying in eaves and stones. despues de morir en as hojas y as I am the one who did not know the threat piedras. 23 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org of the whee and the metaic thirst of the spirit. Soy e que no conocio a amenaza de a rueda y a sed metáica de espíritu.

9 Sampe Poem Where I m From by Vema L. Pate Covenant United Church of Christ (Faith in Pace and Connect partner) I'm from the dirt road of Lexington, Mississippi. Water rushing down the pond, birds singing in the window Shotgun house with no phone to ring Seating on the porch rocking in the chair. I'm from the cotton fieds, sweat running down my face to a kitchen of greens, cornbread and peach cobber. Garden of fower freshy booming for the summer, Smes of hogs, chicken, dogs, horses, cows waiting to be miked, fed each morning. I'm from "see you tomorrow if the Lord say the same" "don't count a your chicken before they hatch" "Fairy-Miey" If you know what I mean. Hanging cothes on the ine, fishing poe hooking the worms. I'm from going to town on Saturday and church on Sunday reading the Bibe and memorizing poems for Easter and Chidren Day's I'm from a grandmamma who was a tough no-nonsense woman bring you in this word and wi take you out. Waiting for the Commodity Truck at the end on the road Candy, cheese, cookies and boogna. Lamps become my ight for night Chop wood to keep me warm for winter. I'm from the rib, iving a thousand years is ike yesterday. 24 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

10 A fragrance from fowers, trees that buds in the spring, The his of Mt. Oive, Randa Town Road. I'm a breath of ife, Heaven is my home. Like George Ea Lyon, I am from those momentssnapped before I buddedeaf-fa from the famiy tree. 25 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

11 Sampe Poem Antepasados Escrito por Maribe Gonzaez Written in Radames Gaarza s 5th Grade cass, ALBA Schoo, Miwaukee, WI, Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

12 *Note: Antepasados is another word for ancestors. 27 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

13 Migration Poem Worksheet (Notes) Think back to your home or neighborhood and make ists: What did you see? (What did peope/rooms/your street/backyard/neighborhood parks ook ike?) What did you sme? What did you/others eat/drink? What did peope say/tak about? (think: common phrases) What did peope do? 28 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

14 Historias de Migracion: Hoja de Trabajo Acurdate de tu hogar o vecindario y haz istas: Qué veías? ( Cómo se veía a gente, os cuartos, as caes, e jardín, o e parque de tu hogar o vecindario?) Qué oías? Qué comías o bebías? Qué te decía a gente o de qué hababan? (piensa en frases comunes u otras expresiones) Qué hacía a gente? 29 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

15 Where I m From By {Your Fu Name} I m from I m from I m from Like George Ea Lyon, I am from those momentssnapped before I buddedeaf-fa from the famiy tree. 30 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org

16 Ancestors / Ancestros By (Your Fu Name/Su nombre competo) In my chidhood / En mi niñez My ancestors / Mis ancestros My ancestors / Mis ancestros 31 Migration Stories Too connectcca.org