I (acrylic on cardstock) by Ava Shorten, 12; published in Stone Soup September 2022 A note from Laura Autumn greetings! I hope everyone is settling into the school year and finding some time for creative expression as the colors begin to change and the air turns crisp-at least that’s the scoop where I live in New England. The students at Angelina Jolie primary school in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, are nearing the end of winter and the second dry season of the year. After years of intermittent pandemic lockdown, they have spent the last couple of months back in the classroom and furiously preparing for exams. As life returns to some form of normal and they make up for lost learning time in the classroom, there has not been much extra time for creative work. However, before exam preparation began, a few Stone Soup members had the opportunity to collaborate with students in Kakuma Camp through an exciting new Refugee Project initiative, the Half-Baked Art Exchange. The Half-Baked Art Exchange was offered in collaboration with Refugee Project partnering organization, My Start Project, and in celebration of World Refugee Day 2022. Through participation in this workshop, Stone Soup students engaged with a piece of artwork created by a young person living in Kakuma Refugee Camp. They learned about what it means to be a refugee more generally as well as the specific elements of the lives of Kakuma Camp residents that inspired their artwork, such as environmental factors and various cultural practices. Participants in the workshop then added to this piece of artwork, seeking to highlight the work of the original artist and create a sense of visual dialogue between the two. Keep an eye on the Refugee Project website for a display of the collaborative artwork, the original piece and a statement by the collaborating artist. I look forward to offering this workshop again in addition to other Refugee Project initiatives over the course of the school year! And if you’re looking for a fun creative project this weekend, take a leaf from this workshop and start with a piece of artwork or writing that already exists! You might take your inspiration from an old or new favorite-maybe something from the current issue of Stone Soup. Consider where the original artist or writer might be coming from, what may have influenced their work, and seek to engage with it by adding your own special touch. If you’re working with a piece of artwork, consider what medium would work best to enhance the original piece. If you’re working with a piece of writing, pay special attention to tone as you seek to create a sense of dialogue between your writing and the original. In all cases, consider how you might highlight, rather than overshadow the original piece. As always, if you’re excited by what you’ve produced, please submit it to us via Submittable or by clicking the button below! Until next time, Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498.
refugee project news
Saturday Newsletter: May 7, 2022
I Want to Go to Germany with My Sister by Hala, 11 (Syria), published via the Stone Soup Refugee Project A note from Laura At the time of writing this week’s newsletter, it has been close to two months since Russia invaded Ukraine. We are now faced with yet another refugee crisis, this one with a rate of evacuation of people that is unprecedented in recent history. Currently, one and a half million of those displaced people are children. In light of this evolving disaster, I want to turn your attention to the Refugee Project. The Stone Soup Refugee Project now displays approximately three-hundred pieces of artwork and creative writing on the Refugee Project portal; a number of these have also appeared in the Stone Soup print magazine. If you have not done so recently, I encourage you to view these powerful works. Among the works spotlighted, Parwana Amiri’s poem, “Fly With Me,” so hauntingly captures the desperation and hope of escape. In addition to providing a creative platform to amplify the unheard voices of displaced children around the world through publication, the Refugee Project seeks to also foster the creative development of young refugee writers and artists through innovative workshops and exchange opportunities offered remotely to youth in refugee camps and those involved with our partnering resettlement organizations. Refugee Project Updates Our first series of Stone Soup Refugee Project workshops was recently delivered via Skype to a group of approximately twenty-five young people enrolled at the Angelina Jolie Primary School in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. These workshops were developed in collaboration with Hands On Art Workshops, a key Refugee Project contributor, and focused on “Deep Observation” as a means to develop writing skills and encourage an approach to creative writing and visual art. Writing and artwork derived from these sessions will soon be published on the Refugee Project website. Planning is currently underway for a second workshop series for young people at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, as well as similar programs for young Syrian refugees involved with Karam House, a key Refugee Project contributing organization located in Turkey, and young Afghani writers involved with Echo Refugee Library, a contributing organization in Greece. Logistics and planning for various opportunities for transnational youth engagement are also currently underway. Among them, be on the lookout for the opportunity to participate in a Postcard Exchange program with young refugees at Kakuma Refugee Camp, in collaboration with key Refugee Project contributing organization, the My Start Project. A more detailed update about the Refugee Project will be provided to Refugee Project donors on May 26th-invitation and zoom details to follow. Weekend Project This week, I invite you to take a closer look at the material found on the Stone Soup Refugee Project web portal. Find a piece of writing or artwork that speaks to you… and speak back! In other words, take some time to engage with the selected piece and then try to capture what it conveys to you or how it moves you through your own piece of writing or artwork. As always, if you would like to share your work with an audience of peers, please submit it to us via Submittable! With best wishes, From Stone Soup June 2021 Fly with Me By Parwana Amiri, 16 (Greece) ~Sylvia If the sky is blue, then fly with me! If the sun is bright, then fly with me! If the sea is rough, then fly with! If you have wings, then fly with me! If the wind blows through your wings, then fly with me! Come here and fly with me! ~Parwana The sky is dark, please help me! The sun is sad, please help me! The sea is stormy, please help me! My wings are small, please help me! The butterflies are afraid, please help me! My world is ignored, please help me! I am a refugee, please help me! Please help me! Help me! ~Sylvie & Parwana Never be scared! We are together, with no fear! We are together, full of courage! We are together, with strong fists! We are together, with powerful steps! We are together, to fly and spy in the air! We are together, to make a storm of happiness! We are together, to stand up against all odds! We are together, no one can stop us! Because, We are together, we are together! To read more work from the Refugee Project, click here. Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498. Stone Soup’s advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
Saturday Newsletter: January 15, 2022
The Rise of Democracy, Acrylic | Keira Zhang, 12 (Los Altos, CA), Stone Soup January 2022 A note from Laura This week I want to draw your attention to the play featured in January’s issue, Spring Will Not Die. It was written by a group of Syrian refugees living in Turkey who are members of Karam House, one of our Refugee Project contributing organizations. The play presents a fictionalized account of young people’s pivotal role in the anti-government protests that ultimately fueled the uprisings known as the Arab Spring. When I read this play, I think about a sense of ownership, a sense of belonging, or even entitlement to a place and to people, without which it is nearly impossible to envision change. The play begs the questions: whose world is it to change? Whose job is it to affect that change? The answer, of course, is that it is each of ours. But this notion can only be fully realized with a strong sense of belonging to a community and the social ties that make such a sense of belonging possible. If you are looking for a creative exercise this weekend, I urge you to capture a sense of community wherever it emerges for you, and with whatever medium you choose. Find a place in or around your home or community that is busy with people—preferably a place that you visit often (maybe it’s your own kitchen, a park or café nearby, your school cafeteria) and sit in observation for about twenty minutes. Use all five senses to observe and record everything that is happening around you, either with words or with the visual art medium of your choice. Be descriptive and pay special attention to the people in the space and how they’re interacting with one another. Ask yourself: Who is present and who is absent? Are people differentiated from each other in any way? Does someone appear to be in charge of the space? Do there appear to be spoken or unspoken rules that dictate behavior in this space? In capturing a space and the people that occupy it through your writing or artwork, see if you can capture a sense of community. As always, if you’re happy with what you’ve written or created, we would love for you to share and submit it to us via Submittable! An Update from the Refugee Project I had the privilege of conducting a similar activity to the one suggested here with young writers and artists at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya this past week. As the young people shared their texts and artwork describing scenes from their daily lives, many things were unfamiliar to me—a description of a confrontation with a lion after climbing down a mango tree and running into the river to escape a snake; hundreds of people lining a dirt road amidst throbbing music and rising dust during a miles-long bridal procession; a boy, alone in the middle of the road, his clothes and shoes tattered and worn from days of walking. But more striking than this were their vivid descriptions of the things that were familiar, the things that we can all relate to—people at the markets catching up and buying goods, “their white teeth chattering as monkeys;” students together after a long day, doing their washing, watering their trees, playing sports, relaxing, laughing, arguing, telling stories and singing together. In other words, their writing captured the universal experience of community as it emerges in daily life. I hope to share some of this writing in The Refugee Project portal of the website soon. To check out more writing and artwork by refugee youth, please visit the website. With best wishes, Congratulations to our most recent Flash Contest winners! Our January Flash Contest was based on Creativity Prompt #185 (provided by Molly Torinus, Stone Soup contributor), which challenged participants to write a story in which the protagonist explained COVID-19 to people in the distant past. What a way to begin the new year! Molly’s thoughtful prompt led to a surge of creativity; these stories took us on journeys to Ancient Egypt and Greece, invented time travel via carrier pigeon, and centered on ghostly interactions. We even received a play set during the end of the Black Death! While each and every story was a pleasure to read, we narrowed down our selections to the usual five winners and five honorable mentions. As always, thank you to all who submitted, and please submit again next month! Congratulations to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below. You can read the winning entries for this contest (and previous ones) at the Stone Soup website. Winners “What Are You Talking About?” by Audrey Billington, 10 (Hillsboro, IL) “Dear Jane” by Finoula Breen-Ryan, 10 (Bridgeport, CT) “The Warning: A Play” by Nova Macknik-Conde, 10 (Brooklyn, NY) “Old Answers” by Daniel Shorten, 10 (Mallow, ROI) “The Ghost of You” by Eliya Wee, 11 (Menlo Park, CA) Honorable Mentions “Covid-19 Explained to Ancient Egyptians” by Poorvi Girish, 8 (Fremont, CA) “Royally Messed Up” by Lui Lung, 12 (Danville, CA) “Dear People of the Past” by Zayda Parakh, 12 (Chattanooga, TN) “COVID-19.63” by Divya Srinivasan, 12 (Sammamish, WA) “COVID Time Travel” by Savarna Yang, 13 (Outram, NZ) From Stone Soup January 2022 Spring Will Not Die By a group of Syrian refugees in Reyhanli, Turkey with the support of Karam House—Afnan, 15; Ahmad, 16; Fatima, 18; Hayam, 16; Mohammed A., 16; Mohammed, 16; Mustafa, 16; Nour Al Huda, 16; Rasha, 16; and Sedra, 15 Welcome to all our guests. Revolutions, and especially the revolutions in the Arab lands today, aren’t simple events that can be conveyed in a play of less than half an hour. The reality is the blood of the people. It’s not easy to fully portray their pain and suffering. This play may not be one-hundred percent accurate or an exact mirror of reality, but it seeks to present the way in which the demonstrations the youth brought to the streets were driven by their passion for freedom. Thank you for
