“Shoes” (pencil)From the “Everyday Objects” Workshop (2017), run by Hands On Art, at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, and published in the May 2021 Issue of Stone Soup A note from Tayleigh An Update on Stone Soup’s Refugee Project We are so excited to announce that the Stone Soup Refugee Project Website is now up and running! The Stone Soup Refugee Project provides a space for children and young people displaced by war, social collapse, and climate change to publish their creative work to share amongst themselves and with the world. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of the contributing programs and young people who have entrusted us with their writing and artwork and to the generous donors who have made this project possible. To explore our entire collection of creative work by young people living as refugees, please visit the Stone Soup Refugee Project website. Quarterly Reading on June 6th Are you registered for our second Quarterly Reading of the year? At this virtual event, we’ll have contributors from the April, May, and June 2021 issues of Stone Soup read their work. And, if you’re a contributor to one of these issues and you’d like to participate, you can submit your piece or an excerpt from your piece that you’d like to read to this Submittable category. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Sarah at sarah@stonesoup.com. A Little Bit About Me Since this is my first newsletter, allow me to introduce myself! My name is Tayleigh, and I handle the customer service side of Stone Soup. I also work as a personal assistant to Stone Soup Founder and Executive Director William Rubel. On my days off from the magazine, I work at a local garden store. I graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz in December 2020 with a BA in history, with a special focus on Italian history. La mia passione è la storia italiana! Weekend Project Returning to the subject of our Refugee Project, I wanted to highlight the striking piece Shoes, which was composed during the “Everyday Objects” Workshop (2017), run by Hands On Art at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. What a stark yet evocative work of art! Many ideas could be read into this image, but what I see is one crisp, white shoe, its form straight, juxtaposed against its own shadow—smaller, crooked, edges blurred. Two sides to the story. What appears on the surface as sharp and clear muddles itself through reproduction, as in a reflection or a shadow. The image asks whether we lose some of the sharpness of our forms, our luster, in our shadows and reflections. Julia Marcus’s poem, “A Window in the Evening,” sheds some light on these questions. The melancholic speaker of the poem lingers on an image in the window blurred by their own breath, through which they “draw [their] name in the vapor” and “wipe it all away.” I’d like to focus on their breath, the vehicle that drives the blurry reproduction of “every sharp detail of [their] body” reproduced in shadow. Thus, the clarity lost in the speaker’s shadow is their own fault, their breath functioning as a metaphor for doubt brought on by self reflection. This poem, like Shoes, asks whether we lose some of ourselves in shadows and reflections, and answers back with another question, itself a reflection—is it our innermost self, our breath, that causes the loss? This weekend, I want you to write about someone who functions as their own worst enemy by way of excessive self reflection. In essence, their own obsession with the question of “Who am I?” should be precisely what keeps them from finding out. As always, if you like what you’ve written, please send it to us at Stone Soup for consideration either in the magazine or on the blog. Till next time, Book Contest 2021 For information on submitting to the Stone Soup Book Contest 2021, please click here. To submit your manuscript, please visit our submittable site. Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Aditi, 12, wrote a review of Jennifer A. Nielsen’s “inspiring and motivating” 2019 novel Words on Fire. Young Blogger Janani Devendran posted the first installment in their mini comic, Web Wars. Nora, 13, wrote a review of Newbery award-winning author Lois Lowry’s (author of The Giver) 2011 historical fiction novel Like the Willow Tree. Idan, 11, wrote a personal narrative, “No Peconic in Pandemic,” about his experiences dealing with the fallout from COVID-19. Elias, 9, wrote a poem inspired by his experiences with the pandemic. Writing classes and Book Club Are you looking for classes to inspire, improve, and practice your writing with great teachers and a group of like-minded young writers and readers? Join us! We do charge fees for our clubs and workshops, but we try to keep them as low as possible, and we offer discounts to subscribers and scholarships to students who need them. Contact us at education@stonesoup.com with any questions. Writing Workshop: we have two writing groups for spring/summer that meet via Zoom every Saturday (except for William’s class, which does not meet for the last Saturday of the month). Come write with us and share your work with your peers. Find out more and register for a workshop at Eventbrite. To see some of the great work produced by current workshop members, read contributions published at Stonesoup.com, or join us at one of our free public readings! Book Club: a book club for writers that meets via Zoom on the last Saturday of every month. Find out more and register for book club at Eventbrite. Check out which books we are reading on our website. Young Author’s Studio Summer Camps: we are offering a wide range of classes through the summer jointly with the Society of Young Inklings. Each camp runs for two hours per day, Monday through Thursday. All details and bookings via Society of Young Inklings. From Stone Soup October 2020 A Window in the Evening By Julia Marcus, 13 (Culver City, CA) I press my face against the glass, blowing circles of air onto its cool surface. I step back, looking at the filmy, blurred image that faintly appears
refugee project news
Other Words for Home, Reviewed by Sascha, 14
The novel Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga documents the life of Jude, a Syrian refugee that moves to Cincinnati, Ohio at the start of the Syrian War, leaving all that she knows behind. As Jude slowly adjusts to her new home, her surroundings and American culture as a whole, become more familiar. Upon moving, she deeply misses her family and friends in her war-torn coastal hometown in Syria. Jude meets many new people and learns many profound lessons through her experience moving to America as a Muslim refugee. I feel that this novel gives readers a clear depiction of an immigrant or refugee experience moving to America. Within the book, Jude faces discrimination because of her religion, struggles learning English and ultimately feels out of place. Since this book is written in first person, readers are able to learn, on a personal level, about the experience of one of millions that have gone through something similar to Jude. It was interesting for me to learn about life in Syria before the war broke out and also how it deeply affected the lives of the people living there. I also enjoyed that the book was written in a free-verse poetry style, similar to Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. The rich figurative language and detailed description within Warga’s writing helps readers to truly know how Jude felt throughout every given moment in the novel. The following quote demonstrates this: “Sometimes it feels like when I boarded that plane to fly to America I left my heart behind, beating and lonely on the other side of the ocean,” (78). Other Words for Home is a story of immigration and assimilating into a society so much different than what one is used to. Jude learns to adjust to her new surroundings, while still honoring the life (including tradition, religion and family) she left behind in Syria. At certain points, Jude feels like an outsider, like she doesn’t belong. This novel can teach readers that one can always get through a hard time, no matter the circumstances and know that it will get better. Jude exemplifies bravery and courage as she endures many difficult moments in her life in America. She experiences highs and lows, but ultimately comes out of every situation a changed and wiser person. Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga. Balzer + Bray, 2019. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process! Have you read this book? Or do you plan on reading it? Let us know in the comments below!
My Jewish Lens
I first came up with the idea of writing this in Civics class. We were discussing how the people and media around us affect our views of the world. This intrigued me because, of course, this is totally true, and I was interested in these subconscious things that influence our opinions. For instance, I would not be the person I am if I didn’t read a lot of fantasy fiction or if I wasn’t raised in a community that valued education. And of course, my faith impacts who I am. As you can tell from the title, I am Jewish. These things, the things that shape our beliefs in life, I call lenses. Like a lens in a camera, it frames the world in a specific way, and maybe even filters it, so that everyone sees the world in a different way. My “Jewish lens” is very important to me. Judaism, like all other religions, provides guidelines for how to treat the world and the people in it. These are the morals I have grown up with: at temple and going to religious school and Jewish summer camp. They are things like חסד (chesed: kindness), צדק (tzedek: justice), קהילה (kehillah: community), and עולם תיקו (tikkun olam: repairing the world). Now, you’re thinking, okay, I believe those things too, but I’m not Jewish. How can they be Jewish values? That’s what I wonder, too, sometimes. And if you’re thinking that, you’re right. Most cultures and religions follow these morals and have them in their “lens.” However, the fact that I do them because of my faith, to me, makes them Jewish; I am kind because in the past (and present) people have discriminated against Jews: they blame us, or hate us for being “different.” I value justice because since Jews have been treated unfairly, I believe everyone deserves to be treated fairly. Community is monumental because, in the past, Jewish communities have been forced apart, and so the ability to be together and to be united is very meaningful. Lastly, Jews repair the world because we have been told that we have a job as a people to take ownership for the Earth and protect it. It is these values that create my Jewish lens. Now you know that my faith impacts my view of the world. But what effect does my Jewish lens actually have on my world views? I believe that all people should have equal treatment and opportunity without discrimination or judgement. Immigrants and refugees are often treated horribly, turned away at borders, and sent back to where they came from, back to the violence and hatred they fled. They deserve better than this. They deserve a safe place to call home. I value having a community, and so it pains me when communities are torn apart due to human violence. Finally, I believe that we need to take care of the Earth. I recycle when I can, and most definitely believe in the power of renewable energy and defeating climate change. Of course, there are many other Jewish values that create my Jewish lens and influence my life, but these are some of the prominent ones. Now you know about my Jewish lens, what makes it up, and how it impacts my life. We all have lenses with which we view the world. I have many more; the view of a poet, a student, a girl, and a photographer along with others. But my Jewish lens is undoubtedly one of my most important ones; for the most part, it is the birthplace of all my beliefs. I can thank it for making me who I am today, and I know I couldn’t imagine being different. What things influence how you see the world? Think about it. What are your lenses?
