Astro Doll (mixed media) by Ruth, 8 (Ethiopia & Kenya), published in the September 2021 Issue of Stone Soup A note from Laura Dear friends, It’s hard to believe this is my first official newsletter. Some of you may know me from the Book Club for Writers. I am also an enthusiastic Stone Soup parent. My primary role at Stone Soup is the director of the Refugee Project. I want to write to you from that perspective today. The Refugee Project was launched in 2018 with the aim of providing a platform for refugee children to use their voices to tell their own stories. To do that, we have partnered with several organizations that work with young people, both in refugee camps and living in countries far from their homes, where they have been relocated to build a new life. Through these partnerships, we have collected over three-hundred pieces of artwork and writing by young refugees. Some of these are featured in the September issue of Stone Soup. Two particularly intriguing pieces are Astro Doll and Astro Doll Queen, created by students at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, with the support of the My Start Project. The term “Astro Doll” was made up by these young artists to capture the alien, or otherworldly, quality of the dolls. These artists were inspired by the idea of their own legal status as refugees—refugees are not granted citizenship in the countries where they are forced to reside and are instead labeled as having “alien status.” The Future of the Refugee Project In the next phase of the Refugee Project, as we continue to collect creative works by refugee youth for display on the website, we are also working to expand and deepen our collaboration with the organizations that have already contributed writing and artwork to the Refugee Project. Our central goal for these ongoing collaborations is to facilitate further engagement between you, our Stone Soup audience, and the artists and creative works displayed through the Refugee Project. This means many exciting prospective projects, including teaching creative writing to young people in refugee camps and then, through these efforts, facilitating collaborative learning—things like pen pal partnerships and other ways of exchanging and engaging with one another’s writing and artwork. To make this vision a reality, we need your help. Our fundraising drive for this project will last through the end of September. Our deepest thanks to those of you who have already donated to support this work! Click here to donate now. To explore our growing collection of creative work by refugee youth in its entirety, check out our newly created Refugee Project web portal. Book Club Join Book Club today to discuss Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk and to have a say in our October book choice! We are thrilled to share that we will be joined by Lucy Worsley, a prominent British author and historian to discuss her fantastic book The Austen Girls. Sign up for the December Book Club today to meet Ms. Worsley and discuss this fresh and fun story about some never-before-told trials and tribulations in the life of Jane Austen! Weekend Project For your weekend project, I encourage you to explore, in writing or artwork, the idea of “other worlds.” You can explore this theme through many lenses. You might seek, through your creative efforts, to create a sense of place that feels foreign, unfamiliar, or alternate to your own world. Or you might go even deeper and explore, in your writing or artwork, the concept of alienation. How might you represent being unsettled? How might you challenge a sense of rootedness and belonging in your characters or artistic subjects? As always, we encourage you to submit the work you produce to Stone Soup for consideration either in the magazine or on the blog. Until next time, Former Contributor Sabrina Guo Garners Recognition from President Biden Write and publish a multimedia E-book with Dr. Jiang Pu! Dr. Jiang Pu, a member of the Stone Soup family, is offering a series of ten classes on publishing a multimedia e-book on Asian/Pacific Islander American heroes in conjunction with published authors Oliver Chin and David Siller! Students will have their multimedia e-books published in the world’s first student-made AAPI online library and present at SCCL Young Author Talk Forum and lunar new year event! This is a class for highly motivated young writers who want to practice research skills, media literacy and critical thinking, multimedia creative design, and more. As we all have different learning capabilities as well as varying schedules, Dr. Pu has split the class into three different start times: every Wednesday at 4 pm PDT starting September 29 for children grades 4–7, every Friday at 4 pm PDT starting October 1 for children grades 4–7, and every Monday at 4:15 pm PDT starting October 4 for children grades 8–11. Stone Soup subscribers get $100 off with coupon “Soup100”! Selfie Contest 2021: With and Without Masks As has always been the case, we want these selfies to tell us a story. Think about how masks can both aid and make more difficult the expression of thoughts and feelings. How can you show us who you are behind the mask, and how can you build off of that image once the mask disappears, or vice versa? Get creative! Try something you’ve never thought to try before! Surprise us, and—most importantly—surprise yourself! You may submit up to four selfies: two with a mask and two without. Deadline: October 3, 2021 To submit to this contest, please visit our Submittable page. Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at on our blog! Young Blogger Daniel, 10, reviewed Robert Louis Stevenson’s iconic novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. From Stone Soup September 2021 It Needs Courage! By Parwani Amiri, 16 (Herat Province, Afghanistan [Ritsona Refugee Camp, Greece]) It needs courage to build a school ! It needs courage to touch children’s hearts ! It needs courage to welcome homelessness ! It needs courage to stand with us in one line
weekly
Weekly Creativity #170: Paint or Draw a Scene from a Dream.
Paint or draw a scene from a dream.
Saturday Newsletter: September 18, 2021
Autobiography (iPhone 6s) By Amity Doyle, 11 (Katonah, NY) & published in the September 2021 Issue of Stone Soup A note from Caleb Classes We were so excited to see all of your faces last weekend—new and returning—for our first round of fall session classes! If you haven’t yet signed up and fear you’ve missed your chance, don’t be discouraged; we are still taking new students in all four of our classes (writing workshop with William, writing workshop with Conner, filmmaking with Isidore, and Book Club with Laura), though Isidore’s class will close after the fifth session. And if you’re worried about catching up for missed time, this won’t be a problem as each class in the session is a standalone lesson—plus, you’ll receive a video of each class you missed at a reduced price! Also, beginning today, and retroactively through the spring/summer session 2021, we will be releasing full videos of the readings from both William and Conner’s writing workshops, in which you can see yourselves reading your delightful writing aloud, and relive William and Conner’s exultant feedback. These videos will be available on our weekly Writing Workshop write-ups published on the blog as well as our YouTube channel. Tristan Hui’s The Other Realm As Emma did last week, I’d encourage you all to watch William’s lovely video celebrating the September 1 publication of Tristan’s novel The Other Realm. In other exciting news, we’ve launched a brand new book page featuring precocious Stone Soup contributor Lena Aloise’s interview of Tristan, which you can watch above. Keep visiting the page for other news—reviews, awards, events—regarding Tristan and The Other Realm. If after watching Tristan’s interview you find yourself hungry for more, there is a longer, more exclusive look inside Tristan’s experience writing The Other Realm on our author interview section on the blog. While you’re there, you might rediscover some of our other fantastic interviews with authors such as Abhi Sukhdial, Ariana Kralicek, and Lena Aloise. Write and Publish a Multimedia E-book! Dr. Jiang Pu, a member of the Stone Soup family, is offering a series of ten classes on publishing a multimedia e-book on Asian/Pacific Islander American heroes in conjunction with published authors Oliver Chin and David Siller! Students will have their multimedia e-books published in the world’s first student-made AAPI online library and present at SCCL Young Author Talk Forum and lunar new year event! This is a class for highly motivated young writers who want to practice research skills, media literacy and critical thinking, multimedia creative design, and more. As we all have different learning capabilities as well as varying schedules, Dr. Pu has split the class into three different start times: every Wednesday at 4 pm PDT starting September 29 for children grades 4–7, every Friday at 4 pm PDT starting October 1 for children grades 4–7, and every Monday at 4:15 pm PDT starting October 4 for children grades 8–11. Stone Soup subscribers get $100 off with coupon “Soup100″! Refugee Project Fundraiser Thank you to all who have contributed thus far! The fundraiser will continue to run until September 30th. Tell your friends! Weekend Project When I was first perusing the September issue of Stone Soup, I was immediately drawn to the title “Autobiography” located inside the art section. Why was a word like that—a word typically reserved for the written arts—describing a piece of visual art? And then I clicked on it. Now my question, though still fundamentally the same, had switched from “Why use this word to describe a work of art?” to “Why use this word to describe this work of art?” I could say that the photograph creates a juxtaposition between what is real and what is reflection, the subject’s “real” foot being more three-dimensional and distinguished than its counterpart. I could say that the dynamic curvature suggestive of dance that exists in the “real” foot is lost in its reflection, a blurrier, straighter image filtered through the barrier of the floor, which in this case takes on the appearance of water, perhaps a symbol for the subconscious. And I could try and cobble these observations together into a cohesive thesis, stating that this photograph questions the nature of the form of autobiography—what is gained, what is lost through its filter? And while I could not give a concrete answer, I could suggest that the relationship between autobiography and the subconscious is that when we sit down to write about ourselves, we can never be objective. Lines are blurred, curves are straightened by our own biased perception. But since I am not the brilliant artist behind this photograph, none of this I can say for sure. However, what I can say for certain is that the title of this photograph elevates it from a beautiful picture to a masterpiece. While Sim Ling Thee’s poem “Words of Snow” doesn’t offer the same insight on titles and the nature of autobiography, I found myself drawn to it the same way I was to Amity’s photograph. What I love most about this poem is its rendering of white space, the delightful suggestiveness of the colon. Is the poem the poem, or is it the space left after the colon, the time spent lingering in the mind of the reader as they can’t help but fill the space with their own imagination? This is a concept frequently explored within the realm of visual art, perhaps most notably in the works of Kazimir Malevich and, later, Mark Rothko. But Sim Ling, in just seven lines, takes something more typically reserved for the visual arts and applies it, effortlessly, to the written word. So, with their respective pieces both Amity and Sim Ling have borrowed from art forms outside of their own in order to elevate their art. Therefore, this weekend I’d like you to either borrow elements of visual art within any of its forms (dance, theater, painting, etc.), or elements of writing within any of its forms (autobiography, fiction, screenwriting, etc.), and meld them into one cohesive form as Amity and Sim Ling did. Then, once you’ve completed this project, I want you to think of a title that does more than describe your art. The title should enhance the experience of your art and complicate its meaning. As always, if you are happy with
