It's 8:20pm on Monday July 30, at the Guest House. Brendan and I returned to our room about 8, after a stop at Subway for a late dinner. Day One of the Arts Without Boundaries ABL-TSW conference is in the books, and it is a success! Of course, not without its challenges...
Mohsin had recruited about 35 students and teachers to attend, from a range of Karachi schools (private vs. government, ESL vs. not, etc.) Between last night and this morning, two schools dropped out, lowering the numbers significantly. Mohsin made some early-momnring calls, and the Dream School agreed to send more than previously allocated. This school serves lesser-advantaged kids, mostly ESL, some distance away. Their bus with 14 students and 2 teachers arrived about 9:45am, and we got underway shortly after 10 - not far off schedule. We had about 30 folks in the room today, and expect another 5 or so tomorrow, to bring us to our original goal.
Mohsin opened the session by asking students why they had come and what their expectations were. The students were shy. Mohsin spoke primarily in Urdu, and the students smiled. He organized the kids in a "name game" activity to break the ice and begin the process of building community. About 10:30 he turned the presentation over to me. The first thing I did was review the Bread Loaf Rules for Writing, which Mohsin had translated into Urdu for me:
ABL has learned the power of these six simple rules over the last few years: Be Kind, Write in Any Language, Speak your Truth, Don't Fear Mistakes, Share - if you want to, and Have fun! It was neat for me to have Mohsin translate my explanation into Urdu, and to see the grins on the students' faces. They are clearly a wonderful lot. I then led a short writing exercise on using the Five Senses plus Emotions. I asked the students to make a list of their favorite places in Karachi, then asked them to circle one, and write about it. The first line is, "My favorite place in Karachi is..." and after that I asked them to describe that place through their five senses and at least one emotion. During the writing time, one shy girl raised her hand. "Is there a word limit?" she asked. "No" I replied, "write as much as you want." She smiled. I grinned. Where else but Bread Loaf does a teacher get asked that question?
After writing time, I invited the participants to share in pairs, then in small groups, and then in the big group. And just like that, another ABL conference was truly underway.
We took a break for tea and samosas at 11:05, then reconvened for a theater workshop led by Julia and Atmul. After a warm-up exercise, we organized ourselves (I became a participant for the rest of the day once my presentation was done) into groups of six. Our challenge was to tell the history of Pakistan in three wordless scenes, and we had 10 minutes to prepare our performance. I was quickly enlisted by a group of boys, where I was of course no use in deciding how to demonstrate Pakistan's rich history in three mini-tableau. The boys discussed intently - all in Urdu - and then directed me as they saw fit. I played a soldier in the Mughar invasion, a president in the 1940 declaration, and a successful refugee in the 2000s. I got off easy - none of my characters were killed, and great fun was had by all. Brendan had to play a British colonizer in his scene.
After the theater workshop, Basil conducted a workshop on making photographs, and the ethical decisions at play in that, to prepare us for our tour of the city for the next two days. After a lunch break, we resumed to a writing workshop led by Brendan, called "Exploding the Moment." It's designed to get us to pay attention to those seemingly small moments of life that, upon closer examination, deserve further attention. As a *secret* part of it, in the middle of Brendan's speech, I such up him from behind and poured a glass of water on his head. Brendan pretended to be angry, but could not hold the ruse for long, He led folks thought a discussion and writing workshop. For our final session of the day, Alan organized our group of perhaps 35 folks and led us through a process to use our voices and portable drums to perform the Owimaweh song, made popular by the movie The Lion King. In just under one hour, he had us performing in harmony.
We were quite loud during the music workshop, and to keep peace with the neighbors, Mohsin invited the folks who work in the office one floor below to join us for the second part of the session. They seemed to very much enjoy themselves. One of them was a woman named Umme Kulsroom. After the session, Mohsin called me over to meet her. As a seventh grader back in 1998, Umme participated in Mohsin's first Andover Bread Loaf Writing Workshop, which he organized just after participating in the ABL teacher program. Umme remembered the workshop well, and considers it a pivotal moment in her life. She is now a program manager for the US AID (Agency for International Development). I told her how incredibly proud of her were all are. She represents the true goal of ABL work - helping young people develop into social justice leaders. If the participants in this workshop grow up to work for non-profits or become teachers or social workers or do something else to benefit and improve their country, we will have succeeded. Sometimes you have to play long ball.
Our session ended about 4pm with written and shared feedback. Both were overwhelming. Students loved the program and loved the presenters and wanted more. We dismissed them about 4:30, but at least 15 stayed around, talking and sharing, until 5:30. We presenters then held our own debrief, in which we were far more critical of ourselves than the students were. This is part of the cycle of continuous improvement.
We also realized and spoke out loud that to serve the students we have, this program needs to be conducted in Urdu, with translation into and from English where needed. Hopefully I'll pick up a few phrases as the week goes on. We ended about 7pm.
Tomorrow will be another full day. We meet at The School of Writing at 9, where we will organize the students into two groups, then head off on two buses to visit various sites in the city. Each student will be provided with a camera, their notebook and pen, and charged with documenting the stories of the city, building on the models of Monday's workshops (use your senses, expand the moment, listen for the sounds, look for patterns, look for the history, etc.) Each group will visit one religious site, one historical site, one park, and one marketplace, spending about an hour at each. The job of the adults will be to help the students Observe, then Capture, then Reflect on, the stories of the city. Julia will leave us in mid-afternoon to conduct a three-hour session for teachers at the Society of Pakistani English Language Teachers (SPELT) officers.
Tomorrow evening, we will organize Pakistan's first Family Literacy Night, hosted by the Pakistan American Cultural Center. We have no idea how many people will show up - 10? 30? 100? - but we are excited regardless. Mohsin and I will will invite families to write together, about what they love, they wish, and they dream.
Pakistan trivia of the evening: The Burger King Corporation is apparently majority owned by a Pakistani-American, who donated some $10 million to Habib University. So at least some of the money spent here, stays here!
Thanks for reading,
Rich
After the theater workshop, Basil conducted a workshop on making photographs, and the ethical decisions at play in that, to prepare us for our tour of the city for the next two days. After a lunch break, we resumed to a writing workshop led by Brendan, called "Exploding the Moment." It's designed to get us to pay attention to those seemingly small moments of life that, upon closer examination, deserve further attention. As a *secret* part of it, in the middle of Brendan's speech, I such up him from behind and poured a glass of water on his head. Brendan pretended to be angry, but could not hold the ruse for long, He led folks thought a discussion and writing workshop. For our final session of the day, Alan organized our group of perhaps 35 folks and led us through a process to use our voices and portable drums to perform the Owimaweh song, made popular by the movie The Lion King. In just under one hour, he had us performing in harmony.
We were quite loud during the music workshop, and to keep peace with the neighbors, Mohsin invited the folks who work in the office one floor below to join us for the second part of the session. They seemed to very much enjoy themselves. One of them was a woman named Umme Kulsroom. After the session, Mohsin called me over to meet her. As a seventh grader back in 1998, Umme participated in Mohsin's first Andover Bread Loaf Writing Workshop, which he organized just after participating in the ABL teacher program. Umme remembered the workshop well, and considers it a pivotal moment in her life. She is now a program manager for the US AID (Agency for International Development). I told her how incredibly proud of her were all are. She represents the true goal of ABL work - helping young people develop into social justice leaders. If the participants in this workshop grow up to work for non-profits or become teachers or social workers or do something else to benefit and improve their country, we will have succeeded. Sometimes you have to play long ball.
Our session ended about 4pm with written and shared feedback. Both were overwhelming. Students loved the program and loved the presenters and wanted more. We dismissed them about 4:30, but at least 15 stayed around, talking and sharing, until 5:30. We presenters then held our own debrief, in which we were far more critical of ourselves than the students were. This is part of the cycle of continuous improvement.
We also realized and spoke out loud that to serve the students we have, this program needs to be conducted in Urdu, with translation into and from English where needed. Hopefully I'll pick up a few phrases as the week goes on. We ended about 7pm.
Tomorrow will be another full day. We meet at The School of Writing at 9, where we will organize the students into two groups, then head off on two buses to visit various sites in the city. Each student will be provided with a camera, their notebook and pen, and charged with documenting the stories of the city, building on the models of Monday's workshops (use your senses, expand the moment, listen for the sounds, look for patterns, look for the history, etc.) Each group will visit one religious site, one historical site, one park, and one marketplace, spending about an hour at each. The job of the adults will be to help the students Observe, then Capture, then Reflect on, the stories of the city. Julia will leave us in mid-afternoon to conduct a three-hour session for teachers at the Society of Pakistani English Language Teachers (SPELT) officers.
Tomorrow evening, we will organize Pakistan's first Family Literacy Night, hosted by the Pakistan American Cultural Center. We have no idea how many people will show up - 10? 30? 100? - but we are excited regardless. Mohsin and I will will invite families to write together, about what they love, they wish, and they dream.
Pakistan trivia of the evening: The Burger King Corporation is apparently majority owned by a Pakistani-American, who donated some $10 million to Habib University. So at least some of the money spent here, stays here!
Thanks for reading,
Rich
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