Racial Justice United States Project #44363

Amplifying Voices for Racial Equity in MD-DC-VA

by Story Tapestries Inc.

Amplifying Voices for Racial Equity in MD-DC-VA

Project Report | Mar 31, 2021
creative ways to bridge the gap

By Arianna Ross | Executive Director and Master Teaching Artist

Supplies donated by the Fitzgerald Auto team

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light additional inequities that perhaps hadn't been considered previously. Check out this story about how we discoverd a gap and how a local business has stepped up to support our community and help close the gap by increasing access.

“I was excited to have our students exposed to this performing arts opportunity and appreciative of your organization’s provision to the school in this virtual experience…Students don’t get to see other kids…a normal part of the school day that many students took for granted. Seeing other students at a (virtual) school performance made it feel like regular school for a few moments and that was priceless.” Dorothea Fuller, Principal of Galway Elementary School

Thanks to the support from donors, sponsors, and funders, Story Tapestries has been engaging students in interactive in-school artist-in-residencies that include a kick-off performance to expose the school community to professional performing arts as well as build excitement for the residency. These performances have provided a unique opportunity for the school community to "gather" in a time when we can't safely sit in a theater together. Our artists have studied how to use the tools available to them to really make youth part of the performance experience - from rap improvisations using kids' names to asking questions and using the chat feature to capture even more voices than you might get to hear in a traditional performance setting. The performance is then followed by a customized residency experience during which our artists collaborate with school teachers to enhance their daily lessons in language arts, social studies, math, science and more by leading lessons that utilize an art form. Finally, we have supported these programs with arts and learning activity kits so that every student has access to materials including colored pencils, markers, glue sticks, paper and so on. When we first began proposing remote versions of these in-school programs, the issue of access to materials quickly rose to the forefront and we are grateful so many local businesses stepped up to help us fill this gap. Let me tell you about one of those business partners.

Fitzgerald Auto has been the backbone support of so many elements of Story Tapestries that it is hard to select what we should highlight for this brief story. The team at Fitzgerald Auto are true gifts as they are constantly thinking about how they can support the community and consequently Story Tapestries. Their support this year grew beyond a simple donation to a genuine partnership that values the power of the arts to impact learning. The shift began with a conversation with Dottie Fitzgerald. We shared with her the urgent issue that we were facing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Families did not have the tools they needed to support strong, passionate, committed, thoughtful learners. The youth were failing and the education gap was growing. Parents were mentally exhausted and worried about how to make ends meet while also helping their children be successful. Story Tapestries had a proven solution: Give the students equitable access to supplies and learning opportunities, as a result, they will expand their minds and discover a LOVE of learning!!

Most recently, a teacher at Charles Drew Elementary School said “Jonathan, he struggles to learn. He has not given an authentic answer all year. But this past month while working with a Story Tapestries artist, he wrote four poems. He has shined. He came out of his shell.” Another teacher told me that her students treasure the supplies they received like they are gold because before we sent them their journals, they used to do their math on paper towels. After listening, Dottie and her team truly stepped up. They made a donation so that we could get started buying supplies and providing effective online programs. Furthermore, after speaking with their managers, they immediately set in motion a supply drive with 2 of their dealerships. In a short period of time, they collected 1,140 items that we used to put together 400 arts and literacy kits! Dottie and her team do this work not because they have to, but because they believe in the power of the arts to change the community and develop lifelong learners.

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Read more stories like this one on our Blog

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Jan 19, 2021
Reflections and transitions

By Michelle Faulkner-Forson | Innovation and Partnerships Director

As we are moving into a new year during a surge in Coronavirus numbers in the US, we stand on the importance of building authentic relationships, even if we can't connect in person. Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr day and an important moment of reflection.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." "As we work on shaping the culture of our communities, we have to build them with the idea that the first function of community is support." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

In December 2020 as we prepared for the end of the year, we hosted a special Amplify Us! workshop with the YMCA Youth and Family Services mentoring program called Inspiring Futures. We first met with mentors and held a workshop designed especially for them to help them better support their mentees, who are predominantly people of color. Many of the youth who are referred to the Insipiring Future program have suffered trauma in their short lives, including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, familial mental illness, and family separation and loss. They often lack positive adult guidance and supervision. In an effort to cultivate positive youth and adult relationships, one of our goals for the mentor workshops was to have the mentors investigate their own identity and why they wanted to be a mentor. The more you understand yourself, the more you understand your movements in and interaction with the world and are more capable to be in authentic relationships with others. We are currently scheduling two more mentor workshops as well as two weekend workshops with mentors and mentees together. These workshops are being developed with hopes to create more open and and honest, positive relationships between mentors and mentees.

This is just a small glimpse into the work of the Amplify US! Initiative as we look forward to connecting with the community in 2021. Would you like to join us in conversation?

Connect in our next Community Workshop coming up on Friday, January 29, at 6:30pm EST. We invite you to register for free and join us!

What it entails:

Using poetry, we will explore who we are in a new year, share our stories and our struggles to navigate change.

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Sep 23, 2020
An artist's story of reconnecting via technology

By Noa Baum | Storyteller and Master Teaching Artist

Channeling my inner Mr. Rogers

We are in uncharted and scary times. Like so many all over the world, performers and workshop leaders like me saw our livelihood vanish overnight with festivals, conferences and live school events cancelled everywhere. It has been an emotional rollercoaster and a challenge to gather my energy or feel centered.

Story Tapestries invited me to offer my work in a virtual format. At first, I couldn’t imagine it.

Not only was I feeling lifeless and not in the least bit creative – but how do I tell stories without a live audience? Storytelling is a communicative event in space and time! It is a relationship. My style is highly interactive and physical, with audience participation the driving force of the story. How do I create a relationship across screens? And with everyone muted, as they need to be in order for Zoom to function well, how do I hear their reactions? How do I know if they are even listening? If they like it?

Then I remembered Mr. Rogers. He was the first television show I had ever seen in my life. It was August 1968, I was ten years old, just arrived from Israel with my family for my father’s two-year sabbatical at Sandford University in California. I didn’t know a word of English but there he was, Mr. Rogers on the screen, in color, and it felt like he was talking to me! I still remember the sense of connection I felt as he spoke with that gentle voice, his eyes looking straight into mine, inviting me into his neighborhood.

Channeling my inner Mr. Rogers, I ventured into ZoomLand. I welcomed the children and invited them to answer back by showing with thumbs up when I ask a question, to twinkle with their hands to show appreciation. Then, like him, I looked into the camera so to my viewers it would look like I’m looking directly at them. I slowed down. I slowed down a lot. I minimized and gathered my gestures. I was sensing the presence of the children rather than actually seeing them in the little boxes on the screen. I put my trust in my craft and imagination, put my faith in the story and dove into it.

It brought me more joy than I can put in words. All the chaos and hurt of the world vanished. All the worries and fears disappeared. I found myself moved to tears seeing wide eyes children, on a parent’s lap, or sprawled on the couch or bed, smiling or jumping up and down in glee. It wasn't the same as being in a live event, but we were connecting. I felt ALIVE and less alone.

To my great surprise I discovered there were gifts in this strange ZoomLand: People who couldn't come to a live performance before showed up across borders and time zones: families from Singapore and India, together with my next-door neighbors and people from other places in the US.

And perhaps the biggest gift of all: 5-year-old Kavin from Singapore was so excited about the Hebrew words he learned in our session, his mom turned on the camera so that she would capture what he wanted to share: https://youtu.be/UVKTloKZNjE

I am so grateful to Story Tapestries for this precious opportunity to allow me to continue the work I love in a format people can access at a distance so that we are all protected. It is the next best thing to a live show sharing the same space.

Storytelling is a powerful reminder that we are all connected. Now more than ever we and our students need our stories, the family stories, the ancient folktales from every culture on this fragile planet, that hold so much wisdom and shine the light into the beauty and resilience of our human spirit.

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To hear more stories, join Story Tapestries for our 10 year Anniversary Celebration - ONLINE! Click here to learn more and consider reserving your seat at our virtual table. Our donors through GlobalGiving get 10% by using this unique discount code: GlobalGivingFriend10. We look forward to celebrating with you!

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