July 2019
For the second year, Al-Bustan was invited to lead arts instruction as part of the School District of Philadelphia’s English Language Learners Summer Program held at Lea Henry School in West Philadelphia. All of our teaching artists returned from last year, inspired to spend another summer exploring various art forms with the students. The afternoon arts program reinforced language learning taught during the morning session, while also providing a safe space for creative self-expression. The students learned important team building skills while making friends with a diverse group of 80 middle schoolers who arrived to America within the last three years as immigrants or refugees.
Al-Bustan is grateful to the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of Multilingual Curriculum and Programs for selecting us to offer this program. Our team remains inspired by the students’ personalities, stories, talents, and perseverance at such a young age. The art they produced reminds us every day why we have dedicated ourselves to the arts and culture, as well as to the assistance of our newcomer neighbors.
Ranem Atia coordinated the daily program, providing the students with a fun, safe, and educational experience. Students attended three back-to-back sessions each afternoon for 4 weeks with our team of teaching artists. Jim Victor was assisted by Dillon Hershey for art, while Yannick Trapman-O’Brien was assisted by Bella Navarro for drama. The music sessions were split between Percussion Director Hafez Kotain who taught hand percussion on the tableh, and Javvieaus Stewart who focused on singing. Both were assisted by Al-Bustan’s Bloomberg Foundation’s summer intern Nayyirah Wood. Students showcased their percussion at the end of the three-week mark. The final showcase was comprised of drama exercises and skits, singing in various languages, drumming, and a gallery display of artwork from across the four week program.
In Hafez Kotain’s percussion class, students learned the basics of Arab drumming, and each group learned a solo piece using Arab rhythms which they performed enthusiastically at the end-of-program performance. As always, Hafez has a way of getting even the most introverted to come out of their shell. The rhythms moved their hands and feet.
In Javvieaus Stewart’s choir class, students explored rhythm, movement, and facets of singing in a choir. They learned songs in Spanish, Arabic and English, improvised over the 12-bar-blues, echoed rhythms on bucket drums, and mastered the hand choreography from “Bring me little water Sylvie” which they performed for everyone. They also learned the song “We are the World” to perform together. Javvieaus consistently found ways to explore the heritage and language of each student, engaging them while grounding them in what is familiar to them.
In Jim Victor’s art class, students learned how to work with various mediums such as pencil, charcoal, watercolor, paint, and collage. They made individual pieces inspired by still life objects and prompts, and collaborated to create a beautiful mosaic of flags from their native countries. For many students this was their first extended exposure to the visual arts while a few were superb artists already. Altogether the range and diversity of their collective expression was beautiful. While the art was diverse in style and subject the students really strove to do their best in this unique opportunity for self expression.
In Yannick Trapman-O’Brien’s drama class, aspiring actors, and often comedians, learned about the structure of stories through games, improvisation, and writing. They created fictional narrated scenes one of which they performed on the last day of the program. Most importantly they learned to let go of inhibitions, find confidence, and communicate across language barriers.
