Home Multilingual Story Time 2022
Jacqueline Woodson’s The Day You Begin to Be Read in January
HOME is the theme of Lynden’s work with refugee community leaders, community members, Call & Response artists, and allies. HOME: Multilingual Story Time was created as a virtual program in fall 2020 to meet the needs of parents and young children aged 4-8 during the pandemic. A collaboration between Kim Khaira, Lynden’s community engagement specialist, and Lynden art educator Claudia Orjuela, with the assistance of the HOME Steering Committee, Story Time reflects our belief that reading picture books is a way to share and discuss big ideas with young children. Each book is read by community members—many of them active in Lynden’s HOME refugee programs–or by Lynden staff in the original or translated language and in English. Each session concludes with an art activity led by Orjuela. Story Time screens the third Wednesday of every month on Facebook Live. The videos remain on view, along with contextual materials for download, for use at any time. All HOME programs are free to the public.
In January, our book will be The Day You Begin by award-winning African American writer Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by noted artist Rafael López, a native of Mexico. Woodson tells a story of school-age children and their peers, and the ways they find courage to embrace differences. The Day You Begin will be read in Spanish by Ceci Tejeda and in English by Orjuela. This session will stream live on Facebook on Wednesday, January 19, 2022, starting at 10:30 am live on Lynden’s Facebook page: http://facebook.com/
HOME Story Time originally featured children’s books created by authors and illustrators who have faced forced displacement as refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants. In 2022, we are expanding the experience of displacement to include books from authors and illustrators of diverse backgrounds and cultures. We will be reading books in Spanish, Burmese, Dari/Farsi, Hmong, Ojibwe, Japanese, and Mandarin. Past languages include Arabic, French, Vietnamese, and Korean. This range of languages reflects the diversity of Milwaukee’s displaced communities: refugee, immigrant, African American, and Indigenous.
HOME Story Time is a collaboration with the Milwaukee Public Library, the Islamic Resource Center, Hanan Refugee Relief Group, Alliance Française de Milwaukee, and Milwaukee African Women’s Association.
Kim Khaira coordinates Lynden’s HOME program with the HOME Refugee Steering Committee in creative and artistic community engagement with refugee community leaders, community members, Lynden’s Call & Response artists, and allies to envision and build a space of leading, of coming together, and of celebrating refugees. Khaira is also an artist and community worker, gathering experience in both her homeland, Malaysia, and the United States in the fields of gender-based policy and advocacy, refugee issues, facilitation work, and editorial and report writing in the NGO and non-profit sector.
Claudia Orjuela, Lynden’s Bilingual Art and Nature Education Specialist, is an art educator who uses the arts as a vehicle for cultural integration and environmental awareness. Orjuela’s multicultural background influences her practice of promoting diversity and awareness of critical issues through the arts. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Orjuela earned her BFA at the University of Barcelona, Spain, and a Master of Science in Art Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
About HOME
The HOME Refugee Steering Committee is building a space of leading, coming together, and celebrating refugees. In 2019, we were able to realize our vision for HOME 2019 as a community-directed outdoor festival on World Refugee Day. Over 1,000 refugee community members and members of the public filled Lynden’s grounds. In 2020, we launched the HOME virtual platform to archive our past work and to house our new, year-round HOME programming. In 2021, we offered HOME as a series of dispersed in-person events spanning the summer, in addition to our ongoing virtual programming.
About the Lynden Sculpture Garden
The Lynden Sculpture Garden offers a unique experience of art in nature through its collection of more than 50 monumental sculptures sited across 40 acres of park, pond, and woodland. The sculpture garden is open to art and nature lovers of all ages daily, 10 am-5 pm (closed Thursdays). Admission is free. Annual memberships are available. More information: http://lyndensculpturegarden.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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