Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture seeks to raise cross-cultural awareness among elementary and secondary school students, educators and various community associations in an effort to promote better understanding of Arab-Americans/Arabs and their history and cultural traditions.
Al-Bustan held its first Arab Arts and Heritage Celebration at the School District of Philadelphia in May 22, 2008. This was a culminating showcase performance and exhibit by students participating in “Self-Explorations through Kahlil Gibran,” an Arab arts and culture program offered at three Philadelphia public schools: John Moffet Elementary, Feltonville Arts & Sciences, and Penn Alexander.
We are continuing the program in the 2008-09 school year, adding three high schools: Ben Franklin, Leeds Military Academy, and Motivation. The work of Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye is this year’s theme, culminating with another May celebration, and hopefully hosting Ms. Nye in Philadelphia in February 2009.
In and after-school classes are offered in Arabic percussion, poetry, storytelling, folk dance, and art. Students are able to express themselves and explore aspects of their culture and heritage while building their self-confidence. As one 5th grade student proudly noted, he learned how to show [his] feelings in [his] poetry. Aisha, the mother of a 4th grade participant commented how she was surprised that kids at that age were able to become great poets and be proud of their accomplishments and what they’ve done, not embarrassed to show their work.
Arab-American Youth Leadership and Cultural Initiative
Using video and other artistic media during afterschool programs in public schools and at summer camp, Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture seeks to empower youth to examine, understand and appreciate their own heritage as they define and navigate their particular place and civic role within American society. Themes to date have included explorations of stereotypes, identity, and migration/immigration, with facilitation of subsequent sharing of the youths’ explorations through public video screenings, cross-cultural discussions, and development of an accompanying curriculum supplement to the seven youth videos produced to date. This supplement will be available for distribution on CD and DVD to secondary schools in 2007.
From 2003 through 2006, Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture supported an after-school program for Arab-American students. With the volunteer support of various educators, artists, professionals and graduate students in the Arab-American community, we helped students at a public high school in Philadelphia form an afterschool Arab-American student club. During weekly meetings students worked collectively to share their knowledge, experiences and stories. We sought to have students conduct oral histories of their country of origin and explore their stories and experiences through the arts — photography, video art, music, dance and literary expression — in order to be able to share their discoveries and understandings with other students, teachers and the larger Philadelphia community. Through grant funding from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts’ Five County Arts Fund, we retained video artist Laureen Griffin to work with the students, using video as a medium through which to explore aspects of their identity, which resulted in the following videos: Misunderstanding, Mendeel, and A Day in our Life.
School-Year Programs and Community Outreach
Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture seeks to raise cross-cultural awareness among elementary and secondary school students, educators and various community associations in an effort to promote better understanding of Arab-Americans/Arabs and their history and cultural traditions.
Al-Bustan held its first Arab Arts and Heritage Celebration at the School District of Philadelphia in May 22, 2008. This was a culminating showcase performance and exhibit by students participating in “Self-Explorations through Kahlil Gibran,” an Arab arts and culture program offered at three Philadelphia public schools: John Moffet Elementary, Feltonville Arts & Sciences, and Penn Alexander.
We are continuing the program in the 2008-09 school year, adding three high schools: Ben Franklin, Leeds Military Academy, and Motivation. The work of Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye is this year’s theme, culminating with another May celebration, and hopefully hosting Ms. Nye in Philadelphia in February 2009.
In and after-school classes are offered in Arabic percussion, poetry, storytelling, folk dance, and art. Students are able to express themselves and explore aspects of their culture and heritage while building their self-confidence. As one 5th grade student proudly noted, he “learned how to show [his] feelings in [his] poetry.” Aisha, the mother of a 4th grade participant commented how she was surprised that kids at that age were able to become great poets and be proud of their accomplishments and what they’ve done, not embarrassed to show their work.
Percussion Program at John Moffet School and Feltonville School of Arts & Sciences – 2007-09
Since Sept 2007, Al-Bustan has offered free weekly after school percussion workshops taught by Joseph Tayoun for twenty-five students in 3rd-5th grade at Moffet School. A “Moffet Percussion Ensemble” has been formed which will continue in the 2008-09 year.
Middle School students at Feltonville were exposed to Arabic percussion taught by Joseph Tayoun in spring 2008. Starting fall 2008, in and after-school sessions will be taught with the goal of establishing a “Feltonville Percussion Ensemble.”
This program is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Learning in the Arts for Children & Youth, with support and funding from the Philadelphia School District.
School Presentations
A series of presentations was made by architect Hazami Sayed, on the architecture and urban development of Islamic Cairo and its traditional design and use of domestic spaces, at several schools, among them William Penn Charter High School, West Philadelphia Catholic High School, and Kimberton-Waldorf High School. In addition, presentations on the Arabic language, calligraphy and art were made at Friends Select School and Germantown Friends School.
