An archive of News, Events, Teacher's Corner blog posts, and In The News notes that are tagged with the subject of "Camp"

Scenes from Iraqi Daily Life

September 8, 2009
Drama Students at the End-of Camp Performance

Campers performing a scene about selling dates at an Iraqi market

July 2009

Before my two weeks in residence as drama teacher at Al-Bustan Camp, I had limited experience with Middle Eastern culture.  I have close friends from Egypt, and I had spent time observing a community-based arts program in Vienna, Austria’s Turkish section as part of my dissertation research.  Like many others, I followed the barrage of media reports on the war in Iraq and the recent political events surrounding Iran.  However, I had never spent significant time considering the personal stories of people from this large and significant part of the world.

I began  with several exercises designed to engage the students’ senses of play and their imaginations. During this time I led them in a word association game.  This allowed me to confront the students’ prior knowledge of Iraq and also to help them begin to think of these cultures as material for their theatrical creations.  Knowing that many of these children have Arab parents, I expected that this exercise would yield vastly different associations than the same would yield in a class full of students with no Arab heritage.  I was surprised when the words the students gave me so completely matched words that the news media tends to emphasize in conversations of Iraq.  Words such as “war”, “death”, “Bush”, and “Cheney” were as common as phrases such as “suicide bombing” and “U.S. occupation”.

Given these associations, it was clear to me that my students needed to explore issues not typically linked to Iraq in the news media.  Even conventional, mundane stories about growing up in Iraq, I thought, would help to break down the stereotypes that the kids held and start to frame Iraqi culture in more human terms.  Enter one of our counselors, an Iraqi student who recently came to the US as a refugee and was studying at a nearby college.

I asked her if she would be willing to share some stories of what it was like growing up in Iraq.  She paused before agreeing to this, fearing that I was asking her to reveal stories of her later years in the war-torn country before she and her family fled and were relocated.  She was relieved when I told her that I did not want her to tell the children the “dramatic” stories that many new acquaintances ask her to tell.  I told her that I wanted her to focus on the many positive experiences she had while growing up in her homeland.

Singing "Fogh al-Nakhl"

Campers singing Iraqi folk song "Fogh al-Nakhl"

She told me that some of her best memories revolved around the Ramadan celebration, especially Eid, the day after the fasting when her entire extended family in Baghdad would go to her grandfather’s home and she spent hours playing in his garden and climbing the date tree.   Smiles accompanied Dina’s delivery as she told the students that one particular day she spent at her grandfather’s home was “the best day” of her life.  A genuine exploration of the culture required the presence of someone who could tell the children stories rooted in her own personal experiences, and the play evolved in a fluid, organic manner from her stories.

Through the improvisation and story-telling exercises that we had practiced in the first classes, campers were primed to construct dramatic presentations from phrases, themes, and story fragments.  I asked the 10-12 year old students to break into two small performance groups and construct a play based on their Iraqi counselor’s memories.

I already had much experience guiding students towards the creation of stage-worthy pieces of theatre, but the most transformative teaching moments (for the students and myself) were experienced when the children embodied the seemingly mundane, yet profoundly important memories of a girl who lost a great deal to the current events that remain at the forefront of public discourse and the news media.  Sometimes the most seemingly quotidian elements of a culture are the most revealing and the most useful for confronting cultural stereotypes.

- Justin Poole, Drama Teacher

By Chloe Tucker | Posted in Camp, From Our Teachers | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Iraqi Narratives in Video

August 16, 2009

July 2009

On some level, it makes complete sense.  The Palestinian American teenager in our video class this summer at Al-Bustan Camp volunteered to play the part.  The group had decided as part of their video to reenact a young Iraqi girl’s experience of American troops invading her home at night.  There was something in that story, and that lived experience, that our teenage actress could relate to intuitively, even though she was growing up in Philadelphia. She knew these kinds of stories.

KT-video

Katherine (in center) with teen campers during discussion with Iraqi guest (at far left)

By the end of the three-week video class, we all knew these stories.  Focusing on the multifaceted history of Iraq this summer, we discussed poetry by Iraqi poets like Dunya Mikhail and Saadi Youssef; interviews with Iraqi refugees; film clips; and Arab American hip hop.  It became clear that the American occupation of Iraq was a theme the teens really wanted to explore – along with its rich history and heritage.  Maybe this has to do with the teenage flare for the dramatic – but I think it has to do with their sensitivity and need to really engage with the difficult issues of their society.

We found that listening to two of Al-Bustan’s counselors’ stories about life in Iraq, before recently coming here as refugees, sank in much more than any historical essay or BBC report could have.  A picture emerged in the process of making this video that came out of a place deeper than that semi-conscious rumbling of headlines and statistics we ingest about Iraq from the TV and radio.  It came out of a place of personal engagement and empathy.

I know that for me, the personal engagement with these stories this summer at times could be hard to bear.  Still, the spirit of the people we met and the poetry we read from Iraq, was anything but depressing- despite the political situation there now.  But, in order for the future to be better, the difficulties of the past and the present have to be confronted. Confronted, and transformed.

Making and re-making these stories with their own hands, the teens depicted their thoughts on Iraq in a way much more meaningful than the depressing vision of Iraq blasted over the news daily.  The stories became alive in their minds in a new way.

I hope that this ability to visualize and empathize will carry and guide these bright teens in their need to understand and act in a world that will be theirs.

- Katherine Toukhy, Video Facilitator

By Hazami Sayed | Posted in Camp, From Our Teachers | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Teaching Arabic at Camp

August 16, 2009
brahim

Brahim teaches Arabic to teenagers at Al-Bustan Camp.

July 2009

Teaching at Al-Bustan Camp was a transformative and instructive experience for me this summer.  It was amazing to work with these multi-national children and youth whose parents are from all four corners of the world.  Every one of them came with his/her cultural traditions and linguistic background; but they all had one thing in common, their American identity.  They shared their American citizenship.  They also shared English language as their daily language of communication with variant degrees of use of their parents’ mother tongues.  As I was working with them, I wondered how my own future children would be, of how they would relate to their parent’s American and Moroccan identities.

As for my students, I believe that the camp was an opportunity for them to open their minds and accept the other.  Christian, Jewish and Muslim youth being together for three weeks in an Arab environment is unique and happens very few times in a person’s life.   They learned how to love, accept,, and communicate with each other.  These youth might go to the same independent or public school but they are unlikely to experience anywhere else the kind of environment fostered  by Al-Bustan.

The camp was a transformative experienProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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for me because I learned a lot about the importance of art, drama and music in shaping young people’s culture and identity.  It was very interesting to see the children sing Arabic songs, dance to Egyptian and Iraqi music, and play out Ibn Al-Haytham’s life story.  Most of all, they related deeply to what they were doing.  I learned that the arts are one of the best keys to enter people’s hearts and minds and teach them softly about Arab culture.

The camp was an instructive experience for me because it is different from all the environments in which I have worked throughout my ten years as a teacher.  At certain times, I was wishing that all the schools were summer camps like Al-Bustan’s where kids could have the freedom to learn in a different way.  Chasing Ibn Al-Haytham and trying to retrace his life and reconstruct its fragments so that all the campers could vicariously travel from Iraq to Egypt in a different period of time was challenging but very motivating to find ways to make the campers comfortable and eager to learn more.

I see parallels in Al-Bustan Camp bringing light to all our lives as Ibn Al-Haytham brought light to the world.  In the same way Ibn Al-Haytham found out the way light reflects into our eyes and we can see, I can say that the light Al-Bustan Camp brought to the lives of these youth and their parents is the light of knowing the other.  The real light Ibn Al-Haytham brought to our life is the light of seeing the beauty of difference in the campers’ eyes.  It is amazing that a man who developed light theory died in Egypt long ago but his legacy continues to shed light on us here in America, a thousand years after his death.

Overall, I think that this experience would not have been as transformative, enriching, nor instructive without the great team of teachers and counselors that Al-Bustan hired for the camp. It was a unique collective experience in which I feel that everyone put a little piece of their heart.

Al-Bustan Camp was definitely one the greatest multi-cultural events of my life and I feel honored to have been a part of this year’s camp.

- Brahim El Gabli, Arabic Teacher

By Hazami Sayed | Posted in Camp, From Our Teachers | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

Musical Nostalgia

August 2, 2009

July 2009

Layal singing Toba to music by violinist Hanna Khoury and accompaniment of campers

Layal singing Toba to music by violinist Hanna Khoury and accompaniment of campers

Arabic music reminds me of summer. Ever since I was little, I can remember my mother putting on her favorite cassettes in the car while she drove me to summer camp. I become nostalgic for summers in Lebanon when I would lie on the beach, toes in the soft sand, while music wafted to my ears from a sound system. People talk about having a comfort food that they eat to remind them of home and beautiful memories. For me, Arabic music is my comfort that I listen to cheer me up or if I find myself longing for the warm summers …which is basically all the time. The music is romantic with a soft side in it but also has a joy and vivacity that makes you get up and dance.

In my first year as a counselor at Al-Bustan Camp, I was introduced to singing classical Arabic music. My first shot at a legitimate classical Arabic piece was Um Koulthum’s Alf Layla Wa Layla…hefty shoes to fill. Her songs are complicated simply because her voice is so powerful that a singer with any less force would simply not be able make the song come to life. Um Koulthum made everything she sang drip with such life and emotion that it was intimidating to perform her song in a foreign language to native listeners.

This year I learned to sing Abdel Halim Hafez’s Toba for Al-Bustan’s music performance. This was more of a challenge because I had to learn the lyrics and be able to sing them to the song’s fast tempo. I only had a week to practice Toba and again I was imitating a singer who was famous for being the “Elvis of the Middle East”. When I first practiced the song, my voice was too operatic, too smooth, and too thin. I had to sing from my chest and give the song gusto. I learned to let go of the smooth legato soprano that I was so used to.

For a week I listened to Abdel Halim repeatedly, taking note of his intonation, the tenderness in his voice, and how he seemed to meld each lyric into the melody. With the campers and music teachers, I practiced the song over and over till it came time for the performance.

It’s funny how even if you don’t understand the language, Arabic music is so unique and expressive that it becomes easy to understand the song’s message. The melodies are so intricate, with effervescent beats that can completely alter the mood of a song and uplift you with each riff of the voice or change of tempo. Um Koulthum and Abdel Halim Hafez had such powerful, expressive voices that I wanted to bring out the beauty and emotions of the music just as much as they had. Although I’m not fluent in Arabic, I could not only hear the music but truly feel it. I could let myself become entangled within the music’s striking harmonies and addicting beats. And so I hoped to do the songs justice and sing them in a way in which the audience could feel the same love as I did for the music.

After the music performance last week a parent came up to me and told me about how hearing Toba brought him back to his childhood. The song reminded him of how he and his friends would get together to watch Abdel Halim’s films and listen to the songs. When he said this, I knew that I had achieved my goal and that the music had reached the audience.

Al-Bustan has exposed me to classical Arabic music and given me the opportunity to expand my repertoire beyond Western classical and contemporary. But not only that, the Camp taught me so much about the Arab world. Most importantly, it helped me establish a tighter bond with my culture through music.

- Layal Brown, Camp Counselor

By Hazami Sayed | Posted in Camp, From Our Teachers | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Al-Bustan Camp – July 2009 – In Action

July 26, 2009

The 8th summer of Al-Bustan Camp was held with 49 children and teenagers having a fantastic time in music, science, dance, art, drama, poetry, Arabic, and video. Abu Ali Al-Hasan Ibn Al-Haytham was the cool 11th century scientist whose story permeated throughout the camp activities, from investigating light rays and optics; exploring the history of Iraq through films and poetry; to singing Arabic songs from Iraqi and Egypt – the two countries where Ibn Al-Haytham lived.

Watch a 10-minute video overview of camp in photos with audio of campers singing three Arabic songs: Fog il-Nakhl, Yalle Zara’atu El-Burta’an, and Toba, led by musicians Hanna Khoury and Hafez El Ali Kotain, singer Layal Brown, and cellist Sara Gabalawi. . .

And view a 7-minute video, edited by Corey Chao, highlighting the first week of music at camp. . .

To see an array of photos, go to our Camp 2009 Photo Archive.
For an overview of Al-Bustan Camp, click here.

sadeek

By Hazami Sayed | Posted in Camp, News | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

Ibtisam Barakat Profiled in the Chestnut Hill Local

July 25, 2009
Ibtisam Barakat in Chestnut Hill Local

Ibtisam Barakat in Chestnut Hill Local

On July 22 and 23, Al-Bustan was pleased to host noted author Ibtisam Barakat to conduct poetry workshops with our campers. See her interview with Len Lear of the Chestnut Hill Local. . .

Working Tirelessly to heal social injustice Palestinian Author brings tales of war to Hill

by Len Lear, Chestnut Hill Local
Published: July 30, 2009

[...]“Barakat, who spent two days with students at Springside last week, is on a peripatetic mission of peace and justice. Born in Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem, she spent most of her formative years in Ramallah, Palestine (generally referred to in news stories as the West Bank). After earning a degree in English literature from Birzeit University on the West Bank, she came to the U.S. in 1986 for an internship with The Nation magazine. She later earned two M.A. degrees — in journalism and in human development and family studies – at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Just before coming to Springside, Barakat had attended a world poetry conference in Caracas, Venezuela, as the Palestinian representative. Prior to that, she was in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Oman for one month as “author in residence” working with middle school and high school students. Her memoir, Tasting the Sky; a Palestinian Childhood, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, was named by Booklist as one of the top 10 biographies for youth and in 2008 won the International Reading Association’s Best Non-Fiction Book Award for Children and Young Adults.”

Click here to read the full article.

By Chloe Tucker | Posted in Camp, In the Media, News | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Arabic Calligraphy in the Classroom

July 23, 2009

June 2009

Practicing Arabic Calligraphy

Practicing Arabic Calligraphy

Every time I watch Aishah put a pen to paper, I hold my breath. Her reed pen moves deliberately across the smooth sheet of paper, and I find myself spellbound by the way the pen parts with the ink, leaving a story of movement behind it. Midway through a demonstration, I realize that I am waiting for her to make a mistake, to scratch the paper or cross out her work.  She never does: even her practice sheets become beautiful works of art, with each letter standing on its own, and each connecting letter more beautiful than its predecessor.  She is always the one to declare that she has made a mistake, saying that her proportions are wrong or her ink dried too early; when she says this I can never see the mistake, only the beauty.

This time, I’m not the only one who is rendered mute by the quiet fluidity of the pen in her hand.  It’s early June, just a week before school lets out for the summer, and Al-Bustan has worked all spring with the School District of Philadelphia to bring Elinor Aishah Holland here.  Based in New York, Aishah is here to demonstrate calligraphy to students enrolled in Arabic language classes.  As she passes out pens and paper and prepares for her demonstration, I know that she will make an impact.

While working alongside Aishah is a wonderful experience, the most powerful moment of my time in the classroom comes not from her, but when I circulate among the students. Many of them have notebooks and papers covered with graffiti, artistic writing, or doodles, but for almost all of the students, these workshops are the first time they hold fountain pens.  Twisting the tool to the right and left, they begin to copy the letters on the worksheets they have been given, making their lines thin and thick, depending on the direction of their pen’s nib.

Once they get used to their pens, students began to copy more complicated phrases in calligraphy.  I ask one young woman why she chose her particular piece, a circular pattern with sword-like forms of the letter ‘alif piercing through the pattern.  She replied: “Because my pen makes the letters look so strong.”  There’s a lesson here, because in only half an hour, this artist was able to transform a student’s understanding of ‘alif from nothing more than a letter into a source of strength.

-Chloe Tucker, Program Coordinator

* * * *

For more information on Elinor Aishah Holland and Arabic calligraphy, click here to visit a great new website dedicated to the art and rich history of Arabic calligraphy

By Chloe Tucker | Posted in From Our Teachers, School Programs | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

July 23: Camp Performance & Reading by author Ibtisam Barakat

July 9, 2009

Performance by Al-Bustan Campers
and

Reading by Author Ibtisam Barakat
Springside School – Lower School Auditorium
Chestnut Hill, 8000 Cherokee Street, Phila, PA 19118

Come for an evening of dance, drama, poetry, and video by participants at Al-Bustan Camp, followed with a reading by noted poet/author Ibtisam Barakat from her memoir Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood. Ms. Barakat is visiting artist at Al-Bustan Camp, where she will conduct poetry writing workshops with children and teens.

By Hazami Sayed | Posted in Events | Also tagged , | Comments (1)

July 10: Arab Music Recital at Al-Bustan Camp

July 9, 2009

A Recital of Arab Music
Springside School – Lower School Auditorium
Chestnut Hill, 8000 Cherokee Street, Philadelphia, Pa 19118
4:30 – 5:30pm
Free/Open to the Public

Children and youth at Al-Bustan Camp are having lots of fun this week with music teacher Hanna Khoury and guest percussionist Hafez El Ali Kotain. Join us for an afternoon of delightful Arab music and songs. Performance will be led by violinist Hanna Khoury and percussionist Hafez El Ali Kotain, with accompaniment by cellist Sara Gabalawi and singer Layal Brown.

Have a look at some photos of campers singing and playing music in the first week. . .

By Hazami Sayed | Posted in Events | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

July 6-24: Register for Al-Bustan Camp

June 4, 2009

Al-Bustan Camp will have its 8th summer of fun and educational activities led by a team of fantastic teaching artists and staff. We are still accepting applications: Registration forms here!

Have a look at a short video overview of past summers. . .

By Hazami Sayed | Posted in Events | Comments (0)