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.
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
