Storytellers

Photo Credit: Nina Wurtzel Photography

 There are some things so beautiful 

the magic they create is  

                                     unquestionable

The storytelling workshops Other Voices conducted with the first, second and third grade children at our school were unparalleled. For three days artists, teachers, documentarians and performers immersed  the students in the language of creativity, movement and dance.

The excitement surrounding the event was palpable as children became immersed in creating, sharing, writing and telling stories. Stories rooted in American Sign Language.  Stories stemming from real life experiences.  Stories that rattle around unfiltered in the imagination of a six-year-old.  And stories that only kids in New York City could tell.

Photo Credit: Nina Wurtzel Photography

Across our classrooms markers, pencils, crayons and paper of all sorts captured their thoughts.

We surrounded ourselves with words,

                words, 

                                                  words!

Photo Credit: Nina Wurtzel Photography

Dreams were encouraged and free to roam untethered. Everything was accepted - a beauty parlor on Pluto? Of course! Medusa fighting dragons?  Yes!  A Deaf child getting swept away by the music playing on a subway platform in Queens and getting separated from her classmates?  Tell me more!

Photo Credit: Nina Wurtzel Photography

The joy shone through on the faces of the children (captured so beautifully in Nina Wurtzel's photographs) and was reflected in the exhilarated comportment of every adult. Together we created magic. We listened. We cared.

Other Voices had a vision to "ignite students' creative imaginations by giving them the experience of seeing and hearing how powerful their own voices are as their stories are sent out into the world".

The collective stories will serve as the inspiration for a theatre piece to be performed on the High Line in April.  They will also be illustrated by Broadway designers and Deaf artists for a companion book.

A huge thank you to everyone involved for planning and executing the workshops.  It's spectacular to see what can happen when the I becomes the We.