"We Iraqis have long stories"

"We Iraqis have long stories" said a participant in BuildaBridge's therapeutic arts group for Iraqi families living in Northeast Philadelphia.  This group, comprised of Iraqi mothers and children who have lived in the U.S. for over three years, will be focusing their efforts this Fall on telling their stories through a group made tapestry.  Operationally, a tapestry is a single composition which is comprised of many threads. Conceptually, a tapestry displays a meaningful moment in time that is a symbol and a distillation of many smaller experiences and moments. In addition, many people with unique lives and backgrounds come together to form one community.  The group will keep this metaphor - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, at the forefront of their art experiences to create the piece.  Since October, 28 participants have attended three groups.  Over the next few weeks, participants and BuildaBridge artists will create story-based pieces about their families, their generation, and then their group/community histories. 

Also during this Fall term BuildaBridge is providing the Burmese Chin and Burmese Karen communities therapeutic arts groups in South Philadelphia.  BuildaBridge's efforts with the Bhutanese children have phased out as many of them are feeling more socially connected after living in Philadelphia for over four years now.  BuildaBridge has thus re-focused efforts on the Burmese communities who are still arriving in relatively high numbers to the Philadelphia region.  These groups have served 32 participants so far this Fall.

Another new project was launched at Southwark School in South Philadelphia.  This school has a wide diversity of students from over 10 countries including many of the Bhutanese and Burmese refugees with whom BuildaBridge works.  Southwark invited BuildaBridge to create a mural that represents the diversity of their students and to use the school's main quote "We honor the greatness in you."  See the mural in process below and stay tuned for more Fall program updates!

Message for Nepal

This is a video message from the Bhutanese refugee community in South Philadelphia who called Nepal home for over twenty years. They are concerned for their brothers and sisters who have been affected by the earthquakes. They are praying for the victims, survivors and families and for the rebuilding and restoration of Nepal. BuildaBridge assisted this community in creating artwork that illustrated their memories of Nepal, concerns for the earthquake victims and their hopes for the future of Nepal. Since many from this community are unable to travel to Nepal help, they created this video message as a gesture of their concern for and solidarity with those in Nepal.

The BuildaBridge-led workshops, artwork and video were made possible with support from:
The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program:  Southeast by Southeast
The Philadelphia Refugee Mental Health Collaborative
The Department of Behavioral Health and DisAbility Services
Artists:  Jessica LaBarca, Julie Rosen, Stevie French & Natalie Hoffmann
Individual financial donors:  Kristen and Monica

The Nepal National Anthem

During the course of three workshops, BuildaBridge assisted this group of Bhutanese refugee adults create a visual representation of their memories, concerns and hopes for Nepal. During the close of each workshop, the group sang the Nepal national anthem featured here as a gesture of their solidarity and concern for Nepal. 

Responding to the Earthquake in Nepal

“When I am dreaming, I dream about Nepal and I wish I could go to help them” said a Bhutanese refugee in response to the earthquake.

Bhutanese refugees in South Philadelphia, many of whom spent twenty years in refugee camps in Nepal, are responding to the earthquakes through the healing power of art-making. The group's goal: To create prayer flags and paintings illustrating their fond memories of Nepal and hopes for Nepal's recovery and rebuilding.

BuildaBridge International is assisting the group, many of whom contributed to the PPR mural, with creating artwork that reflects the group's responses to three prompts: Nepal as you remember it (stories and memories); Nepal today (concerned, imagined struggles Nepalis are currently facing); and Nepal in the future (hopes, and prayers for the rebuilding).  The art piece being created consists of four bamboo poles, seven feet high, that are linked together.  In each of the three sections are canvas paintings responding to the three prompts.  Adorning each section above and below the canvases are prayer flags - the community's hopes and prayers for Nepal. 

”We would like to help with our hands [In Nepal] and want to do something; though we can’t help with our hands, we are glad to fundraise by sending money and a message.”  One Bhutanese woman exclaimed. This group is eager to send money and help in whatever ways they can.

Though tangible relief efforts are not possible from Philadelphia, this group wants to at least send their thoughts, messages and prayers to those suffering in Nepal.  "We hope", said another Bhutanese, "that Nepal is rebuilt and constructed better then before." 

During the past week, the Bhutanese group was energetic, fully focused and engaged. They did not want to stop. In fact, they went 40 minutes over time -- twice.  Their artwork is bright, beautiful and hopeful with lots of trees and flowers. When asked if someone would like to lead a prayer for those in Nepal and this community suffering from afar to close class, they instead sang a song.  The group had a moment of silence and then almost all of them erupted into the song. This past Monday, our interpreter played the music for the Nepali anthem.  All twenty-one participants stood in a circle, hands clasped in a prayer stance at chest level, and sang along.  While there is much sadness and solidarity with those in Nepal, there is also hope as illustrated through this Bhutanese community's art and song.

In partnership with the Philadelphia Refugee Mental Health Collaborative, BuildaBridge is responding to the earthquakes by supporting and engaging the Bhutanese community in Philadelphia.

They fled Bhutan with their children on their backs

Since the early 1990’s, over 100,000 ethnic Nepalese refugees from southern Bhutan have fled to Nepal as a result of racially-motivated forced eviction.   In 1989, the king of Bhutan announced that the country would adopt the ‘One Nation, One People’ policy (also known as Bhutanization) prohibiting the practice of Nepali language, Hindu culture and religion, and any dress other than the traditional Drukpa dress. Thousands of Lhotsampa of Nepali descent who had been living in southern Bhutan since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were forced to leave the country.  Many were brutally tortured and others imprisoned; some spent nearly twenty years living in crowded refugee camps.

For the Bhutanese community in South Philadelphia, images of this history are now illustrated in a mural hanging at the Bhutanese American Organization of Philadelphia (BAOP).  Facilitated by BuildaBridge artists Julie Rosen and Stevie French, as part of Nationalities Services Center's Philadelphia Partnership for Resilience with support from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, twenty-nine Bhutanese elders spent  three months processing their histories through art-making experiences to create this mural.  The left-most section of the mural illustrates their lives as farmers in Bhutan.  The middle section depicts their forced journeys to Nepal and living in the refugee camps.  The third, right most section, shows their new home - Philadelphia.  Since the beginning of this idea in 2013, the goal has always been to display the mural at the BAOP in order for the elders to share their history with the next generation.

On April 11th, that goal was accomplished.  Sixteen children, some parents and other leaders from the Bhutanese community gathered at the BAOP to reveal the mural and listen to the elders share their stories and process of the mural. 
"We want to keep our history alive; we want to pass our history on through the mural to our children."
"It's a blessing being a part of this community and share the artwork with them."
"All [of us] were resettled in different countries, we came to Philadelphia.  I love Philadelphia.  I traveled to many cities - Philadelphia is my favorite."

See pictures from the BAOP event here.  Read about the beginnings of this mural here.

New faces, new beginnings

202 - The number of refugees, immigrants and aslyees who participated in BuildaBridge programming during 2014.  

112 - Adults
90 - Children
19 - Artists engaged

Over 75% of participants were new to BuildaBridge programming this year and came from over ten countries.  The art-making experiences in a community context allow participants to build bridges between their culture and those of others; communicate their stories; share experiences and challenges and most importantly, find the resiliency and hope for for a new beginning here in the U.S.

Check out highlights from 2014:

Bhutanese Elders Story Mural
Videos of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo
Refugee Employment and Advancement Program
Friendships form at Hopeful City exhibit
Burmese Chin and Karen children find unity
The Talking Turtle
Bridging the Cultural Divide through Art

Conquering that first scary mark!

Every artist is familiar with the paralysis brought on by the challenge of a blank canvas; the smooth, white, pristine expanse daring you to put down your first mark.  Today, our group of Bhutanese Elders may have experienced this for the first time. They faced it, fought with it and conquered it.

Week after week, I am struck and inspired by the smiles and spiritual calm of our group members who have endured and thrived through so much hardship in their lives. While sharing their stories through drawn symbols and words, they have given us hints as to what underlies their ability to live in gratitude and grace. This strength and character, however, did not make them immune to the fear of the seemingly small challenge before them. When we announced that this was the day they would start their mural, actually putting colored marks onto the large canvas (mind you traced ones over our penciled sketch), they unanimously declined.  There was a long pause and then a rash of heated Nepalese flying back and forth with the translators;  “It’s one thing to draw and paint on paper! Our hands are too shaky! We do not know how to draw or paint.” They insisted that we, the experienced artists, should take over.  From the start, many of them made it clear to us previously that they had never held a pencil, marker or paintbrush in their lives let alone been put to the task of creating a mural, so their wavering confidence was no great surprise and one might even say was warranted. But what we were caught off guard by was the degree of their resolve to pass the task of executing their vision off to us.   Of course, we refused.  Gently. And with a good amount of back and forth, we assured them (or at least tried to) that they could, in fact, do this. We convinced them (again, tried) that it was of the utmost importance that their marks, their personal expressions show up on this canvas that would represent them.

Initially, they wanted this piece for their community house, but they have since advocated for having it travel to represent who they are and all that they have been through.  They wanted it to be right and beautiful.  They wanted it to be perfect!  On the plus side, their trepidation revealed a very deep investment in the project. But as teachers and facilitators, we knew that the mural had to be genuinely theirs.  Our task was to guide them through fear to trust themselves. Like anyone facing that white expanse, they were going to have to take the risks that art-making demands.

So as the fear in the room started to dissolve into resignation, we rolled the canvas out and they got to work.  At first, the pace was slow and careful, the lines shaky and thin.  But the more they did, the more they felt confident making color choices, making lines, making mistakes, making art! At a point, there was a detail that a few of them wanted to change-the huts for milled rice were separated from the workers threshing in the field. They erased and penciled in their own accurate versions of this part of their lives. Of course, the forms and details in this section are perhaps the strongest of the mural; stylistically unique and beautifully authentic! They clearly were invested and felt great about it.  The energy in the room got more and more active with ideas, original use of color and the interior focus that artmaking provides.

In the closing circle, we strongly reinforced their progression, complimenting them on their bravery and on their huge accomplishments of the day. Art is a different kind of scary, at times even painful. It can be enlivening, centering and inspiring.  The room was full with the triumphant experience of meeting, facing and appreciating these truths.

- Julie Rosen, Teaching Artist with the Bhutanese Elders group and BuildaBridge's PRMHC Community Relations Assistant