Springtime of Falling Down

A Reflection by Luke Nephew of The Peace Poets and LitWorld

We’re all afraid to fall down.  But we all have and we all will again.  Falling is part of the path we’re all walking. And so when we gather in the Circle of Peace with the Residents of the Hebrew Home and the young men of The Children’s Village, we don’t hide the bruises left by the many ways we fall down, we honor the lessons that they teach.  

This Springtime came with the good fortune of three Sundays in a row of our poetry circle.  As winter wandered away, we met in the quiet library on the banks of the Hudson River.  It is always a warm quiet.  A comfortable quiet.  A quiet that we fill with words woven into stories and poems.  After years of doing a variety of poetic exercises mainly focusing on LitWorld’s 7 Strengths, we decided to take these three sessions to share with each other more about the stories of our lives.  We used the same style of composing one big group poem, but now our creation was filled with moments and places and feelings and of course, falls that we have lived along the way. 

The first week we opened up the space to describe the beginning of our story.  It was an amazing collage of geography and history.  The young men recounted births and moves around NYC and as far away as Darvin from the Dominican Republic and Jesus from Puerto Rico.  The residents also took us for trips from Ms. Phyllis’ Ohio to Ms. Betty’s New Mexico.  Ms. Leah smiled as she shared that her story began on 196^th Street and Valentine Avenue in the 1920s.  I almost thought I heard her wrong.  I couldn’t believe it- That’s my block, my home of many years!  She was born a few buildings away almost a century ago.  Imagine how many times she has fallen and gotten back since then.  Her smile is strong and brave.

The next week we went to the transformative moments.  Here is where many folks talked about moving away from loved ones or falling in love, loosing their homes or their families, getting married or learning to be alone, first loves or final words.  We listened to each other talk about how our hearts have fallen.   At moments, we held back the tears at how human we let each other be.  This is the gift of a poetry circle: we can recount the falls without the limits of logic.  When has loosing your family or falling in love ever felt logical?  Only through poetry can we arrive anywhere in the vicinity of such emotional territories.  We ended this week by creating a poem called “From that Point on”, which was full of feelings and wisdom.  One of the young men said, “From that point on…I knew I wanted to be with her.”  It was a gentle admission of falling into young love.  He said it so quietly.  But it was that warm comfortable quiet and he made the whole room blush.

Our last week, I offered to the group that I’d love them to come up with a line.  Timothy went ahead and proposed that we all share what we want this group to know.  In our check in, he and a few others had mentioned that they were feeling really sad because this was the last time we would be gathering as a group for a long time and for some of the young men who will be leaving Children’s Village, it was their final circle of peace at the Hebrew Home.  It seemed that Tim wanted to open up this emotional space for everyone.  He succeeded.  One by one, folks expressed their gratitude to all the others in the circle.  They said it felt like family. They said they loved being together.  Their tone, rising and falling in emotion.  They said they learned so much from one another.  They said they were going to miss everyone…

These three weeks were honest and open art-making sessions.  We went places together for the first time.  I think the biggest difference was sharing some of our hardest moments.  Often times, it wasn’t even the words but the tone of the speaker as they said things like “from that point on I knew I wanted to appreciate life every day.”  It was the tone that let us into our real experiences of love and loss, rising and falling.  One of the residents came to the second week with a bad bruise on her face.  She had fallen.  The young men seemed to be worried about her- concerned eyes and hushed voices.  But she was back.  She had gotten up, gotten better and made her way to our circle to share about it.   She had lived to tell about it.  And so why waste the opportunity to tell?  Here she was.

We did unfortunately miss the voice of Mr. Saul, a regular participant.  As it turns out we learned from his friends and the staff that he too had suffered quite a bad fall.  But from what this group has taught each other time and again, the falling is just part of the rising and that is how we grow.  We parted with affection, gratitude and the quiet confidence that despite the falls, its springtime. Saul will get back up and have us all laughing again soon as he always does.  The young men will overcome their challenges and continue growing.  But while many celebrate the bright flowers and say springtime is all about the blossom, a poet remembers the seeds that came before.  The brave strong seeds that endured the fall and gave birth to new life. 

**Submitted by LitClub Leader, Luke Nephew

LitClub Nepal Volunteers to Distribute Clean Water

On 27th April, 2013, Niharika Shishu Kunja High School conducted ‘Free Water Distribution Program’ on the special occasion of Baishdhara Purnima, a day celebrated each year to mark the inauguration of the beautiful park that boasts of twenty-two stone waterspouts. Hundreds of people visit the park on this day to celebrate this occasion.  To help beat the summer heat, Niharika Shishu Kunja High School generously decided to offer free drinking water to people visiting the park.

With five girls of Lit Club Nepal (Anjana, Sadikshya, Deepika, Sailaja and Manisha), I reached Balaju Park at 10 o’clock in the morning. It was a hot summer day so the timing of our arrival seemed perfect for the program. Everything was already set as planned: the tent, chairs, cups and many jars of water. One of the teachers of Niharika, Mr.Yubak Raj Parajuli, was already there to help us proceed with the program.

The girls stood there patiently and happily the entire day offering water to people who were thirsty. Many people appreciated their work and dedication. Some even blessed us for our service. The program continued till 5 in the evening. I feel proud to say that the girls and Lit Club Nepal as a whole did a really good job on that day. They were able to understand the importance of helping others and the feeling of togetherness could be felt.

I would like to thank Niharika Shishu Kunja High School for giving us the opportunity to participate in such a wonderful and fruitful community service. Also, I would like to congratulate the girls of Lit Club Nepal for their great achievement. 

--Submitted by LitClub Leader, Surabhi Sharma

Kisumu LitClub Leaders Travel to Kibera for Training, Learning and Laughter

The Kisumu LitClubu leaders' long awaited trip to Nairobi started with a night trip by bus on Thursday, May 9. This time of the year is rainy and cold in Kenya, so we all dressed warmly for the trip before leaving Kisumu. We arrived safely in Nairobi despite the poor road conditions in Nairobi. We were all excited about the trip since this was one of the first major trips that Kisumu LitClubs has ever ever done.

A total of 8 LitClub facilitators from Kisumu made the trip Kibera. When we arrived at the Kibera Innovation Hub, our team was met by Prisca and Maureen. There was a lot to learn these two ladies who have a lot of energy and are doing a wonderful job with the children of Kibera. We were amazed at their work and the way they interacted with the children and the different activities they are engaged in.

The Kibera LitClub team was very receptive to our questions and experiences. Prisca and her team took us through a training session showing us how they run the LitClub and how they structure the whole program. When Prisca and her team took us through the 7 Strengths of LitWorld, our Kisumu facilitators paid close attention and wished they could hear more, as Prisca and her team delivered the information in a captivating way. We were so encouraged with the work that was taking place at Kibera. We learned a lot from each other.

Our leaders took lots of notes from Prisca and Maureen. We also had the privilege of meeting the area Member of Parliament (MP), Hon. Kenneth Okoth, who was teaching the children of the Red Rose School the Kenyan National Anthem. He is the founder of Children of Kibera which partners with LitWorld to run the LitClub programs in Kibera.

Lessons Learned:

1. As LitClub leaders, we should always find the child in us for easy understanding of the children.

2. Reading aloud does help the child visualize and pronounce words better.

3. When doing a lesson on a particular strength, the best way to make the learning accessible for children is by backing it up with activites.

--Phoebe, Girls LitClub Leader, Kisumu, Kenya

Heart Maps from Mexico

We are a small, but strong and intelligent group of girls. We live in Monterrey, Mexico and we attend the American School Foundation of Monterrey.

Our feelings on LitClub:

"I have learned to be creative with my work." - Creative Corde

"I have learned that I can be free in this group and be myself!"

"I learned that you can have your own point of view and you can share it because the other girls in the group will respect it."

" I have learned to express my own opinions." - Dancing Danny

We loved creating our perfect world and designing our heart maps.

*Submitted by LitClub Leader Michele Neale

Exploring Huanchaco with the Girls LitClub

Time in Peru works very flexibly. It is more of a vague idea than a fixed notion, and simple things such as buying bread can be complicated into hour long encounters which leave you wondering how you ever get anything done.

Although I had stressed to the girls at LitClub that we were leaving at 3pm "en punto," it came as no surprise to me that they began to appear, ambling leisurely towards the library at 3.30pm – I myself hadn’t actually arrived until 3.15! The plan for the afternoon was to walk down to Huanchaco to meet with a local restaurant owner at 4pm. The girls were to be given the chance to ask her questions about her family business before we went to the beach to interview a local surfer.

However, as 4pm rapidly approached, Carmen and I were still running around Cerrito, tracking down missing girls, their parents and the odd elusive permission slip. When we finally began the walk to Huanchaco, an easy 15 minutes, it somehow stretched into an epic camino worthy of any adventure film as the girls just had to climb this wall or that tree.

We arrived at the restaurant at 5pm.

As we approached, I began frantically preparing apologies for the owner, but she welcomed us heartily with no thought or mention of our lateness. The girls listened politely and asked her very thoughtful questions about her life and her work. They loved the idea that she was an independent woman who ran her own business using skills she had learned from her mother and her grandmother as a young girl.

After a wonderful time with Doña Mariela, we trekked onward to the beach. There can be no doubt that the highlight of the day was interviewing Faviola a local surf champion and student, who was excellent at answering the girls questions and giving them a little inspiration. As Faviola described how she had borrowed a friend’s old surf board while she worked to save up for her own, their eyes lit up with hope and possibility.

Many of the girls attend Otra Cosa’s surf school, which allows them to surf during the summer holidays, but during the rest of the year there is no opportunity for them to catch some waves. They loved the idea that they could work together to rent or borrow a surf board from a local surf school so that they could keep on surfing all year long.

After a quick surf lesson from Faviola on the sand, we headed back to Doña Mariela’s for some delicious donuts with syrup before I hurriedly shepherded the girls back up to Cerrito.

The girl’s excellent manners and thoughtful and insightful questions made me very proud to be working with them. The changes I have seen in them since the start of the LitWorld programme in terms of self-confidence and inquisitiveness have been magnificent to witness and it is such a pleasure to be involved in their journey.

--Submitted by Hayley, Girls LitClub leader