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I painted my mural with students at the Columbus Bilingual Academy North over the summer. I've been waiting ever since then to come back and see the rest of the students and share how my art has taken me around the world. I finally returned this week when I met with all of the students, from grade 3 to 8, who were taking art this quarter.
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I've already blogged about what happens during a school visit. I won't rehash that since you can read that here. But, I want to share some of the highlights of my visit.
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First off, I invited three people to see the presentation. I brought along my neighbor who helped me finish the mural after the students had their turn. (Hats off to Pat because she took all the photos in this blog.) The next person to show up was the Senior Vice President, Operations, of ACCEL Schools. (CBAN is a part of this charter school group of over 90 schools.) And, finally, a contact from a neighboring school district attended. It meant a lot to me that they were interested enough to come see what I can do.
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A sea of red appeared in the gymnasium when all of the students walked into the room in their matching school sweatshirts. And they were so welcoming and polite! Many of them waved to me at the entered. It was off to a good start.
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Next, as I shared about muraling in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I showed them a photo of a musical instrument. The rattle was unique; it looked like a woven basket purse. I purchased that treasure while I was there. Now, if you use a rattle in Africa, you don't just shake it with your right hand (which is my natural tendency). The basket is raised over your head. You shake it as well as everything else you can shake. Total participation.
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I wanted to give a couple students the chance to put that instrument to use. One little boy volunteered. I had him rattle as the student body sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Since it was with a student body that also spoke Spanish, I had another student come up to give the students the opportunity to sing in Spanish. The little girl who volunteered to help me is a treasure. I remembered her so well from my muraling experience during summer school. Every day that I painted, she found time to come talk to me, even if it was during recess! No other child in the school was that brave. She's a little trilingual miracle. Yep, the perfect English that she spoke was her third language!
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Finally, my favorite part of any presentation is sharing "Spider and the Honey Tree", a folk tale that I gathered while I lived in Liberia. To do that, I need the help of a student. I told the principal in advance that I needed someone who would not be embarrassed, was a little bit of an actor, and had a big mouth. The principal said that a lot of students fit that description. But, he could not have picked a more perfect student!
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He performed so well as he described D-e-e-e-e-e-e-licious mangoes and some H-O-N-E-Y (with a very deep voice) in a hole of a tree, deep in the bush where people rarely ever go. He also earned an unexpected reward for his services. In my PowerPoint Presentation, I shared a few portraits of people I've met along my journey. This young actor received a print of one of my portraits for his willingness to participate.
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Much to my surprise, if there had been enough time, a session of questions and answers would have been great. Several of the students were prepared with questions that were written down. About a dozen kids rushed me after the presentation to get their answers.
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"How did you get so good with your murals?"
Just like everything else, you have to practice, practice, practice.
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"What do you do when something goes wrong on the project?"
I've painted so many murals that a new disaster rarely happens. Paint always gets spilled. I'm used to that, and I just clean it up.
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"What is the most difficult part of the project? Designing? Sponsorship? or Participation?"
Finding sponsors is always the most difficult part. If I could easily locate sponsors, I would paint much more that 65 murals in 27 countries.
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There were many more questions, all good, but these are the only ones I can remember. I very much appreciated that time was taken to think of these questions. Yes, I was thrilled that the kids would not be denied and came up to ask them.
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Every time I get to share my story is a treat. This time I got to toss in a little bit of my very limited Español into the mix. So, I was very pleased that ACCEL is starting two new bilingual schools in Columbus. I live in hope of another opportunity to speak Gringo Spanish with a muraling project and a presentation.