Vermont Folklife “Stories of Hope: Ethnography Inspires Student Action In Rwanda"
“Stories of Hope,” the concluding exhibit in the Vermont Folklife Center’s 2010 Community Exhibitions Program will be on display April 30 through May 15 at the Vision & Voice Documentary Workspace. Created by Harwood Union High School students who have participated in Harwood’s Rwanda Program, the exhibit features photography, artwork, writing, and audio slide shows that tell first-hand stories about everyday life in post-genocide Rwanda. Over the past six years, forty Harwood students, five teachers and two parents have traveled to Rwanda, several making the journey twice. Harwood’s Rwanda Program provides a structure for students to develop skills around cross-cultural communication in combination with service-learning by foregrounding post-genocide resiliency and working with Rwandan partner organizations. “Stories of Hope” is a showcase for multimedia work created by Harwood students. From the raucous Kigali preschool where students taught English, to solemn genocide sites and forward-looking coffee cooperatives, the exhibit reflects the diversity of students’ personal journeys as they began to understand the world from utterly new perspectives. “Stories of Hope,” the concluding exhibit in the Vermont Folklife Center’s 2010 Community Exhibitions Program will be on display April 30 through May 15 at the Vision & Voice Documentary Workspace. Created by Harwood Union High School students who have participated in Harwood’s Rwanda Program, the exhibit features photography, artwork, writing, and audio slide shows that tell first-hand stories about everyday life in post-genocide Rwanda. Over the past six years, forty Harwood students, five teachers and two parents have traveled to Rwanda, several making the journey twice. Harwood’s Rwanda Program provides a structure for students to develop skills around cross-cultural communication in combination with service-learning by foregrounding post-genocide resiliency and working with Rwandan partner organizations. “Stories of Hope” is a showcase for multimedia work created by Harwood students. From the raucous Kigali preschool where students taught English, to solemn genocide sites and forward-looking coffee cooperatives, the exhibit reflects the diversity of students’ personal journeys as they began to understand the world from utterly new perspectives. The Vision and Voice Documentary Workspace is a program of the Vermont Folklife Center, which is located at 88 Main Street in Middlebury. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. For more information about this and other Vermont Folklife Center programs visit our Web site at: |
© Copyright The Valley Voice