The Upper School Anthropology Project
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Sitting right next to you
The upper school visual anthropological project
An ecotone is an ecosystem between two adjoining ecosystems. Eco from the Greek “dwelling place” and tonos from “tension,” the Ecotone is a shared habitation that grows in the tension between one way of life and another. It is the fertile, bio-diverse, and connecting. It is the messy, muddy, and middle space between the grassy knoll and the pond that grows the weeds and hosts life that can live in the water or the grass. This exhibition of double exposure photography and audio narratives lives in the ecotone of stories to grow what it means to be human one audio experience after the next.
Although Awty is known for its international diversity, this school represents the ecotone of local diversity of the city as well. While interviewing Pam Dorsey, I leaned into the power of local diversity as a means to the end of locally diverse stories sitting right next to the international presence of the student body. Students who live in the ecotone of each other’s differences. This exhibition features those stories and the impact they can not only make in the school, they represent the cross-pollinating impact that must make in the world.
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JOURNAL ENTRY NUMBER 14
March 09, 2022 7:30pm
Separate stories, lives, and heritages become one life and one community at a school made of shared classrooms and ethnic differences. In a city known as the most culturally diverse city in the nation, Awty is its mirror. It also creates a window through which we see the future landscape of human evolution. While interviewing Pam Dorsey, I learned to lean into the powerof local diversity. This is a way to reveal the local ecology of voices sitting right next to the international presence. Students who live in the ecotone of differences.
- Marlon F. Hall, Visual Anthropologist/Curator of Human Potential
“Do you think people here are able to share their stories?”
It was the question that Marlon asked me in one of the first conversations the two of us enjoyed.
The robust diversity of our school community is one of the foundational reasons of what makes us so unique and special. It is, of course, not just the diversity—which includes race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, thought—that does this, but the school’s belief that this diversity is one of our greatest strengths and the school’s intention to create a place where diversity is not only shared, but celebrated. What a powerful conditions for students to learn. I did wonder, though, if everyone in the community felt an equal opportunity to share or celebrate their story. Or, if there were people who felt a bit unseen or that they were to share their story. Every single member of our school lends to the fabric of our community by their unique story, talents, strengths, and perspectives.
When I shared those thoughts with Marlon months ago, I did not realize that they would form the origin of the “I am Sitting Right Next to You” exhibit.
Working with Marlon on this exhibit has been an extraordinary experience. Our students are consistently impressive, and this is certainly true of the Upper School students selected to collaborate in the exhibit. From the very beginning, each of the students brought such energy, insight, and thoughtful perspective to our conversations. Each student led to the evolution of the exhibit in some way.
Each student also shared their story and each story was eye-opening, moving, and powerful. I speculated to Marlon that so often we, as people, listen to respond instead of listen to simply listen. I have such gratitude for our students for their vulnerability and courage in sharing their stories and reminding us of the value of listening and the importance of all of our unique diversities.
- PAM Dorsey, Assistant Director of Admissions Turned Collaborator
This world is so vast, so rich with noise, smells, sights. It is full of lungs breathing, hearts beating under the same sun that’s burned so brightly for the last four billion years. What we have proven in that time with the creation and advancement of society and technology is that discrimination is a manmade concept. If you take anything from this experience, please let it spread further. There are undeniable, canyonous faults in the human mind, but in there as well is the ability to build bridges to cross them. Only if we are willing to listen and learn, to intertwine our experiences with one another, we will be able to change the world for the better.
- A. MENDOZA, student, writer, and exhibition collaborator
Storytelling is a pathway to justice. While activists, politicians, journalists, and reporters work endlessly to communicate new ideas, they tend to fall flat. Some look around and wonder why certain beliefs they have attempted to implement do not succeed. You cannot expect the world to shift and rights to be protected if you do not understand someone’s story. A story has the power to inspire, connect, and educate. It provides new perspectives for those around you. How can we expect to cultivate change if we haven’t even taken the time to learn someone’s story?
- KELSEY Phillips. , student, writer, and exhibition collaborator
I AM THE ECOTONE BY Amelia Brooks
I AM THE ECOTONE.mp3Page updated
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