Community Storytelling
Group 5: We (four students) signed up to participate in this part of our class digital history project. The unique aspect about this part of the project was its community angle. Our job was to readapt a script based on the story of Ashley's sack and visit an immigrant organization in our community during a week in April, 2023 to engage in a storytelling activity with the girls at an after-school program. We discussed terms like legacy, heirlooms, and family with them. We also interviewed the girls and their teachers about their life in Kalamazoo. They reflected on the meanings of this experience with us and below is how we documented it. We would like to thank El Concilio's director, Adrian Vásquez, and Niñas del Corazón's coordinator, Maritza Miranda and her teaching assistants for welcoming us into their space and allowing us to connect with their community through the study of Ashley's sack and the stories of Black women in the U.S.
In this picture, the girls from Niñas del Corazón are sitting down on the couch together with one of their after-school teachers. Behind them, four WMU students enrolled in HIST 3160 and members of Group #5. Dr. Pérez-Villa is on the left and Mrs. Hafner on the right.
El Concilio
El Concilio is a non-profit organization that has been offering programs and services to the Latinx immigrant community in the Kalamazoo area for the last 40 years. Among their educational initiatives is Niñas del Corazón, an after-school program for Latinx girls between the ages of 7 and 17. The girls attend the program daily, get help with their homework and engage in a series of activities to stimulate their intellectual and emotional curiosity. The girls commit to a year-round program and benefit from the inclusive and bilingual nature that characterizes this learning space.
Dr. Pérez-Villa and our community partner, Mrs. Juliana Hafner, have created strong partnerships with El Concilio for some years and were able to use previous experiences working with Latinx immigrant youth at this organization to open up a space for collaboration and mutual learning for both WMU and El Concilio students. This was the first partnership of this kind between WMU and El Concilio after a pilot in 2022. Our activity took place a year after in the context of 2023 Women's History Month.
Dr. Pérez-Villa, Mrs. Hafner, WMU students and El Concilio kids in 2022
Ashley's Sack, now on display at the National Museum for African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
Writing scripts based on Tiya Miles's book
El Concilio - Engaged Learning Activity (PILOT).pdf2022
This is a copy of the original script created by Dr. Pérez-Villa and Mrs. Hafner in 2022. Together with two WMU students, they carried out a pilot activity with the kids at one of the after-school programs at El Concilio.
Group 5 script - El Concilio.pdf2023
This is our copy of the script we created based on the pilot. We used class time to work on readapting this script to make it ours. One important change was the audience. This time, we visited the Niñas del Corazón girls during their study afternoon sessions at El Concilio.
Role-Playing/Storytelling in our Community
Embroidery.movWhy use embroidery to tell a story?
Ian Russel starts the conversation by highlighting how Ruth embroidered Ashley's sack with her family history and asked the girls for their thoughts on using that skill to share stories.
Heirlooms.movWhat is an heirloom?
De'Metri Zobro-Taft introduces Ruth to the audience and shares a bit about her family history. He then opens up a discussion by asking the girls about the definition of heirlooms and whether they had any
Giving.movWhat would you put in a sack?
Stephen Schultz engages the group by asking what they would pack in a sack to give to someone they loved. The girls talk amongst themselves and one says "a diary."
FleaMarkets.movWhat is a flea market?
Alfaro Raphael asks the girls what a flea market is and the girls have a brief exchange in Spanish in which they all agree that flea market means "la pulga" or "mercado de pulgas" in Spanish. Alfaro proceeds to explain why that is relevant in the story of Ashley's sack
Digital Stories: Niñas del Corazón
Two days after our storytelling activity, we returned to El Concilio for more icebreaker activities and an informal conversation that would be recorded with their permission. The follow-up activity went really well. This section will include the audio notes and photographs of the Niñas del Corazón girls who participated in this follow-up activity at El Concilio on April 6th, 2023. The audio and photographs from this activity are in the process of being edited, stored, and made available through our University Archives. For this reason, a link will be provided in this space as soon as the material is ready. The link will take visitors to the institution's repository website where the data will be securely accessed for posterity. Stay tune!
We prepared "thank-you" kits to give to the girls on our second visit. We included copies of the book All That She Carried and candy they specifically said they liked, such as paleta payaso.
WMU Student Reflections
De'Metri Zobro-Taft
"Overall the group project and the visit to El Concilio were exciting and fun to partake in. This assignment allowed me to interact and get a hands-on experience that was truly one-of-a-kind. The personal experiences with the girls and being able to hear their stories is an insight that I would have never known or cared to get to know had I not been in this group. It expanded my way of thinking and allowed me to see the world from a different and younger perspective compared to my own. When comparing this to the assignment it shows how even these young girls have their own stories to share and their own legacy to pass on."
De'Metri and Alfaro talk to a group of three girls at El Concilio, Kalamazoo
Ian Russel's Reflection.pdfIan Russel
Alfaro's reflection.pdfAlfaro Raphael
Stephen Schultz
"Admittedly, I was not very excited to work on this project. However, as it progressed, I grew more and more interested. I think Group 5 had the best members in the class and our group made this a great experience for myself and hopefully for the young girls of El Concilio. On Tuesday, the role playing was the hardest part of this project. It wasn’t difficult itself, however, going into a place where you do not know anyone and doing a role play/storytelling activity as someone who cannot act, was personally difficult. However, everyone involved was very supportive and it created a great environment. It was a great first day to get to know the girls. On Thursday, I had a great time. It was awesome to do an icebreaker activity to learn more about the girls. They opened up as we started asking our activity questions and their experiences really opened my eyes. I had no idea of the many struggles that immigrant girls in Kalamazoo face. The girls shared details about their personal struggles in life, at school, and issues with their identities and backgrounds. It was honestly such a great experience to go into a place and meet a community that I would have never been able to do had it not been for this project."