Hawaiian poet Kealoha Wong gestures throughout an interview contained in the West Valley Performing Arts Middle on Thursday, June 29, 2023. Wong carried out a five-week intensive arts program for high-school and college-aged youth with a particular invitation to Pacific Islander, BIPOC and LGBTQ youth from Salt Lake County. Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information
Angeles Pacheco Robles listens as Kathleen Williams makes a remark as they be a part of Hawaiian poet Kealoha Wong at an after efficiency social gathering on the West Valley Performing Arts Middle on Thursday, June 29, 2023. Wong carried out a five-week intensive arts program for high-school and college-aged youth with a particular invitation to Pacific Islander, BIPOC and LGBTQ youth from Salt Lake County. Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information
Emma Helai, Julia Herrera-Falute and Agnelli Hernandez-Ramos chuckle as they be a part of Hawaiian poet Kealoha Wong at an after efficiency social gathering on the West Valley Performing Arts Middle on Thursday, June 29, 2023. Wong carried out a five-week intensive arts program for high-school and college-aged youth with a particular invitation to Pacific Islander, BIPOC and LGBTQ youth from Salt Lake County. Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information
“Are you even sisters? You don’t even look alike.” It’s a query sisters Julia and Tali Herrera Falute hear usually.
The 2 Mana Academy college students are of blended El Salvadoran and Samoan heritage. Via a collectively written poem, the duo is exploring what it means to be biracial and a few of the difficulties that they are saying have come together with it.
“Personally, I don’t assume it’s talked about rather a lot as a result of there’s hardly ever lots of people like us, particularly blended with two utterly totally different cultures,” stated Julia Herrera Falute, 16. “We simply wish to share our story. ... And we simply hope that if there are another children (which might be) mixed-race like us, hopefully it provides them hope of their life simply to not hand over in your tradition and simply to embrace it it doesn't matter what folks say.”
Tali Herrera Falute, 15, stated creating the poem “was a tough course of as a result of we’re sisters and we argue.” However when the sisters carry out the poem, the fervour and the connection between them is palpable.
“It doesn't matter what we do, we're sisters and we're blended — it doesn't matter what folks say about us,” Julia Herrera Falute stated.
The sisters are amongst a number of dozen excessive school- and college-aged youth who're exploring the facility of telling their very own tales throughout a five-week intensive arts program.
Angeles Pacheco Robles listens as Kathleen Williams makes a remark as they be a part of Hawaiian poet Kealoha Wong at an after efficiency social gathering on the West Valley Performing Arts Middle on Thursday, June 29, 2023. Wong carried out a five-week intensive arts program for high-school and college-aged youth with a particular invitation to Pacific Islander, BIPOC and LGBTQ youth from Salt Lake County.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information
The “We Are Telling Our Tales” artists-in-residence program is a collaboration between the Middle for Documentary Arts and College Neighborhood Companions. It connects youths with Hawaii’s first poet laureate, Kealoha Wong, who has labored with the scholars to develop and share their very own tales by way of efficiency utilizing voices, our bodies, classmates, props and different theatrical instruments.
This system culminated in a efficiency final week at West Valley Performing Arts Middle for the individuals’ households and mates. Nonetheless, organizers plan to proceed it subsequent 12 months.
“We’re actually specializing in what you might check with as marginalized voices locally and youth that doesn’t essentially really feel like they’re being heard,” stated Masha Shukovich, with the Middle For Documentary Arts. “However everybody is de facto welcome, who feels talking in their very own genuine voice is one thing that they really feel a need to interact with. So, it truly is about genuine voices, about genuine tales.”
This system seeks to supply an area the place youths really feel welcome and celebrated, and to create a long-lasting affect that may function a basis as the scholars transfer onto maturity, careers and probably increased schooling. On the finish of the day, it’s a solution to undo a few of the historic erasure of west-side tales and experiences, stated J.R. Martinez, with College Neighborhood Companions.
“West facet, as somebody who’s grown up right here, has all the time been code phrase for a lot of different issues, proper, and has been usually criminalized or not a spot the place folks have had the chance to inform their tales of their approach and of their voice and about what's necessary of their lives,” Martinez stated.
Emma Helai, Julia Herrera-Falute and Agnelli Hernandez-Ramos chuckle as they be a part of Hawaiian poet Kealoha Wong at an after efficiency social gathering on the West Valley Performing Arts Middle on Thursday, June 29, 2023. Wong carried out a five-week intensive arts program for high-school and college-aged youth with a particular invitation to Pacific Islander, BIPOC and LGBTQ youth from Salt Lake County.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information
Discovering their voices
The individuals — many from households of colour — didn't draw back from tough matters of their storytelling. Some touched on points like belonging, cultural appropriation, racial injustice, tradition put on, psychological well being and police violence of their communities.
“These are the matters that the youngsters are captivated with. When it comes all the way down to it, ardour overrides all the pieces. If you happen to’re captivated with one thing, then it’s about OK, let’s assist you say it in a approach that’s handiest. They actually simply introduced their power, they introduced their concepts and their phrases, and we’ve simply been right here to help them,” Wong stated. “My favourite half, by far, is seeing these college students blossom and actually simply discover what they wish to say and what their voice resonated with and to see them simply form of like convey it to life.”
For Agnelli Hernandez-Ramos, 17, performing her poem “You’re being dramatic” is empowering. The piece is a rebuttal to the instances Hernandez-Ramos’ issues and people of bigger Latino communities have been downplayed and dismissed.
“It’s like I’m calling folks out, in a approach, and as I’m calling folks out, I’m speaking about these totally different occasions which have occurred right here within the U.S. Like, I discuss shootings, homicide and the entire immigration issues we now have,” she stated. “I assume you may say I’m like a voice for them, but in addition a voice for my ethnicity.”
Jessica Begay, a 22-year-old Diné, or Navajo, graduate scholar on the College of Utah, considered all the explanations she belonged in Utah when she started writing her piece for this system. She hopes those that pay attention or learn the poem, which she known as a homage to her ancestors, are impressed to acknowledge that Native American folks have all the time been right here. Writing and performing the poem, she stated, has been each a supply of therapeutic and private development.
“My eyes have been opened as much as new prospects, new alternatives of expressing who I'm,” she stated. “I really feel prefer it turns into actually tough to simply accept your self while you’re usually all the time turned away otherwise you’re all the time informed no. Being reminded of all of the robust individuals who needed to get by way of much more troubling instances than myself, I made a decision that it’s not all that a lot and simply preserve going. ... It actually introduced me again to remembering why I actually am right here and what story or no matter I meant to do whereas I’m right here.”
Emma Helai, 17, stated whereas she has all the time been snug carrying cultural clothes, she usually felt judged for carrying it exterior her house. She hopes her poem provides folks a greater understanding of what tradition put on is and the importance behind it. This system has helped her really feel extra assured.
“Being Micronesian, after I got here to this class, I noticed that there have been different Pacific Islanders and so they type of made me notice that being who I'm shouldn't be a flaw of mine; it’s one thing that I ought to be capable to take and cherish and share with different folks,” Helai stated.