We had a great time at the latest Junta del Pueblo! Located in the Rosenwald Recreation Center, we had great food, awesome artists, and were able to really connect with the community. We spoke with parents about what we have done as an organization and what we are looking forward to doing, highlighting our language justice programs and the Jefferson Parish report. We were able to share our progress on these campaigns as we work for equal education rights for English language learners. Through this event we were able to successfully connect with parents in a fun atmosphere and spread our message.
We were very lucky to have two artists, Nic Brierre Aziz and Helen Yung, come and facilitate workshops on immigrants and their impact on the city both culturally and artistically. They connected the stories of diverse immigrants to the basis for new monuments, memories, and works of art. Helen lead a workshop focused on giving voice, using voice, and coming to know our voice in more ways. Helen highlighted remembering, memorializing, identity, and actions becoming a movement as she urged parents to move to make visible, listen and mirror to amplify and reflect, and use voice to connect and make whole again. To do this, Helen had parents create pictures to celebrate their stories and their families. We also had a photographer come take photos for family portraits. Were very grateful to NOMA, Paper Monuments, and Salzburg Global Seminar for allowing us the opportunity to interact with their artists. The artists definitely added a lot to the event and we were so glad to have them!