A Beautiful Gift

Last night at a dinner in preparation for today’s “MyIdentity: Reclaiming Ourselves Through Writing & The Arts” conference with guest artist Denice Frohman, groups visited and mingled at El Taller in Lawrence, MA. Youth and adults gathered from the city of Lawrence, nearby Lowell, MA; South Carolina; Navajo Nation; Louisville, KY; Vermont; and New York City. The conference followed the next day at the Boys and Girls Club in Lawrence.

Youth from New York City, attending from the International Community High School (Bronx), include students from Bangladesh, Africa, and Yemen, some have been in the United States for less than two months. These inspiring and international young people presented the Lawrence Andover Bread Loaf program with the wonderful painted mural (seen above) that includes notes of hope and love in a dozen different languages that connect their work in the Bronx with Lawrence and this entire network. This is one beautiful gift and testament to making connections across differences and distances.