The Magic Key Centre for the Arts and Childhood

The children in The Incredible Child project at Simurgh Centre are busy wrapping up this year’s work. We began the year by reading Abanindranath’s House of Stories, did portrait, mapping and photo exercises that led to this final house of stories by each child. Follow this space for the final exhibition and come, listen to the children. Reel by Maryam Kakar with special thanks to Hawa Kakar and Heela Kakar #childrenstories #houses #stories #art #childrensart #childhood #childrensculture

We read Safia Elhillo’s Home Is Not A Country as news from Sudan of war, mass displacement and a critical humanitarian crisis comes in. Elhillo’s coming of age novel in verse is a testament to the long and troubled histories of countries that were colonised and continue to struggle to find easy ways of being.  The book is special in its form and the way it uses magical realism as the protagonist, Nima imagines herself as another, Yasmeen - “I imagine her  yasmeen   this other girl  bright & alive mouth full & dripping with language  easy in her charm & in essence she looks like me  but of course better” The book speaks of nostalgia for a distant home but is able to see it for all the thorny realities that it hides. And so, for Nima to come of age is to be able to understand how to navigate the complicated present, to find her place in the world, a way of being that may not always be easy on the outside but sits easy with her on the inside. Read this book to not forget what is happening in Sudan and to remember how so many of our inner journeys are connected despite the differences in time and space. Thank you to @lanternreads for this gift #yabooks #sudan #literature #childhood #childrensculture

The Hum Hindustani Poetry Podcast was listened to by a group of academics at the University of Hawaii and we spoke of the need for listening to children’s voice, of adult-child dialogue and the place of the arts in education. The adults in the room then did an exercise similar to one done by the children in the Hum Hindustani workshops and experienced the process of collaborating in creative practice, of thinking of their everyday and drawing from it to play with words. This is the collective poem that emerged, reflecting the many different everydays present in the room and showing us how children’s voices can enable adult experiences. The image we share is of the Pacific Ocean, such an important part of being in Hawaii. Freedom is unironed clothes Because I have other important things to do Freedom is an empty room Because I can fill it with anything I want Freedom is a bicycle because we ride it up hills and when we coast downhill, we zoom and soar Freedom is a pasture without fences Because the horses and the riders can gallop towards any horizons Freedom is the ocean Because we can float and move unencumbered Freedom is the line where the ocean meets the sky Because we are all made of infinite potential and peace Freedom is the feeling of mud soaking through my socks and the chill of the wind against the back of my neck Because it pushes me forward and reminds me that I’m alive Freedom is my fist, unclenching Because I have been able to express a difficult idea -Andrew+Azeema+Anna+Nandini+Alexa+John+Perry+Sophie Thank you to the Center for South Asian Studies, the Department of English and the Department of Asian Studies at University of Hawaii for making this possible. And a special thank you to Nandini Chandra for conjuring it all up. @uhmanoanews #childrensvoice #poetry #freedom #humhindustani #TheHumHindustaniPoetryPodcast

We were lucky to visit 826 Valencia, a writing workshop space for children founded by writer Dave Eggers in San Francisco. The historic Mission District where it is located is a commercial area and so the front of the space is a whimsical pirate supply store that fulfills the commercial obligations, and behind that is where magic is created with children. We were fortunate to see a workshop in progress with a group of children writing collaboratively. The children are taken through the steps of creating characters, building a plot and thinking about what, why and how. The team at 826 Valencia then quickly puts the story together with artwork and prints out a book for them to take home, complete with author photos. The process is not only a playful nurturing of the imagination but also embedded in it, is the importance of working together. We loved being there and felt the space resonated deeply with the words of 826 Valencia child writer, Jonny Cruz: “I will always be ready to say hello. I will always be waiting for you.” @826valencia #childrenswriting #childrensvoice #imagination #pirate #daveeggers #826valencia

This week we share an art installation that is currently on display at the roof garden of The Met in New York - Abetare by Petrit Halilaj, an artist originally from Kosovo. Abetare is a playful “constellation of words, images, and symbols from scribbles found on the desks” (Spieker) of schools in Albania, including Halilaj’s former elementary school. Halilaj photographed the desk graffiti that became metal sculptures reaching up to sky, evoking children’s worlds everywhere. But the title, Abetare, that refers to a textbook used in Albania to teach children the alphabet, also points us to the artwork’s specific context, complicating the sense of play. It encourages us to think about what happened to education in Albania of the 1990s and to remember the children who were denied education in those years as the system plunged into chaos on ideological grounds. The graffiti is tied to the idea of destruction and resistance that the artist lived through and makes it difficult to see the presence of the child simply through easy categories of innocence and purity.   For more information on the artwork, see: https://lnkd.in/gQCMXuJr @xixellojme #themetropolitanmuseumofart #albania #education #childrensvoice #artinstallation

September 30 is International Podcast Day, so we’re happy to share the places The Hum Hindustani Poetry Podcast has travelled in person. We hope it has travelled further on the internet but it gives us great pleasure to see the diversity of spaces and audiences where we have bee able to do workshops based on it. If you haven’t heard it yet, then please head over to our website <hum-hindustani.in> or to Spotify, Apple Music or wherever you get your podcasts! @vaakamedia @yesj.i @anannya28 @shywren905 @ishaan_reads @rnp_foundation @minor_grace @rocketgulati @r_kuthoore #podcasts #internationalpodcastday #childrensvoice #poetry #citizenship #tesfindia #liberty #equality #fraternity

Our work travelled to the School of the Art Institute Chicago! Students studying to become teachers in the public school system and art educators in community spaces listened with so much attention to the processes of collaborating with children on The Hum Hindustani Poetry Podcast and The Incredible Child. They did an exercise drawn from Hum Hindustani and created art on the idea of Freedom. This is the collective poem that emerged: Freedom is water because it expansively cycles and endlessly deepens Freedom is a balloon because it shows sky is the limit Freedom is seaboard because people have endless borders  Freedom is a cloud that blows into the sun because in movement towards light we grow Freedom is a rainstorm because it moves independently and isn’t swayed by anything in its path Freedom is water because it flows freely  Freedom is wind because it lets you fly up higher and higher Freedom is chaos because it unleashes unexpected possibilities Freedom is Chicago because I can set my own unique path Freedom is open outreaching palms because you can reach infinity with your hands A big thank you to Melita Morales and @saic.arted for organising this and for a rich session that gave us so much to carry back #art #making #freedom #artsineducation #childrensvoice

The children in @simurghcentre wrote poems using a prompt from @joseph.fasano ‘s wonderful book, The Magic Words. We loved that the prompt encouraged them to play with nouns and adjectives and think about the meaning of what they want to communicate instead of getting stuck in trying to create rhymes. A big thank you to Joseph Fasano for his thoughtful and imaginative work for children! SWIPE to read and enjoy #childrenswriting #poetry #themagicwords

Last month, Foundation for Equal Citizenship that runs an after-school centre for children in Trilokpuri invited us to share The Hum Hindustani Poetry Podcast and do a workshop on the idea of Freedom. As we always do, we share some excerpts from what the children wrote. Some of the writing resonates with children’s writing elsewhere but some is so wonderfully reflective of their particular contexts. The FFEC team did some follow-up work with the children after our workshop and sent us some thoughtful responses. The post includes these. So, do SWIPE till the end to read what they said. @ffecindia #childrensvoice #poetry #freedom #humhindustani

This week we share excerpts from an important article by Sujata Noronha about libraries and our conceptions of childhood. Sujata draws upon her extensive library practice to point out how the way we understand and imagine childhood influences the space of a children’s library and what it can mean to children. Context is everything in cultural practice and this article by Sujata reinforces the need to ask important questions about childhood, the space, the collection and the library educator so that we can create truly meaningful experiences for children in the library. SWIPE for excerpts from the article Read the full article in the August issue of Teacher Plus https://lnkd.in/gNsmuxNP @bookwormgoa @teacher_plus #childrens #library #librarypractice #education #being #becoming