Freedom & Adventure Little Amal is a 12-foot tall puppet. She is 10 years old and represents all children who have been forced to leave their homes and are often separated from their friends and families. She walks to find her mother. She walks to get back to School. She walks to start a new life. She walked from Syria all by herself and is now going on a new adventure across the United States. She carries an urgent message on behalf of all displaced people, especially children: “Don’t forget about us.”
Little Amal & August Wilson August Wilson is an award-winning black playwright who was born in Pittsburgh’s historic Hill District, and whose works have attracted a global audience. In his life, Wilson wrote 10 plays, one for every decade of the 20th century (the 1900s), known as the American Century Cycle. Because they’re set in different decades, they can be viewed as adventurous journeys through time, shedding light on the challenges and triumphs faced by black communities. In many of his plays, August Wilson’s characters are on a quest for freedom, whether it’s from social constraints, personal struggles, or systemic oppression. That quest for freedom is an adventure not unlike Amal’s, fraught with obstacles, discoveries, and joy. August Wilson believed that freedom is what you make it, and you must fight to n often o s il W t s u g Au make it mean something. Wilson, like Amal, has fought for legal n o s y la p is wrote h the freedom to carry a message of hope for people one, is h t e k li t s everywhere, and both of their messages continue to be pads ju e h t o t s shared with the world. Amal likes to write, too! Here is her making edit s r o t e ac poem about adventure: ipt while th
scr g, and in s r a e h e r e wer tage asking the s is kind h ic h w ( r e g a man aker and t e t o n a e of lik eper) to schedule-ke f the keep track o changes.
Activity: Let’s create our own adventure story! Sit in a circle. Choose someone to go first. This person can begin the story in any way they like. If you’re stuck for ideas on where to start, you can just say:
“It was a dark and storm y night.”
When I was three, I hid under my mother’s bed and heard everyone shout my name When I was five, I climbed a tree and couldn’t come down When I was seven, I told Omar that when we grow, I’ll marry him Now I am nine and walking Now nothing can stop me
Then the next person in the circle can continue the story! it’s that simple! The only rules are: 1. You can only say one sentence each. 2. You have to respect the decisions other storytellers make. 3. The story finishes when it feels right, not just when everyone has spoken.