As the El Otro Lado in the Schools program enters spring semester, our teaching artists, teachers, and students are preparing for our 3rd annual community celebration, De Dónde Somos.  We hope you will join us on Friday, April 21, from 5-7:30pm!

Everyone comes to the classroom with their own stories and teachers, teaching artists, and young minds deepen their understanding of themselves and explore their sense of belonging through creative expression. We asked each of this years’ teaching pairs to reflect on the EOL experience; their words were shared with students, families, and the school community. Now we would like to share them with you:

“Dear Friends and Families,

Throughout this school year, in our El Otro Lado sessions, we have been learning and sharing so much about one another’s lives and personal stories. We have developed a special and supportive classroom community. Keeping a journal, as a place to write thoughts and creative ideas, is at the core of our program. Most of our projects begin or end with a journal entry or reflection. We have been exploring themes of identity, journey, diversity, family, and origins. Among our creations are poetry, song writing, photography, expressive mask making, and story fabrics.

In one class, we each created a personal symbol. We began this project with a journal entry in response to the following ideas: “Think about your best characteristics and ideas, What is unique about you?, What are your values and interests?” As we thought about these ideas as well as existing symbols, shapes and colors, we each made our own beautifully unique symbol.

This personal symbol project, along with others, will be on display at our annual cross-school El Otro Lado culminating event. Please mark your calendars for April 21st from 5-7:30! This event will be held at the Santa Fe Higher Education Center (HEC) located at 1950 Siringo Rd (across from Santa Fe High), and will feature a selection of works from each of the El Otro Lado classes, where students range from 5th grade through 12th grade. We will be sending out detailed information about this exciting event as the date approaches. We are looking forward to sharing our creations with you. We hope to see you there!

Molly Wagoner and Clara Liliana Carvajal
Teaching Artist and Teacher”