Category Archives: Perspectiva de PA / PA perspective

Carly ’21: Narración de historias en una pandemia | Storytelling in a Pandemic

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3 junio

La narración de historias en una pandemia: una experiencia informativa

¡Hola a todos! ¡Gracias por visitar nuestro blog para aprender más sobre las personas de Lawrence y sus experiencias! Tuve suerte de tomar una clase en el invierno sobre la historia de esta ciudad increíble, la cual dio contexto a este proyecto y ayudó a alimentar mi deseo de tomar esta clase. Pero para decir la verdad, había querido tomar esta clase desde que aprendí de su existencia. Me encanta contar historias, pero usualmente las historias que cuento son ficticias y a través de las palabras en una página o actuando en escena. Sin embargo, creo que es importantísimo contar historias reales también, y quería aprender cómo contar mejor este tipo de historia diferente a través de un medio diferente. Estoy tan feliz y orgullosa de haber podido contribuir a este proyecto, y estoy muy agradecida por las habilidades que aprendí.

Cuando empezábamos esta clase, recuerdo que exploramos un sitio web llamado StoryCorps para observar cómo las personas en este sitio web contaron historias sobre otra gente. Entonces aprendíamos sobre la importancia de la escucha activa antes de entrevistar a Cristie, la narradora de nuestro grupo. Después de la entrevista y por el resto del trimestre, trabajamos para crear un video corto que representa la historia más larga de la narradora. Para mi grupo, mi papel principal fue corregir el video. Estaba nerviosa cuando decidí asumir este papel, pero estoy feliz que lo hice. Porque aunque el proceso era difícil y algunas veces tedioso, fue increíble mirar cómo el video fue creado pieza por pieza.

Me encantó ayudar con este proyecto, y me inspiró a grabar más historias orales en el futuro. Porque todos tienen historias, y cada persona merece compartir su historia con el mundo.

June 3

Storytelling in a Pandemic: An Informative Experience

Hello everyone! Thank you for visiting our blog to learn more about the people of Lawrence and their lives and experiences! I was lucky to take a class in the winter about the history of this incredible city, which gave context to this project and helped fuel my desire to take this course. But to tell the truth, I have wanted to take this class ever since I learned of its existence. I love telling stories, but usually the stories I tell are fictional and through words on a page or acting onstage. However, I believe it is extremely important to tell true stories as well, and I wanted to learn how to better tell this different kind of story through a different medium. I am so happy and proud that I could contribute to this project, and am very grateful for the skills I learned.

When we started this class, I remember we explored a website called StoryCorps to observe how people on this site told stories about other people. We then learned about the importance of active listening before interviewing Cristie, our group’s narrator. After the interview and for the rest of the term, we worked to create a short video representative of the narrator’s larger story. For my group, my main role was editing the video. I was scared when I decided to take on this role, but I am glad I did. Because even though the editing process was difficult and sometimes tedious, it was incredible to look at how the video was created piece by piece.

I loved helping with this project, and it has inspired me to record more oral histories in the future. Because everyone has stories, and each person deserves the opportunity to share their story with the world. 

Klodian Beqiri – Introduction to our project

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Klodian Beqiri, Phillips Academy Class of 2014

Hello. I wanted to start off this introduction by thanking everyone that came here, especially the people of Movement City who have been helping us every step of the way in accomplishing this final project, the Lawrence High School students, César Sánchez who has been incredibly inspirational, and Cuchillero the killer (a nickname he earned in the winter term while reading one of his epic poems) for his tremendous passion in putting this class together. I’d like to introduce my self. I am Klodian Beqiri, and I am a four year senior at Phillips academy. I am an immigrant from Albania, but I live in Peabody and have been living there for about 11 years now.

Coming to a democratic nation as large as the US from a rural village in northeastern Albania was a huge culture shock for both my parents and I. The first few years were difficult because we started our lives from nothing: we lived in a small apartment secluded from the rest of society because we didn’t speak the language or even understand the culture that was present here. But as the years went by and I began to assimilate more and more into the American way of life, I still felt like a big part of my identity was missing. I still felt like I didn’t belong because no one could really understand the experience immigrants went through when they first arrived in the US. This was a big reason of why I wanted to take this class. Winter term, for many of my classmates, was an incredible experience because it allowed many of us to tear down the little walls we had been barricaded in throughout our lives and enter a completely different world that is literally next to ours. But for me, this class meant more because it enabled me to meet other people, especially the students at LHS, who shared a similar experience and overcame similar struggles after immigrating to the US.

I think that this final video project beautifully captured the true spirit of the immigrant city and the inhabitants that live in it. Lawrence is a place that embodies what the US stands for for many immigrants who come here. It is a place that continues to prove the american dream is still alive, a place where immigrants stumble and fall, but keep getting back up again and keep rising ever higher. My grandfather told me before I left for the US: “don’t get stuck in the past, but never forget the land and the people you left behind.” I think his words beautifully capture the ideals that define Lawrence: the people here continue to preserve their native heritage while at the same time adapt to a new way of life. It is this mixture of cultures that will enable them to keep pushing and soaring every higher.