During spring semester 2014, Red River Area Learning Center students and Minnesota State University Moorhead teacher education students collaborated on a literature and art project, “from hate: finding beauty,” based on the “The Book Thief.” The resulting gallery, with the students’ art and artist statements, was displayed at Moorhead Center Mall, and students spoke with visitors about their learning experience.
This month, two instructors, two Red River ALC students and two MSUM students presented about the collaborative project at the National Association for Multicultural Education’s 2014 annual conference on Nov. 5-9 in Tuscon, Ariz.
Instructors Sheila Marquardt from MSUM and Kelsy Jenkins from Red River ALC began the application process for presenting at the conference after the theme for the 2014 conference — dismantling borders — was announced.
The learning experience between both MSUM and Red River ALC students was very much about dismantling borders, the instructors said.
As part of the project, both MSUM and Red River ALC students had to confront their personal beliefs and possible biases about one another.
Last semester, the students read “The Book Thief” and learned how Liesel, the protagonist in Markus Zusak’s book, experiences a wide range of emotion in her journey as a foster child in Nazi Germany. As she learns truth, something becomes apparent — from hatred can come beauty. The Red River ALC and MSUM students examined how in their own lives, as they experience fear, discrimination, pain and struggle, they can find elements of joy and triumph.
The themes of “The Book Thief” are central to the idea of confronting borders and breaking down prejudice and hatred, the instructors said. Taking what they learned, students had to collaborate in creating an artistic representation of what they learned, again confronting a border between literature and art.
The students created a response to Liesel’s journey by using art to represent the beauty they find, despite the hate in the world. As the two groups collaborated to understand Liesel’s journey, they found truth in each others’ journey as well — despite differences in age, race, socio-economic status or home towns, they found woven into their lives death and life, pain and joy, struggle and triumph.
Because the project was created with both MSUM and RRALC students, it was only fitting that they have a voice at the conference also. Students Brianna Clark and Keanu Moreno, from Red River ALC and Emily Czichotzki from MSUM helped present the interactive workshop, “‘From Hate: Finding Beauty:’ A Teacher Ed/Alternative Student Collaboration,” at the conference. Participants took part in some of the activities done by the MSUM and Red River ALC students during the art and literature project.
Besides presenting at the conference, the Red River ALC students had the opportunity to meet civil rights leaders, authors and NAME officials. One of the favorite workshops the Red River ALC students attended focused on Food Justice, where the presenters shared units and activities in which students analyzed the food system using historical materialism as a tool for critical thinking, and the topic of community gardens was discussed.
They also had the opportunity to tour the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, tour and hike in Sabino Canyon, Catalina State Park and the Catalina Foothills, and explore ancient remains of the homes of the Hohokam people.