Workshop Introduces Innovative “New Americans” Website & Curriculum
On Friday, May 2, the Vermont Folklife Center and Young Tradition Vermont will host a daylong workshop to introduce their New Neighbors Project. The workshop will be of particular interest to social studies and music educators who want to explore the changing face of Vermont and the state’s growing cultural diversity. It will be held at the Langevin House on the Vermont Technical College campus in Randolph Center.
As Gelek Pontsang of the Tibetan Association of Vermont observed, cultural diversity happens only when the members of the various cultural groups are empowered to exercise their cultural knowledge and exchange that cultural knowledge with other community groups. The New Neighbors project is an attempt to move closer to Gelek’s ideal
The day will begin with a screening of Mira Niagolova’s new film, “Welcome to Vermont: Four Stories of Resettled Identity,” which features vignettes of families who came to Vermont as refugees from warfare and political violence in Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Iraq. “Welcome to Vermont” offers a platform for these people to speak about the resettlement process and building new lives—and new identities—far from their families and their homelands.
The heart of the workshop is an overview of the New Neighbors Project, which includes a curriculum, developed by music educator Betsy Nolan, and a Website that investigates culture and our Vermont community through the music of New Americans.
The New Neighbors Website embeds recordings of New American musicians in rich background information that connects the songs to the diverse cultural communities from which they emerge. Nolan’s curriculum draws on this resource to create a structure for students to listen to new and unfamiliar musical forms and to discover the ways in which music—both familiar and unfamiliar—can provide insight into the cultures around us.
New American musicians and community leaders who participated in the project will be present at the workshop to offer face-to-face dialogue with attendees. The workshop will conclude with a live musical performance.
The goal of the New Neighbors Project is to help young people see strength and possibility in diversity—because we live in a culturally plural state, nation, and world. To achieve this end the New Neighbors Web site and curriculum use music to create a space where students can explore and experience both our widely divergent cultures and our common humanity.
For information about the workshop agendas/faculty or to register, visit www.vermontfolklifecenter.org or call (802) 388-4964. Workshop tuition is $25, which includes lunch. ”Certificates of Completion” will be provided for workshop participants.
The Vermont Folklife Center's mission is to broaden, strengthen, and deepen our understanding of Vermont and the surrounding region; to assure a repository for our collective cultural memory; and to strengthen communities by building connections among the diverse peoples of Vermont.
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