New Ways To Tell Stories

 I am continuing the series of posts - Something New I’m Doing This Year. 

As an artist and a storyteller, I am always searching for new ways to tell stories.  There is a freedom to having many tools at one’s disposal, especially ones that are yet to be discovered. That is where the adventure lies. It is that place where fear and creativity meet and enchantment takes over.  The only way to discover these new tools for me, is to experiment and push the limits.  I love to learn new mediums and storytelling formats.  It’s intoxicating. 

I admit that stories often flood my imagination each having their own way that they want to be told.   Stories are often stubborn.   They have a mind of their own.  They won’t be shoehorned into the medium of my choice. I approach writing like I approach teaching.  I listen.  When these stories come aknockin. I try my best to put them into their requested form: board book, picture book, graphic novel, YA novel, etc.  

This year, I have pushed myself to add some new forms, formats and mediums to my repertoire. As an artist I love to learn the medium and its rules well so I can break them or combine mediums and formats to create new ways to tell stories.

I am learning to paint with oil paints and thinking about how I can push the medium by collaging on top of the still life paintings. I’m still getting the oil painting down.  It was great to take a class at Otis College of Art and Design.  I also see some water color classes in my near future.

Inspired by my fellow bloggers, I have flirted with poetry writing (adult themes), taking workshops at the longtime literary arts center, Beyond Baroque in Venice California.  Beyond Baroque was founded in 1968.  They have an amazing creative culture dedicated to poetry, literature and art. For those of you into Punk Rock, here’s a fun fact: Exene Cervenka and John Doe, of the band X, met at the long running Wednesday night poetry workshop in the mid 70’s. The Wednesday Poetry Workshop still happens online in addition to a Monday night Fiction Workshop also online.

click here for more information about Beyond Baroque

Executive Director Jimmy Vega

Existence Archived

When all is said and done,

All that remains

Are the cockroaches

Humans are arrogant.

We know we’re at the end

Our existence limited

Our time running out

For those who measure time

Cockroaches don’t

They live in the present

Our days are numbered

Data yet to be collected

But we know it

Intuitively

We know it,

The signs are there

Refusal to fade into oblivion

We have the technology to prevent this

To prove we were here

To prove we mattered

To prove it wasn’t all for nothing

Refusal to disappear,

Refusal to be forgotten

We madly archive our existence

Synthetic humans

Hold our place

In time and space

Generative AI

Generative extinction

We hate the cockroaches

They’ve always been here.

Survived before

Will survive beyond our wildest dreams

Dreams and thinking gone…

Sucked into devices

Sucked onto digital highways

Archived for later

The cockroaches don’t care.

They just don’t.

Erasure hurts.

By Zeena M. Pliska

With a few poems under my belt, I recently mustered up my confidence and even read for the first time at The Book Jewel, a local independent bookstore.

I am becoming more proficient in the art of filmmaking.  Recently, I participated in a 72-hour film challenge, producing, writing, and directing a short film that we’re preparing to submit to small, local film festivals.

Rough Edit of Don't Assume short film

I’m also learning to combine my newfound skill of poetry writing and filmmaking to create poetry videos.  My visual art in the past has always combined images and text.  I love adding moving pictures and sound to poetry, to create a different genre that pushes my storytelling to a new level.

All these newfound creative endeavors add to my kidlit writing in ways that I feel give it more breadth and depth, bringing cinematic writing to the table.  It also gives me new angles, avenues, and perspectives to approach new story themes. It feels expansive.

My life as an artist/storyteller runs parallel to my life as a teacher of 4 and 5-year-olds.  I utilize a Reggio -Inspired Approach in my public-school classroom (in Los Angeles).  

The approach comes from Reggio Emilia, Italy.  One of the components of this approach are the many uses of “languages.”  

THE HUNDRED LANGUAGES OF CHILDREN

NO WAY. THE HUNDRED IS THERE 

The child is made of one hundred.

The child has a hundred languages, a hundred hands, a hundred thoughts, a hundred ways of thinking, of playing, of speaking. 

A hundred always a hundred ways of listening, of marveling, of loving, a hundred joys for singing, and understanding, a hundred worlds to discover, a hundred worlds to invent, a hundred worlds to dream.

The child has a hundred languages (and a hundred, hundred, hundred more) but they steal ninety-nine. 

The school and the culture separate the head from the body.

They tell the child: to think without hands, to do without head, to listen, and not to speak, to understand without joy, to love and to marvel only at Easter and Christmas.

They tell the child: to discover the world already there and of the hundred they steal ninety-nine. 

They tell the child: that work and play, reality and fantasy, science and imagination, sky and earth, reason and dream, are things that do not belong together. 

And thus they tell the child that the hundred is not there. 

The child says: No way. The hundred is there. - Loris Malaguzzi (translated by Lella Gandini) 

Languages are defined as a multitude of materials that students use to communicate like paint, clay, wire, beads, recycled materials, natural materials, blocks, music, etc.  When I was first exploring and learning this approach, I spent a couple of days at a school in Portland, Oregon called the Opal School.  It was a public school that used the Reggio- Inspired Approach in a K-5 setting.  Unfortunately, the school has since closed but the lessons I learned in my observations remain almost 2 decades later.

I observed an amazing use of the Reggio-Inspired Approach that engaged students in storytelling using different “languages” (mediums).   They called it Story Workshop.   It has influenced the way I approach story crafting with my young students.  

 In my class, we use different “languages” to tell stories.  

After they have developed their story in different “languages”, they make books.  Because they don’t “write” yet, we write their words for them. We go through this process every day.  I find that it builds strong story crafters and writers.  Writing becomes effortless (developmentally appropriate) because it is tied to story and story is tied to the experimentation of different materials and not limited by format.

For me, I find that pushing the limits as an artist/writer makes my work more dynamic. It gives me possibilities that would not necessarily emerge if I was confined to one way of telling stories.  I hope I am passing this down to my young students so that they develop as writers also not confined to the page in prescribed and uninteresting ways. I hope that it habituates the creative process in their story crafting endeavors and keeps their writing fresh.

By Zeena M. Pliska

Author of 

Hello, Little One: A Monarch Butterfly Story

Egyptian Lullaby

Chicken Soup for the Soul for Babies Say Thank You? (But Why?)

Chicken Soup for the Soul for Babies A Gift For Me? (I Want It!)

Summer in the Amazon Rainforest

I am wrapping up this series detailing what each teaching author did over the past summer, each experience beautiful and meaningful in its own way. 

Because I was awarded a very special fellowship in honor of the memory of a young environmental scientist, activist and educator, Courtney R. Wilson, I attended a transformative, education professional development in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest this past summer.

For 10 days, I was immersed and engaged with other educators from across the U.S., deep in the primary Amazon Rainforest through the Morpho Institute’s Educator Academy, to understand how teachers can play a role in the conservation of the Amazon Rainforest.

 

I was especially drawn to this profound experience because of my work with young students around climate change.  Although I had been to the Amazon in 1999, I had traveled by myself and experienced the biodiversity as a tourist.  I found it to be the most magical place on Earth. During the few days of my tour in 1999, I saw tropical birds, caiman, sloths, monkeys, and all the other rainforest animals and insects one would expect to encounter.  I was enchanted and I knew I would return.

The Amazon Rainforest is known as “the lungs of the Earth.”  As a kindergarten teacher, kidlit author, and mother, I was pressed to return given the escalation of climate change.  I recognize that am a gatekeeper and that I stand on the precipice to lead young people into understanding and action around the conservation of this critical ecosystem.  I cannot save the world.  I am long past the arrogance of this belief, but I can work in my own little corner to add to the efforts. Sometimes it is daunting at best, and I am overcome by the futility of it all.  But then I am reminded of the necessity by the wide-eyed 4- and 5-year-olds that I teach and write for.

I was compelled to participate in the Morpho Institute’s Educator Academy to deepen my knowledge of the land, the river, and the animals/insects/birds/fish, the biodiversity.  What I did not expect to connect with was the humanity.  Because of the relationships that the Morpho Institute has developed with the local indigenous communities, I was able to meet and witness the conservation efforts of these indigenous communities who live in the Amazon Rainforest.  

We spent time with the Sucusari Maijuna indigenous community, who live on the Sucusari River a tributary off the Amazon.  This is my understanding of their incredible struggle for conservation of the area based on my observations, a clarifying interview with Christa Dillabaugh, executive director of the Morpho Institute Educator Academy, and the article cited at the end of this post.

The Sucusari indigenous Maijuna community is relatively accessible because of its proximity to the river so they were most affected by loggers and poachers.  Their river and land were devastated by bad practices of the loggers and poachers, which poisoned the fish and decimated the animal populations, drastically reducing the ability of the Maijuna to feed their own families. 

Through organizing efforts that spanned over time, they were able to consolidate their power with the other three Maijuna Communities located in other areas of the Peruvian Amazon to petition the government to designate their land as a regional conservation area making them the guardians of this area.  I believe it was not fully realized until they partnered with NGOs (Non-governmental Agencies) and the Kichwa indigenous communities.  Ultimately, the Mijuana/Kichwas Regional Conservation area was formed, 391,039 hectors (275,000 hectors of primary rainforest.)  This designation legally protects their homeland.

One of the most moving aspects of this story for me is the dedication to conservation efforts of the land undertaken by the Sucusari community, revising their own practices.  In the past they had cut down trees to harvest honey and through their recognition of the damage this causes, they have adopted new ways.  Instead of cutting down the trees for honey they now cultivate native stingless bees in bee boxes on their land.  Instead of cutting down Palm trees to harvest the fronds and fruit, they have developed ways to leave the trees standing while harvesting the fronds to create palm rope.  We witnessed their eco-friendly fishing and have heard and seen on a Trap Camera the recovery of big game in the area that were previously thought to be gone. The practices of this community have led to the recovery of the rainforest in their area.  

Tragically, they are now in the midst of a fight to prevent the government from putting a 130-kilometer road in with a 10-kilometer-wide development corridor.  This possible project, that will bisect the conservation area, threatens to destroy the biodiversity, fracturing the habitats, and destroying cultural and ancestral lands important to the Maijuna. 

This possible road opens up the interior of the primary rainforest to logging and poaching. (the recent film We Are Guardians details similar destruction in Brazil and the indigenous communities who are fighting back) This struggle is also not much different than the recent news that our North American entire coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is being opened up with the same struggle occurring, especially against the possibility of a road going through much like the struggle of the Maijuna. I am heartened to see the struggle.  I am awakened to the organizing efforts of the indigenous communities most directly connected to the eco-system which they are positioned to protect.

When I returned folks asked me what the most interesting thing I had experienced in the Rainforest was…to my own surprise, I answered, “the people.”  I experienced the indigenous communities of the Amazon and their hard work to help the Amazon recover and I was filled with awe. I returned hopeful.

By Zeena M. Pliska

Author of Hello, Little One: A Monarch Butterfly Story

                 Egyptian Lullaby

                 Chicken Soup for the Soul for Babies Say Thank You? (But Why?)

                 Chicken Soup for the Soul for Babies A Gift For Me? (I Want It!)

For More Information About the Morpho Institute

Morpho Institute, Amazon Conservation - Morpho Institute

For More Information About the Educator Academy and Scholarships (due Nov. 15th)

Professional Development - Morpho Institute

For More Information About the Maijuna Indigenous Community

The Maijuna: Fighting for Survival in the Peruvian Amazon


Trautmann, Nancy, and Michael Gilmore. “The Maijuna: Fighting for Survival in the Peruvian Amazon.” Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia (Autumn 2019), no. 46. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/8956 . This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License . 2019 Nancy Trautmann and Michael Gilmore This refers only to the text and does not include any image rights. Please click on an image to view its individual rights status. ISSN 2199-3408 Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia Source URL: http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/895