Post Colombia

Not able to do and write and the same time, I must write after I do. So this installation will begin my doing in Colombia in September and October, and into November. This is Latin America, remember and everything seems to go on a little longer than planned here. I arrived in Medellín at the beginning of September with too much luggage, and as I write from Peru I still carry with me too many books, documents, paper, pencils, pens, etc. But I continue to leave things along the way, books and bike with Lisa in Lee, camping equipment with Young Wha in CA, car with Tamia in Seattle, books and documents in Medellín,…I’m a global litter bug! So in Colombia the eating and drinking stopped being the primary focus of my life, since I became very involved in research and teaching.

I started with the presentation at the English Language Teaching Conference at the Centro Colombo Americano in Medellín on critical visual literacy (my trip was sponsored by Partners of the Americas, which links Massachusetts and Antioquia. Also offered a workshop for teachers from Envigado on using the arts in language teaching. And jumped right in with the research on Desearte Paz (from this art, peace), the network of social/artistic projects created among various national and international artists and organizations with the mission of creating a culture of peace in Medellín.

Desearte Paz was the vision of Juan Alberto Gaviria, the director of the contemporary art gallery at the Colombo, and the best research collaborator I could have asked for. He set up interviews with artists, teachers and administrators across town, opening up doors for me everywhere. He took me to visits at cultural arts centers, government offices, schools, universities and even a high security prison where we spent a whole morning. Together we walked the streets of Moravia, rode the MetroCable above the city, and were interviewed by prisoners. I attended exhibits, special cultural events, and was offered a never ending agenda of opportunities for learning about this project that has capacities of transformation. If you want to know more about the project see the website of the Colombo

(www.colomboworld.com) and read my research articles that will appear in academic journals beginning next year!

In addition to the research I offered a workshop on the Pedagogies of Art for the arts faculty (dance, music, theatre and visual arts) at the Universidad de Antioquia (UdeA) which was very much like a Creative Arts in Learning class at Lesley. I was a visiting professor in the education faculty in their master’s cohort on Pedagogy and Cultural Diversity. And learned with and from the group of educators in the new master’s degree in the Pedagogy
of Mother Earth, designed to prepare indigenous teachers to teach in their own communities.

I presented another talk for the Network of Arts Teachers on the Art of Pedagogy in Medellín, offered a lecture on action research in the faculty of foreign languages at UdeA, and led a conversation with arts faculty at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá on qualitative arts based research. As a Lesley University representative I visited the lovely bi-lingual school Colegio Los Nogales outside of Bogotá, and lunched with the lively administrators of the bi-lingual university, UNICA.

Meanwhile, I read five novels in Spanish, painted a few little water colors, gone on long walks up anearby hill (El Volador) and visited the countryside around Medellin and Bogotá with friends. Taking full advantage of the many gorgeous flowers in Colombia.

I’ve made good use of the digital zoom on my camera. Some of the images here are watercolors, others are closeups of flowers and plants. All sing of Colombia.

Green Hills of Colombia

Blue emerald beauty

Strangely warm

In the depths of velvet folds

Patches of screaming chartreuse outline

Mysterious shadows,

Undulating curves

and barren terra cotta

All the shades of the earth

live here beneath the

transparent blue sky

always partially dressed

in grey and while tule,

like a stripper with

desires of ballet

The very mystery of life

huddles in these hills

where fragrant growth

of eucalyptus and pine

surround the startling

white of Yoruba leaves,

like one silver

umbrella among so

many somber black ones.

Wherever they call me

I must attend the

Song of the land

The green hills of Colombia

live within me.