Silver Spring Show Tells A Cross-Cultural Story
By Julie Rasicot
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Living in Silver Spring and attending Springbrook High School as a student of African heritage, Aminata Sesay wanted her classmates to understand how her life was different from theirs.
So she decided to write a play with her friend and fellow Springbrook senior, Gifty Addai.
The resulting work, "Who Am I?," explores the issue of identity through the viewpoint of an immigrant teenage girl who is being raised by her African father in the United States. Switching between the settings of an unnamed, war-torn African country in 1968 and the present in the United States, the story deals with the timeless issue of communication between parents and teens -- compounded by cultural clashes.
"The idea was already in all of our minds, to express how we felt as African American students," said Sesay, an 18-year-old whose family left Sierra Leone 13 years ago. "We wanted to show everyone what we go through every day."
Addai, who was born and raised in the United States and whose parents are from Ghana, said that she wanted to explain how she sometimes feels torn between the influences of her family and those of her American friends.
"It's important because a lot of people are not really informed about the whole traditional ways of Africans. You are kind of stuck between two worlds," said the 18-year-old from Silver Spring. "That's one of the reasons why we did this play, so they can understand where we're coming from."
The play, starring Sesay and with Addai in a major role, was performed last week at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring by the Springbrook High School African and Haitian Club. It was the main feature of a talent showcase that included African drumming, a fashion skit and poetry readings by students from African clubs at Montgomery Blair and Cardozo High School in Washington as well as Springbrook.
The showcase was a fundraiser for the African Immigrant and Refugee Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Washington that helps African immigrants make the transition into American society and provides programs to support "their productive, sustainable integration into their new homeland," according to organization officials.
The school clubs were established by the foundation under its Catching Up program, which provides tutoring and support for African students who need help assimilating and reaching par academically for their grade.
"Some of the kids we deal with have had an interrupted education because they are coming from war-torn countries," said Bertha Hyera, program manager for Catching Up. Some of these students are "placed in a high school level when academically they are in elementary school."
The program provides tutoring on Saturdays at its Washington offices, she said, and staff members meet with club members once a week at their schools. Other county schools involved in the Catching Up program are White Oak Middle School and Broad Acres Elementary School, both in Silver Spring.
The club meetings provide a social setting where students can talk and write about their experiences and perfect their English. "The strength of the group gives more self-esteem" and convinces them that "I think I can handle living here," Hyera said.
For Sesay, who graduated last week along with Addai, the club meetings provided a needed outlet to talk about everyday life, parents and even the strife occurring in homelands left behind.
"Everyone has been through war," said Sesay, who said she occasionally asks club members for advice on dealing with her parents. "It's someplace to go to express ourselves. It's almost like a diary."
The Springbrook club worked for several months on the play presented at the showcase. The cast of 13 practiced frequently but was able to rehearse on the Blair High School stage only once, on the afternoon before the performance. The school allowed the foundation to use the auditorium for the afternoon and evening.
The lack of practice time caused difficulties for the students, who had placed their props and scenery near the back of the stage while the microphones were several feet away at the front. Some scenes were lost to the audience of about 75 because the actors couldn't be heard, but the audience clapped enthusiastically each time the curtain closed.
"The students are not professionals. I hope you will be easy in judging their play," Wanjiru Kamau, the foundation's founder and executive director, told the audience after the play ended. "Nobody professional is helping them. These are our kids."
After an awards ceremony for club members, the show closed with a poem, "Do You Know Me?: Part 2," written by Hyera and recited by Blair freshman Sonita Nulla of Cameroon.
"Now, do you know me or at least some of me?" Nulla, 16, recited, looking regal in a golden gown. "Now that you know some of my story, put yourself in my shoes."
As the stage cleared and the audience left, Sesay said she was happy with the performance of the play, though she wished the actors could have been heard.
"I think everyone got the message," she said.
To contact the African Immigrant and Refugee Foundation, call 202-234-2473.
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