Magic Realism: Artists in Residence Work with HIMS Students

by Cathy Palmer, Director of Education, Seattle International Children's Festival

Fall 2001 - Winter 2002

International Arts Consortium activities for school year 2001-02 began at Hamilton with an extended residency in writing and printmaking for all Spanish language students of exchange teacher Ms. Maribel Fernandez, teaching in Seattle for the year while Ms. Claudia Sandler assumes her teaching duties in Salamanca, Spain.

Students met first with actor/director Olga Sanchez to learn about Magic Realism, a genre used by many Latin American writers. Olga had consulted with University of Washington professor Lauro Flores, and writer Kathleen Alcalá, of Los Norteños, to select reading passages and develop writing exercises to introduce this complex idea to middle-school students. Olga used short passages from Gabriel García Márquez (the example from One Hundred Years of Solitude, in which villagers view a block of ice with the wonder that might be accorded the largest diamond in the world) and Alejo Carpentier to demonstrate how Magic Realism uses detailed description with exaggerated elements to make a familiar object new or "magical." Students also practiced "writing in code," as do some Magic Realist writers, to communicate about political situations they cannot comment on directly.

Some Magic Realist writers and illustrators also rediscovered the wonder and "charm of the object" in short poems about everyday life and familiar animals, paired with simple woodcuts. Visual artist Joshua Okrent, puppeteer with Cry of the Rooster Theater, introduced Pablo Neruda's Bestiary, with illustrations by Antonio Frasconi, as an example of this type of Magic Realist work. Using Neruda's poems as a model, students first did a writing exercise to "see with new eyes," from an animal's perspective. This "freshening" of perspective was continued in a first printmaking exercise: using simple found materials-yarn, felt, buttons-students made basic printing plates, from which they made impressions in several colors, on different papers.

As students learned Spanish vocabulary for animals and times of day, they composed poems in Spanish, consulting with Ms. Fernandez about the finer points of verb tense and grammar. They also learned basic vocabulary to discuss drawing technique: line, outline, contour, texture, figure, ground. They used specific tools for printmaking-carving knives, brayers, and block printing ink-and learned printmaking vocabulary and techniques: register, impression, woodcut, linoleum print, monoprint, etching, printing plate.

As students completed poems, they shared their work with classmates and combined poems with final prints. Okrent assembled student work in a chapbook, and copies were provided to each student.

The International Arts Consortium is a partnership of John Stanford International School and Hamilton International Middle School with a variety of arts organizations, individual artists, arts consultants, and community representatives, led by Seattle International Children's Festival. Major funding for the Consortium comes from the Washington State Arts Commission Community Consortia Grant program, with matching funds and services from Seattle International Children's Festival, the PTSAs at JSIS and HIMS, and other grant funding.