Read-With-Me At AIC

Location: American Indian Center

Date: Tuesday, January 8, 2013; 6:00-7:00 pm

AIC Murals

One of my earliest memories is my Dad reading a Walt Disney’s Mickey and Donald comic book to me.  It was not so much about him reading the text, but actually explaining the plot to me animatedly.  Perhaps it was that, or being around my mom’s family who were in the film industry, but story-telling has been a passion since my childhood.  I remember spending free class periods in school making up stories and telling them to my class-mates.  Even now if I had the means to be independently wealthy, I would be a story-teller.  Thus, when an opportunity states “Join students for stories and activities…You’ll read stories with the students one-on-one”, wild horses could not have kept me away.

Navajo Moon

This was another new location and I had to take the brown line CTA followed by a short walk to find the place.  The American Indian Center (AIC) is the country’s oldest cultural center for Native American Indians outside of reservation land.  As soon as one enters the building, you are exposed to the rich heritage ofthe  Native American’s, including the artifacts being displayed, as well as the painted murals on the walls.  I was directed to the first floor library where I met Wilson, our Volunteer leader for this project.  I had seen Wilson at the Bingo event at Imperial the previous week and had found him to be extremely enthusiastic.  He mentioned that the evening would comprise of us spending one-on-one time with the children; reading with them, followed by an arts and crafts exercise.  While most of the children were expected to be American Indians, AIC also provides social and educational services to other residents in the neighborhood. 

Doctor Coyote

This evening we only had three kids who were going to participate.  Before anyone joined us, Wilson told me that the teacher for their class was currently in South Africa and had sent several pictures of her over there, including some with animals.  Hence he thought that it would be a great idea to do a crafts exercise where we made African animals using paper cutouts.  He asked me to take a pick and I selected an elephant because it looked like the simplest - nay less hardest - of them all.  As I sat there cutting the pieces, a little girl came and asked my name.  I introduced myself and then she asked me to spell it out.  Once I did that, I asked her name and age.  She was Anesha, and that she was six years old.  She shook my hand and then floated away to play some games.  Next up was another girl called Pia.  She too asked my name and left.  The third kid for the evening was Wilmer, and he was older than the girls, being nine years old. 

Two other volunteers, both women, were in attendance and the two girls promptly choose them as partners.  That left Wilmer with me and I asked him to select a book.  He started with a book called ‘Mystery Of Navajo Moon’ by Timothy Green.  As Wilmer read the story of a young Navajo girl who is given a ‘diamond star’ under a ‘Navajo Moon’, I found myself being drawn into this magical tale.  Wilmer however wanted to be done with the reading and move on to the crafts section, and thus blitzed through the book.  When we finished before everyone else, Wilson insisted that we take another book and start with that.  Wilmer reluctantly choose ‘Doctor Coyote: A Native American Aesop’s Fables’ by John Bierhorst.  This was a collection of short stories with a moral at the end of each.  We were half way through this one when Wilson said that we should move on to the crafts section of the evening, something Wilmer readily accepted. 

The African Savanna

I asked Wilmer which animal he wanted to start with, and he choose a Lion.  The Lion was one of the more complex creatures in the collection, and so we both started working on this project.  At the end of the evening, we had hardly made a dent and Wilmer promised to take the rest home and work on it.  In the meanwhile Pia and Dana, her volunteer companion, had made tremendous progress on their crafts project and had built a savanna with wild bushes and giraffes.  Wilmer and the two girls left, and as we packed for the evening, Wilson told us about the other activities that are usually held in the AIC, including Native American storytelling, archery and music lessons, as well as a trek around the neighborhood looking at the native plants and herbs for medicinal purposes.  I thanked Wilson and made my way to the train station.  As usual, I had enjoyed my evening. While I may not have been as animated as my dad, I had done my part in reading with a child.  Hopefully in doing so, I had instigated the same passion for books that resides within me after all these years.  


*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy