WHO AM I? / HOW AM I?

“For the second year of our project, we drew inspiration from the topics that emerged during our fireside chats to create our play, Breaking the Cycle, which explored two generations of a family and how trauma can be passed down. The main character was a girl who dreams of becoming a musician despite her family’s disapproval. We got inspiration from a discussion in one of our fireside chats about families discouraging certain career paths. We began working on it in drama class in November and performed it in January. Before this project, I wasn’t very confident, I was shy, quiet, and struggled with major stage fright. Working on this play helped me build my confidence to the point where I even auditioned for, and got a main role in our school musical, something I would have been too scared to do before. This project also helped me discover my love for writing and taught me the importance of listening to everyone’s ideas as we refined and developed the script together. I also gained new knowledge about the amount of work that goes into a play, like rehearsals or script changes. Overall, doing the Who Am I? / How Am I? project has helped me discover parts of myself that I didn’t know existed.“

“Being able to take part in the Who am I and How am I programme has been an incredibly rewarding experience as it has helped me find my voice and discover how to use it. When we started off around January of last year, I had a lot to say but I didn’t know how to express myself, so I just kept it in. Now that we’re finished, it has enlightened me on how much the voice of the youth truly matters in the society we live in today and how different people perceive the world in various ways. And I’ve learned things that I’ll carry with me forever. Thank you to everyone involved as you have helped my peers and I in unimaginable ways. We are so grateful. Once again, thank you.”

“During the project with Fishamble we discovered a lot of things about ourselves, one being having the confidence to perform our own play in front of a lot of people and say things that are important to us. This whole thing really helped us be ourselves more. It was also just a great experience having deep talks with everyone with no one judging anyone for their opinions.“

“The first year of the WHO AM I? / HOW AM I? initiative has had a profound impact on the educators, artists and young people who have engaged with this work. Schooling works best when there is space to slowly nurture beauty, truth and authenticity. Sadly our current outdated education system at second level challenges participants’ capacity to consistently and systemically experience these qualities. With our partnership work with Fishamble, our young people and we as educators have deepened our embodied experiences of beauty, truth and authenticity with WHO AM I? / HOW AM I? We have grown in our common humanity. We care more deeply about who we are and how we are on our precious planet. This is the real work of integration.“

“It was really cool getting to hang out with the students and hear about their unique lived experiences. It’s funny because, based on my own background, I was fairly certain about the nature of the stories that would be shared, but I found myself surprised time and time again. It was an excellent reminder that the kids always have something valuable to say. You just gotta be willing to listen.”

“It has been remarkable to witness and facilitate the WHO AM I? HOW AM I? project and to see the immense impact that it has had on our young people at Larkin Community College. The students embarked on a unique exploration of their own identities and places in our local and national communities by being inspired by artists who emigrated to and have now settled in Ireland. They got to interview these incredible artists and have been exposed to ways of living and thought processes that may change the course of their lives. The post fireside chat, restorative conversations were radically honest in nature and a variety of themes, worries and fears emerged during these sessions. The most important realisation was that we are all connected by the search for truth and purpose in life and they have seen that they can experience and question the world through art. They now know that they do belong wherever they find themselves and that creativity is a means for growth and developing community. By exploring the issues raised through drama workshops they were able to further deepen and embed their learning through devising their own plays “The Class that Changed” and “Breaking the Cycle” and this project has given them the confidence to unleash their creativity. I am looking forward to continuing the project with the next group and seeing where it leads.”

“Being part of the WHO AM I? / HOW AM I? project was a genuinely enriching experience. The Fireside Chat created a thoughtful and open space where the young people engaged deeply, asked insightful questions, and showed real curiosity about artistry, identity, and inspiration. It was powerful to see how seriously they took storytelling and self-expression, and I left feeling energised by their honesty and imagination.”

“When WHO AM I? / HOW AM I? was in the initial planning stages, it was evident that the JCSP Library at Larkin Community College would provide the project with its ‘home base’.  The aims of WHO AM I? / HOW AM I? are in a sense core to the many roles and work that JCSP librarians do across 30 DEIS schools since the start of the JCSP Demonstration Library Project over 20 years ago.

In addition to promoting literacy skills, the work in the libraries includes supporting students in articulating their voices; helping them to express in different formats their experiences; and providing space and opportunities to discover elements of their emerging identities as young people and students within their school. WHO AM I? / HOW AM I? a creative arts and social justice partnership set out to offer occasions for young people from diverse ethnic backgrounds to engage with each other to explore and celebrate who they are, through theatre making, restorative practices, and Fireside Chats. 

As a professional teacher and librarian, experiencing WHO AM I? / HOW AM I? as a facilitator of ‘place’; as a respectful participant in the restorative practices involved; as a witness to the ‘journeys’ some students undertook and their willingness to share these, I have learned a great deal.  It was a sincere privilege that as the school librarian at Larkin Community College I was able to support this initiative and imagine that it will contribute to my work going forward in this amazing library.”