It’s Late On Vashon.
Every First Monday at 9pm, VCA broadcasts from our living room to yours.
Episode III will have a spoken word theme. Host, Darragh Kennan will interview social justice educator, teaching artist, poet & Storyteller, Merna Hecht; and Vashon student and spoken word Artist, Malea Dickerson will perform.
Vashon Live Presents: Merna Ann Hecht
Merna Ann Hecht is a nationally known storyteller, poet, essayist and teaching artist.
Merna inspires with her love of carefully chosen, meaningful words, and her deep commitment to human rights. I’ve been brought to tears witnessing the fruits of her work
—SALLY J. FOX, PH.D., WRITER, PERFORMER, CONSULTANT
Stories of Arrival: Refugee & Immigrant Youth Voices
- Poems by Foster High School Students, Washington
MERNA HECHT SPEAKS OF PEACE, POWER, COOKING AND COMMUNITY
- Interview with Merna Ann Hecht, by Rachel Rose, poet laureate of British Columbia, Canada
MERNA ANN HECHT AND OUR TABLE OF MEMORIES.
…These two women and their projects have created Our Table of Memories: Food & Poetry of Spirit, Homeland & Tradition. It’s a beautiful book, part poetry by high school students, part recipes from the traditional cooks from their countries, and part art… By publishing this interview with Merna Hecht, it is the hope of Bookology’s editors that you will be inspired to consider a program like this in your own community.
- Interview in Bookology Magazine
TASTE OF BITTERNESS: TUKWILA STUDENTS TELL REFUGEE EXPERIENCE THROUGH FOOD
When Abdirahman Abdi, 14, arrived at one of the largest refugee camps in the world, he said the food tasted of bitterness. “They gave us what I like to call ‘jail food,’ because we wouldn’t be used to it,” Abdi said. “Only our little sisters and brothers would eat it.” Abdi is now a student at Foster High School in Tukwila… He wrote a poem about food and the refugee experience for his poetry class at Foster, where 80 percent of the students are refugees or immigrants.
- National Public Radio story (recording and transcript) on KUOW
From Struggle to Survival: Creating Beauty Out of Tragedy:
A Winter's Evening of Music, Poetry and Storytelling with Claudia Castro Luna, Michelle Dodson, Hilary Field, Merna Ann Hecht & Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Elliot Bay Bookstore, Seattle, 2020.
Singing Hope in Dark Times with Cellist Michelle Dodson.
A storytelling fundraiser for the Northwest Detention Center, Black Cat Café, Vashon, 2019
THE STORYTELLER’S VOICE:
Crafting the Power of Personal Stories, Moscow, ID, 2019.
The Palouse Tables Project Food Summit,
2019, “Resilience and Regeneration.”
Keynote: “The Power of Storytelling:
Stories are Us.”
The Lopez Island Family Resource Center (LIFRC) invites you to attend our Annual Fundraiser on Saturday, July 7 at 6:00 pm at Lopez Center for Community and the Arts (LCCA.)
Our featured guest this year is nationally known storyteller, social justice educator, poet and essayist Merna Ann Hecht.