Art leads to understanding at JCDSRI and ISRI

A group of students plan their project. /Ariel Brothman

CRANSTON – It shouldn’t be a big deal when two communities come together to make art and meet new friends; something so seemingly pure and light-hearted shouldn’t be seen as a necessary step towards preventing hatred and increasing awareness. But the reality is that we live in a world where it is important to be proactive about seeking out the truth about people who are different from us, because the real truth is that they’re probably not that different at all.

That was the message from Adam Tilove, head of Providence’s Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island, in a Martin Luther King Day Jr. speech at the Islamic School of Rhode Island in Cranston. JCDSRI and ISRI joined forces Jan. 18 to collaborate on an art project in the Islamic School’s gymnasium, and their choice of day was no coincidence.

With the guidance of Leah Smith, Talia Levitt and Michael Townsend, members of Providence-based art collective “Tape Art,” students and their parents expressed themselves through tape art, a medium that was developed right here in Rhode Island 25 years ago. Using multiple colors of masking tape, the group made pictures. In their experiences with tape art, the artists have noticed that it is very “collaborative” in nature.

“We’ve found that we can bring this to any community, and people will make art. It’s awesome,” says Townsend.

The two schools originally entered into a partnership after the ISRI was vandalized with hate messages last year. The students of the day school immediately showed their support for their Muslim peers with letters of encouragement. It was shortly after this incident that Tilove and ISRI’s Head of School, Abdelnasser Hussein, recognized the urgency of exposing their students to each others’ cultures in an effort to prevent further hate crimes.

Hussein encourages his students to interact with people of other faiths, and has facilitated partnerships with private schools, Catholic schools, charter schools, and others.

“We are all American citizens working for the benefit of our kids,” he says of his perspective, holding his infant son in one arm. “We are willing to get in touch with everyone who wants to understand us.”

Rhode Island’s Secretary of State, Nellie Gorbea, who attended the event, explained to a receptive audience why Rhode Island is the perfect place for this kind of partnership.

“Rhode Island can lead,” she said confidently. “It’s part of being a Rhode Islander to accept others as they are.”

Sophia Elanani, vice president of ISRI’s PTO, saw this in action when she experienced a sea of curiosity from the Jewish day school’s students.

“We have so much participation in this [program] with sheer kindness and open-mindedness,” she exclaims. “They are asking questions [about subjects] from the hijab to our dietary rules … they just want to know. They are so interested in finding out who we really are.”

But ultimately, she continued, “we’re part of the same tree, just a different branch.”

The theme of the creations was “ways to improve the world.” After a brief explanation on how to make tape art, students broke into groups of four or more and got down to taping away their differences.

A couple of hours later, we all did a “gallery walk” where we listened as a representative from each group explained the group’s artwork. Creations included a tree with peace signs, children playing and talking together and holding up the world with their hands, multiple environmentally-themed creations, a Minion from Pixar’s “Despicable Me” with a watering can next to a mathematical formula for what was rumored to be time travel, and a portrait of MLK himself. The room came alive with messages of tzedakah, and sadaqah.

Sister Wendy Manchester Ibrahim of the Rhode Island Council for Muslim Advancement, which oversees Rhode Island’s many Muslim-affiliated institutions, expressed her belief in the importance of the kind of partnership that JCDSRI and ISRI have developed.

“I think it’s fantastic what the principal is doing here. He’s a global thinker and I don’t think this event could have gone any better,” she said. “Doing it in a fun way where kids get to know each other … is a brilliant idea.”

The schools’ fifth graders will also be working together in the coming weeks in a theater workshop, which started the week prior to the tape art event. The students will meet twice a week for the next 12 weeks.

“We really wanted to make sure that in our engagement together we give kids a deeper opportunity to get to know each other,” said Tilove. “This was a beautiful event,” he said, referring to the tape art. “But this wasn’t the end.”

ARIEL BROTHMAN is a freelance writer who lives in Wrentham, Massachusetts.