For instance, I'm a theater maker who loves sports.When I was making my latest piece /peh-LO-tah/ I thought a lot about how soccer was a means for my own immigrant familyto foster a sense of continuity and normality and community within the new context of the US.In this heightened moment of xenophobia and assault on immigrant identity,I wanted to think through how the game could serve as an affirmational tool for first-generation Americans and immigrant kids,to ask them to consider movement patterns on the field as kin to migratory patterns across social and political borders.Whether footballers or not, immigrants in the US play on endangered ground.I wanted to help the kids understand that the same muscle that they use to plan the next goalcan also be used to navigate the next block.For me, freedom exists in the body.We talk about it abstractly and even divisively,like "protect our freedom," "build this wall," "they hate us because of our freedom."We have all these systems that are beautifully designed to incarcerate us or deport us, but how do we design freedom?For these kids, I wanted to track the idea back to something that exists inside that no one could take away,so I developed this curriculum that's part poli-sci class, part soccer tournament, inside of an arts festival.
