 So, in our previous sessions, we've talked about identity, we've talked about our daily experiences with stereotypes, with privilege, and today we're going to start our first session on kind of like our community history and our kind of communal history and our family history as well for our curriculum. And to do so, we're going to explore, of course, our family histories, our stories, our parents, our grandparents, how they came here, the experiences that they went through and how that kind of shapes and molds us and our future. And also the reasons why we're passionate, why we're motivated to create change, to build off of their legacies and to create legacies for our future generations also. So the sessions to come for the next few weeks also will be about the history of Muslims in America, the history of our local kind of county, and also how we can interact with our local government and what we're doing and how to be an advocate and also how to build off of the history from those who came before us and to really create change as well. So another thing I had sent out an email, hopefully you all got a chance to possibly interview maybe a parent, a grandparent, an older sibling, if you could, if not, that's totally okay. I know it was kind of last minute, I understand with all the changes that we've had, but use kind of what you already know and what you can already compile to participate in today's discussion and our activities today. And I think it'll be really good and, you know, it'll be really powerful today. So let's kind of, before starting, let's kind of take a moment to think about where today's topic falls in our framework for challenging oppression. So by learning and by learning about and sharing our family histories, we're combating oppressive knowledge policies and of course the real world consequences. So as you all remember, we had our knowledge power charts from I think it was the first week and the second week that we had created. And they had the last one that we made kind of focused on, you know, real world changes that we can make that are positive and how to combat, you know, the different stereotypes that we had mentioned. And just thinking about today, like on that knowledge power chart, remember we had the knowledge in one section of the policies and then real world consequences also. So thinking about the knowledge we have today will be focused on artistic and cultural production and then also relationships and storytelling. And then obviously we're not working with direct policies today, but our real world real world consequences, right? So creating spaces for collective hearing for storytelling for, you know, understanding each other and empowering each other as a group and uplifting each other as a group based off of our histories and based off of what we can learn about each other as well. Awesome. And again, as always with every section, I just want to show everybody the being that we have kind of our community guidelines, you know, the values that kind of guide us throughout our session and throughout, you know, things that we carry on after out of here also right in our daily lives too, of course. So things like respect, open mind, diverse perspectives, empathy, collaboration. And then, of course, the on the outside of our being, we have, you know, the values that we don't, you know, don't want to carry on, don't want to bring here or outside arrogance, animosity, bad manners, et cetera. So just kind of remember our community guidelines for this session and for all our other sessions as we always kind of mentioned before as well. So today, our learning objectives are to explore the different ideas that we have of home and of homeland and what this means to us as Muslims that are living in America. And for many of us as first generation or second generation Muslims, what that means to us and what our history means in our daily lives. And we're also here to identify, you know, the larger social, political and economic factors, of course, which have shaped our life as in the previous sessions too. And finally, to learn your family history and to be able to share and teach others about it and kind of explore that, right? So to identify the larger factors, you know, again, the social, political, economic factors, which have shaped your life, which have shaped your family's life, their plight, and also those that have shaped our community members as well. So our kind of schedule, we have our, you know, we did a roll call our housekeeping items. And then I have a, you know, kind of like a short Islamic story that I want to share with you. I think it's important, just a little, you know, a little story. And then I will have a spiritual bloodlines handout that I'll pass out to everybody that will read and have a short discussion on. And then our main big activity today will be our poetry activity, which I think is really awesome and which is, which will be really fun to do as a group as well. Yeah. There are learning objectives as well. And yeah, so I wanted to start today with kind of like a short story, just to think, just to get us thinking and just to, you know, think about our values as well, our values of kindness, empathy, understanding, and basic compassion. So the story is called the old lady who threw rubbish. So during the Prophet Salaam's time there, he had this neighbor who would always give him a hard time and who would always, always make it a point to really go out of her way to give him, you know, to make his life harder. So every morning on, on cue, he would walk by her home and she would throw rubbish at him or trash at him in his direction, oftentimes hitting him. And every day, you know, he kind of shrugged it off. He didn't make a big deal about it. He, you know, he didn't let it bother him. He didn't let it create any animosity towards her. He didn't hate her. He didn't, you know, want bad for her. He didn't wish bad. He always prayed for her as well. So this was a daily thing, a daily thing, a weekly thing. It was a, you know, it was on cue. And then one day as the Prophet Salaam was walking out by her house, he noticed that he wasn't hit by any rubbish and he thought it was odd. He said, I wonder if something happened. I wonder what's going on. And then another day went on. He still didn't hear from her. He still didn't experience that. So he, one day he went out there in the morning and he knocked on her door and he heard a really faint voice saying, you know, who is it? Come in, you know, I'm back here. And so he went in and he saw that the lady was really sick and he saw that she was suffering. And what he did, what the Prophet Salaam did, was that he went to sit by her and he prayed with her and he prayed for her to get better and he prayed for Allah to forgive her and to, you know, grant her understanding and to take care of her as well. And, you know, we think about the different experiences that he had with, you know, dealing with her and with her throwing trash at him, with her, you know, pestering him. He could have easily, you know, wanted, you know, wish bad for her, could have easily been upset with her or, you know, created some form of, you know, problems with her. But he didn't. Instead, he prayed and he was compassionate. And the idea of, you know, he took care of his neighbor even though, you know, even if they're different or even if they're having struggle, he still made it a point to take care of them and to try to understand. And eventually, based off that story, that lady did eventually convert to Islam a little bit down the line as well. And she understood, which was, you know, which is incredible. And that's a story we think about family history. That's a story that my mom has been telling me for, gosh, since probably, since I was a really, really, really young kid. And she's told me in my, I have two older sisters as well, who are, you know, who are quite a bit older than me. But it's a story that she's been sharing with us all, just to kind of get us to think about things a little bit and to put everything into perspective as well. So I kind of listed out a few of the kind of the general themes and kind of like the things that I want you all to think about here. And then as, you know, as we go on in our daily lives also, but just looking at the values from the Prophet's life and the story and even in other stories as well, just the ideas of being patient and also steadfast in the face of adversity. And even when it's dealing with other people or, you know, a lot of the arguments or a lot of the issues that you have with other people still being passionate and still being steadfast and, you know, wanting the best and doing what you can to be kind also. And then, of course, compassion, as I mentioned, and, you know, really emphasizing and really thinking about trying to understand, right, instead of using vengeance or being vengeful and, you know, creating more animosity or creating more hatred, right. And then finally, we have the idea of, you know, building connections and relationships. And the more we foster them, of course, the more they will help us in our future and the more, you know, it's good to be kind and it's good to be, you know, build relationships with as many people as possible, of course. And it's something that will help you all to get older too. And great. So next, we'll have kind of our first handout here today. Inshallah, if I can get Samina or Mariam, if I can get you guys up here really quick. Everybody's so quiet. Great. And I think we all have that. Would anybody like to volunteer to be our volunteer to kind of read the story for today? Anybody? I'd rather not choose someone to do so. Anyone? Yeah, I'll get you the microphone for you. Wait, can you guys, okay, there we go. Put yourself in the shoes of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. You have begun receiving revelation from Allah through Gabriel, peace be upon him. And you have had some time to gain perspective about your mission. All your life you have walked past the Gapah, a monument that is beloved to your tribesmen and special to the clan of Hashem, from which you are sprung. You partook in its rebuilding and resolved the conflict between the tribal chiefs when they fought over who would place the black stone in its position. You had them share by carrying it on a piece of cloth, each tribal leader holding a corner until you place the black stone in its place with your own hands. The Ka'bah has always been dear to you, a connection to Allah, but also to your family, which you lost at a young age. Your forefather, Qusay, was the one who had introduced the practice of Mefaatah to this city, giving food and water to the pilgrims of the Ka'bah. And it was your grandfather, Abdu'l-Mutallib, who had restored the well of the Zemzem for all the pilgrims to quench their thirst. It was he who had prayed for the Ka'bah's protection when the jealous governor from Yemen tried to destroy it with his elephant. And now you inherit the spiritual legacy of Abraham, peace be upon him, who built this Ka'bah centuries ago. Now you will restore the Ka'bah to glorifying Allah's oneness. By Allah's will, you will rid this place of idol worship just like your spiritual forefathers, Abraham and all of the prophets, had challenged the idols of their time. It is not just the stone statues themselves that you will remove, but the abusive power and the tribal elitism which those idols represent. Your task will not be easy. You ask Allah for help and assistance in this task. Our family histories are a mixed bag. Among our ancestors were those who believed and those who associated partners with Allah. They did noble and righteous deeds and they made mistakes. Allah calls upon us to critically reflect on those who came before. Take inspiration and faith from their examples and challenge falsehood and oppression that is passed down from one generation to the next. How does your family history move or inspire you towards injustice or justice? Sorry. Awesome and thank you for reading that for us. And so first kind of first thoughts is anyone have any you know first thoughts about this after reading this any you know anything that found interesting or anything they'd like to share based off of this based off of the story anybody or any of the other stories that we've heard before or anything we could think about anyone if not it's okay also but um I asked you all then that final question that that was read also so um in your you know as we get going today how does your family history move or inspire you towards justice how does the um to all of you how does the experience of your parents or your grandparents or your family you know your family history as a whole how does that inspire you today anyone have anything they would like to share come on yeah I know somebody has a story or something if not um Samina would you like to share well rushing to share I figure I'm gonna take the microphone no I was actually thinking when I was hearing this story you know oftentimes you you hear from people they're like oh well my family did this or my family you know was they helped found the mask they did this and it's like you know the process on he was so humble he's not looking at it as though like hey like I like we did all this stuff and so that's why we're like should be listened to and but it was really also mashallah people followed his leadership because of the content of his character the person who is he didn't have that pride you know that I think a lot of us may have if we had such of a family history as a well you know um so that was beautiful and but um you had asked the question how does your family history move or inspire you to do this justice so for me I'm just gonna come to the front because this is so weird um for me like my my parents they uh had moved to San Diego and they were one of the first Muslims you know over there and mashallah they helped start the community over there they helped start the masjid over there but one of the things that I the reason why I got involved with care is because I saw that I saw that mashallah like they recognize that our place in this community isn't just to make money or have fun or whatever but it was to really establish the community and help out and help others and um that's kind of why I started in what I was doing and I remember um when I was young there was the Gulf War was happening and a lot of um you know hatred discrimination a lot of things were being said about Islam and Muslims but there wasn't an organization place to help defend the Muslim community or to speak out or to like you know go and talk to the media my father was one of those people that I mean I think people um had asked for him to go like on camera and talk about something and one of the things he said was you know the Muslim umma is like a body if one part of it hurts it's like the whole body suffers and so that really stuck to me that that's why we need to be involved and engaged whenever any part of our umma is hurting and so alhamdulillah that kind of started me and my trajectory to being involved with the community being involved with care and 17 years later I'm still here today so and that's my story and and y'all y'all can like if you have even a short story even nice if you can share something about your family as well we won't bite anybody have anything to add if not I mean I can I can share a brief uh a little bit about like my history things that get me thinking so um my parents from India and Pakistan um my parents growing up were extremely really extremely poor um and it had very very little and I think about a lot of the stories like my mom would tell me for instance um she would tell me that um once a year on Eid they would get um with her and her siblings she had um a sister older sister and older brother and every year on Eid they would get a bottle of shampoo and they would make that bottle of shampoo together last for the whole year until the next Eid um and some of the stories I think about um and when they moved here um they started in the L.A. in the Culver City area and there they lived in a little like one bedroom a little tiny like back apartment that they had or like an extension um and my grand my grandfather would go to work from from morning to night and so would my grandmother and they would take the bus and they would go multiple stops to get to work at a factory and just think about the stories that my mom would tell me like um they didn't have much um she would one day they uh walked they were walking to school and she had they had found like a mattress that was left outside and they were so excited to see that that they went back at night like later later in the week and brought that mattress back to their home and just thinking about the humble beginnings and the humble starts that they had um and how hard that they worked and just thinking about also my own life like my parents um they worked you know non-stop and I like I barely felt like my dad was always working as a kid and my mom would too and just thinking about those you know concepts of how much they emphasize like how they kind of gave up their dreams to their dream was to see us pursue you know our education to put us through college to see us grow and they put their whole lives into us so just think about that really motivates me and inspires me and kind of brings me here brings me to I got my uh I graduated from UC Riverside last year actually um and pursuing that and then coming to care um wanted to work with you know youth development and working with all of you of course which has been really great and just trying to do more and inspiring to build off of their legacy right and to kind of you know make their dreams come true right also so just a little story something to think about um does anyone have you know we've mentioned a few does anyone have any anything that they would like to share maybe a little bit at all come on y'all I know I've been working with you all for a few weeks here I know a lot of you have stories say um my brain was empty until you said that story because it reminded me of my paternal grandfather um he had a very similar background in Pakistan um he grew up like in a one bedroom house but he had like um like five siblings and a large family and um they weren't very educated and well off and actually his father had passed away so his mother was single with all the children um and um his brothers decided one day that they would sacrifice um their schooling and work to earn money so that their little brother and my grandfather would be able to get himself an education where he could support the family so um my grandfather was very dedicated and he would they didn't have like electricity in the house but he would use like the street lamps outside to like study and eventually all that hard work paid off and he became a doctor and he was able to open his own clinic in Pakistan and help um all the less fortunate that couldn't afford medical care and there's obviously a lot of injustice when it comes to um the lower class not being able to um provide for their family and get basic medical care that for us we really do take for granted so um that story has like always inspired me um where he just used a single street lamp to make himself a doctor and really like um really utilized his brother's sacrifice and made them proud incredible and made a love reward him and everyone makes help also and just the idea that Sabina mentioned right um when like as a Muslim body or as a community right when something is you know you know we think about the communal aspects and how we dedicate you know dedicate our lives and our struggles to helping everybody else out and using our struggle and using our stories to really make it a point to take care of everyone else and to you know it's a community thing it's just like the values of property rights and also right value of taking care of you know everyone else and doing what you can to to do that's very you know a lot of our Muslim values as well so thank you um anyone else have anything I'd like to share um my mom's dad so my granddad moved from Yemen to England to get uh more money for his family and eventually my grandma and all her moved to England as well and that's where they had their kids and my granddad had to work um all the time a very like laborious job and it wasn't it was a very difficult job but he worked all day to provide for his family and him and my grandma they didn't know any English so they had to raise their kids in a country where they didn't know the culture or the language they you know my grandma had to go to the market and I don't know figure I had to buy whatever without any English they faced racism of course um but because of their sacrifices um and what they did my now I get to live a good life I was born in England and me and all my cousins um because of the sacrifice they put in uh we have a strong Yabani community there but now I move to America so and we only got to move to America because of the sacrifices my granddad put in so my mom could have a good life so she could provide a good life for me and so that's it thank you and that's right on cue with you know what I want everybody to kind of think about so a lot of these like immigrant stories right and a lot of these a lot of our older generations whether it's our parents or our grandparents or whoever might be kind of laying the foundation for us right and how we can build off of that so kind of something I want you all to think about is that you know that immigrant struggle and you know what our previous generations have experienced and how they've used that to kind of guide us and how we can take from that also um something that we're gonna you know we're gonna focus on throughout here and a lot of us have you know those similar stories of course and kind of came from those same beginnings and one final story does anyone have any final thoughts or final things that they would like to share anyone from this side or from or from here again okay that's okay um thank you for those of you that did share they're definitely inspiring stories and you know perfect on right on cue with what I would like us all to kind of focus on today so without further ado I want to go ahead and lead us to our next activity and kind of the main focus on today and today's work we have our poetry activity um so I kind of want to briefly show you all something for and the importance of art and the importance of reflection and cultural reflection also um let's see if I can share something with you all so just really quick um just thinking about art and kind of the different reflections and the importance of it um a little while ago I worked on a kind of an art exhibit that opened up in Hawaii actually and it's at the Shangri-La in Honolulu and um we opened a virtual exhibit during during the start of the pandemic that was focused it's called the American Muslim Futures exhibit so it was a national exhibit and we took um inquiries from all around all around the country and different casting calls from all around the country for art and it was focused on liberation liberation power justice and it was called the American Muslim Futures right so we took the visions of 23 Muslim and allied artists and um there are visions of what it just America looked like and it was really cool so just thinking about the power that art has and how to use our voice and our stories in a different way that can inspire other people and kind of bring together other people and activism and or as I like to call it artivism right and using that in social movements and and you know and building um cultural movements as well so just kind of briefly show some of the different artworks that we worked on was pretty cool and got to talk to a lot of the artists as well just something to kind of think about um and different songs as well so just wanted to briefly show you all the power of art and what that could do for us right but great so for our poetry activity just getting you all to think of one way of course in which we can reflect on our family histories and our struggles through art which we've mentioned um quite a bit so today we're going to create collective poems or as we call them family po-trees that bring together um shared themes from our family histories and from our you know experiences um but first before that um gonna pass out um these green strips here um in a sec if you want to hand this out um so we're going to write out um for all of us we're gonna write out three lines of poetry if you want to hand out three to everybody um three lines of poetry that are related to our family histories so whether or not we've all got a chance to interview or got a chance to talk to anybody use you know kind of what you already know and what you've already you know um already are aware of to kind of really guide you here so what we're gonna do is um on we're gonna write each line each line of poetry they don't have to be interconnected in any way um on a separate piece of on a separate piece of the green strap paper that we have and these poems they can be you know they could be direct quotes whether it's from the interview or it's from direct quotes that your parents or your grandparents or whoever might be have shared with you in the past or that you know of um they could be moments that were maybe really powerful or inspiring for your family or any kind of you know creative reflection even about your own history or your own family's history as well so again um your lines of poetry right they don't need to be in any kind of order or kind of build off of each other they can but they don't have to of course um and we'll give about I don't know maybe 10 10 minutes 15 minutes yeah I think we got 10 to 15 minutes here to really think and um write you know write our lines out and then after that we're going to divide um into different discussion groups and kind of reflect on our histories with each other so feel free um and we'll be walking around um and yeah if anyone has any questions again who are we here so I'll give you all about 10 minutes or so to kind of think and write out um lines of poetry so okay and mariam's gonna go around and hand out a piece of butcher paper to everybody and um this will be kind of like the main you know our main presentation kind of aspect that we're gonna be focusing on but as mariam hands them out um real quick before I kind of explain the the breakout discussion that we're gonna have with everybody um if I could jump to this really quick um if everyone can see up front here we have uh it might be a little hard to see but what I want to do with these uh with these this butcher paper is we're gonna draw um each group is gonna draw one of these trees if you can see up here um we'll go hand out some markers as well um mariam do you have some markers back there I might have them up here actually okay so what we're gonna do is uh we're gonna draw out one of these trees for each group right and I want them to kind of look something you know something like that um that's going to be kind of like the main um how all our trees are going to look like with our lines of poetry as you can kind of already kind of see um and don't title it yet just kind of draw them out like that and we'll join you all as well we'll do our own poetry also and mariam's gonna hand out um the markers and we'll be walking around to facilitate as well um so in your groups for now though while while you do that also I kind of want to get you all to think about some different questions and some different you know kind of guide your discussion and kind of guide you all to kind of talk to each other and get to know each other as well and get to know each other's you know background and you know what's powerful about us and what we've experienced and you know what inspires us today so I have a list of questions that are up here that I want you all to kind of use to guide your discussion all right um and as you go through them again I understand we didn't all get to interview somebody so kind of just think about your own share your own experiences also just get creative with it right I kind of also want you all to think about this final question that I have in bold and or not question but this final like idea that I have in bold that's also underlined right so think about these themes identified three shared themes or common threads from your family from your group's family histories it'll be important so we can all go ahead inshallah we'll have about 20 minutes 25 minutes or so so and we'll be walking around again okay everybody if I can get everyone's attention really quick um just for a few minutes um I kind of want to get everybody to think about some of the things that we've shared about before we kind of like really dig into assembling assembling our poetry together which many of you have already started which is good though I like it I like the enthusiasm for it but just to kind of think before before really going into it but based off of our group stories um I just want to hear from you all like what are some of the themes that have come up um in our stories here some of the themes that we can think about that are important that we've noticed um is anyone would anyone like to share really quick come on you know do you have the microphone right uh sacrifice sacrifice yeah uh education education anyone else okay if um some of the ones that um want to walk around listening to everyone talk and just thinking on my own also we think about like iman faith right then of course sacrifice um and then also um not giving up right kind of like a theme also um subbar patience doesn't necessarily have to be like you know like an islamic value but it could be anything right but those are important of course um dawaka also mentioned faith in a law faith in the plan and then I kind of want to jump to that last question I think this is probably the most important that I want you all to think about of course it's all important but in your groups and in your experience um why is the process of learning and also sharing our family history so important um why are these spaces important for us what does it kind of make you think about what does inspire you a little bit anybody everyone's so quiet today like scaring me no I can um I guess I can kind of answer that also um so I think about this process of learning and you know sharing our histories and you kind of see how much similarity I guess we all have and a lot of the stories and a lot of the struggles that we all have shared um we all have the kind of immigrant stories right and also it's I think it's really incredible to see like to look at ourselves right all of us like we're all the we are all the like kind of like outcomeer kind of like the the final results of you know of these struggles and of these you know this pursuit for happiness for justice like we're all living that we're all living that dream that a lot of our parents our grandparents our ancestors that they had like we should all like of course like you know continue to be humble and thankful but also like understand that like we are living the dreams of a lot of our parents and a lot of our ancestors so you know let that inspire us and you know kind of drive you know as we as we grow and drive as we pursue our careers and whatnot to kind of remember that concept and really think about how that inspires us motivates us but since y'all aren't feeling like sharing as much today and I won't call on anybody also um we'll spend the next like uh I don't know spend the next like 10 minutes or so again um I see many of you have already assembled like our trees here but we've already sketched out the poetry right and then you're gonna place the lines of poetry um in any order as many of you have already kind of done and flow um any order that makes kind of sense and then also like get creative like this group um back here is incredible and I owe you all our two like with how creative everyone's been but continue to add on to it make your tree look unique make it look cool we you know get excited with it and then also I want you all to kind of choose um a title that is really symbolic to your poetry something that's symbolic to all of you still think about those themes and those ideas and just put the title could be anywhere it could be at the top you know whoever makes sense for you all so I'll give you all about 10 let me see what time we've got yeah um I'll give you all about 10 minutes or so and then we will of course at the end present okay so yeah I know so get excited about that all right everybody um if I can get everyone's attention really quick so hopefully we all got everything together I did walked around look like we're all about ready to present um would anyone would any group we could all stay in our groups here um would any group like to go first in presenting any awesome are you all gonna do a rap like you said or no no rap someone was teasing a rap but hold on let's like let me get you guys a microphone really quick he's not for shoot he's not presenting he says here for emotional support all right okay okay it's bigger than black and blue you know that's our title a determined village boy studying for success wanting to help his family um achieving his dreams and making his family proud education creates a path towards justice and activism when my parents left their whole lives in Bangladesh just to receive a better education so they could provide for both their children plus parents back home uh when my mom would walk home in the snow every day from her uh laborious low-paying job but never gave up taking risks our key is our key to success all right this is uh our poem I'll all trust us in the law stuck in myself thinking there's no way to get out until boom Allah has different plans for you um yeah sure yeah saved by a miracle all chance the reality is unbelievable will lie all trust us in Allah all right and my family came from nothing they'll return and they turned it into something they'll return to nothing um life is short let's do our best in front of our lord all right last part yeah the only way you can come that you can help others is to help yourself first sometimes change from the norm is my biggest necessity for making life a lot of impact yeah there we go see that I tried my best uh nah bro we don't do albums bro that's haram bro we're doing the sheets okay and next group so we kind of started off sorry we kind of started off with like our basic um foundations and virtues so I said that always strive to do the best you can in your life even when things seem hard because the end result will always be worth it the second thing that I said was education is one of the most powerful tools that a person can have in their lives and then the third thing was that be grateful for all the things that you have in your life whether they're big or small and always remember that the more you give to the world the more you get back across three cities and four different homes my family's home has always been filled with books the value and love for education past generation by generation has influenced myself and many more before me uh admiration for others good deeds never fail to inspire me to do to do the same and to be consistent in all my deeds next we move on to a set of examples that derive from these principles and virtues my grandmother came from a place far away where servants stood waiting for her every wish to a place called america where she soon relives she alone would be cooking every dish unwilling to be labeled as ignorant she started her own Montessori school at last positioning herself so she could begin to help the less fortunate uh my grandmother moved to the us which allowed me to be part of a more diverse community my father was beat up in school for being a colored child and I figured that I don't actually know all the countries that my family is from which could like I don't know I need more knowledge so we titled this palm tree the core of achievement because these foundation um foundational principles and examples were the root of um our family's achievement which is the next generation's um opportunity for education in this country and being able to have privilege that they did not have and um some um points that led to this title were the similar themes that we all had of sacrifice and ambition and of our um ancestors utilizing the resources that they had in the situations they were in and trying to attain education to help themselves thank you look at that palm tree that's pretty cool no lie um anyone else next group awesome there we go um so our poem or a tree is kind of organized at the base where it's like it's the struggles of our grandparents and our parents leaving their home countries and then towards the middle of the tree we start looking at the work of our parents and how much effort they had to put in sacrifice to get to where we are and that's where the leaves are which is the fruit of their work and our reflections and how grateful we are so i'm going to read like a few of the poems not all of them so at the base there's one that says uh let's do this breaking barriers and starting over everything they thought was earned in a race everything that they thought they earned was erased my grandfather was the first leaving it was the first to move leaving india for new middle eastern ground and then towards the middle it's like one shared bathroom a snickers candy bar split between siblings between six siblings a craving for more something they couldn't afford and then as we finally reached the top where we see the benefits as i sit with the researchers of the bay i wonder what's next on my route a turning point all the children they have grown up they can rest now don't forget to look up it all comes from above thank Allah for his full of mercy and love did it for the what for the vine i think vines before before who's talking okay and then we have three left or two left that are two of course so we labeled archery the journey and i'm going to read some of the poems yeah so the grandfather who endures and builds an orphanage for children with no family that grandfather is a person who inspired me his little princess and this one says the grandfather who can't see his wife daughter son's grandson and his two little princesses the grandfather who is not allowed into the u.s.a when my grandpa moved to america he changed his last name which affected mine my father was the first person in his family to get a college education my dad grew up in syria and moved to canada for university as a child my father still went through taking care of his family my mother used to live in south arabia during wartime they eventually moved to canada where my grandfather wrote about his experience my family is split because of visa my family is split between india england and and the usa a family full of doctors helping out each other that beg onto this new place america so many mixed feelings working as a child to help their family out and they have hard workers new thoughts new feelings inside fear and only a few cases rub okay so the three themes are beginnings immigration and change okay so um art tree died so we wrote all of its personalities so um it was alive from 2022 to 2022 and it lived for two minutes it graduated um high school in the time too um yeah and it was a mother a teacher a grandmother a daughter um okay um so our tree is called the ladder of dreams and um that's symbolized by the many rungs um which contains which contains the uh the struggles and like sacrifices that our parents or grandparents had to go through in order to get us here at the top of the ladder um so basically uh it shows how every single part and every single story um makes up who we are today and uh we're currently at the top of the tree um enjoying like the fruit of their work uh even though the roots symbolize our family's roots and um it it naturally progresses to the top basically so yeah okay so my poem i wrote about how my grandpa gave the Ahmed he moved to England he had faced a lot of racism there so he had to be resilient and he worked long hours for a better life um so did my parents they sacrificed for me and my siblings so that um my grandparents and parents uh sacrificed for generations to come and my mom said to me and my siblings we don't have a family here so we have to build our own community wherever we go in my poem um my parents um they had to work hard um to come to the US for a better and a better and easier life and they did so and then they moved here to give us a better and easier life for me i focused more on like uh the story of my grandparents who uh sacrificed uh like many things and people as well to get to um give my parents a decent life who uh in Pakistan who then moved to America to give me and my sibling a better life um and i in my poem i was mostly appreciating um the blessed life that i have due to the uh the sacrifices that they made my grandparents they could barely afford a car and they worked hard and moved to Wyoming so that they could help me and my my dad and his siblings get into good education go to college and my dad moved to California to help us be around a good Muslim community unlike what he had to go through i guess my parents sacrificed leaving their home country of Afghanistan because there was like a war going on so they wanted like a safe place for me to live so they all like they left and then eventually ended up meeting back in California um my parents sacrificed his uh friends and family and like uh to go through to get um us to where we are today and like um the struggles and everything that he had to go through yeah that's it and then finally we have ours mariam would you like to last but certainly not least okay so ours is called rooted in family and faith and the way we organized it is um our poems go well maybe i should read them first um from the wretches of the earth they grew single rows our purpose is not to make money but to make a difference separated from wife and baby my father would leave to finish his studies at cow poly and take odd jobs looking loading trucks to support his family he only saw on the weekends an engineer an immigrant a grocery store owner a chauffeur from sports practice to girl scout meetings and so much more my dad is whatever his kids need him to be six people sharing one room in pakistan to now having a five bedroom house in the us after years of struggle and hardship she wakes up hours before i do and is still working long after i've gone to sleep she works two jobs and still never missed a single basketball game or girl scout meeting all i have to do is call her name my mother's love for her children would defy gravity two continents three flights five thousand miles away connected by more than a shared name bound by more than blood a family built from love i remember she told us my children are my dream all the trees try trials all the trials the hardship were worth seeing your smiles the wakon the wakon the wakon fear not for a lot is the greatest of all planners awesome that was great great everybody and kind of as we that kind of wraps up most of our class session today but briefly um in thinking about these different stories and thinking about these different poems that we all that we've all heard um does anyone have any final thoughts or final ideas that they would like to share again um one more chance on the microphone for anybody anyone anyone if not just something that resonates with me is just thinking about how similar a lot of our stories are and how similar a lot of our experiences are so that concept of kind of that communal struggle but also how a lot of us work for communal like success and for taking care of one another right and the concepts of like this group for instance talked about the ladder right you know how you know that how our ancestors or parents whatever generation built built from the ground up and then where kind of you know we I guess kind of are like the enjoy the fruit of that or fruits of their labor but also that doesn't mean that our lives are you know entirely perfect or that where you know we have everything we also struggle we also experience a lot um and oftentimes it looks a little different than our previous generations but that you know never discount what you experience also but continue to build off for the next for our next generations and for people and inspire people around you also um yeah that about wraps up our class today um thank you all for um sticking with me through all these changes and through the schedule changes also um inshallah next week we will be joined by believe Aziz Akbar who was an elected official and we'll be talking about engaging with our local government so it should be really good um so look forward to seeing you all next week inshallah um of course again as always we have lunch that is going to be outside in our usual spot as always for everyone so great job great class everybody