Come Sit A Spell

‘Front Porch’ facilitates cultural connections

File Photo/ANDY SHUPE Al "Papa Rap" Lopez will lead a bilingual story time for children at 10:30 a.m. with a drumming circle to follow during Saturday's Front Porch event at the Museum of Native American History in Bentonville.
File Photo/ANDY SHUPE Al "Papa Rap" Lopez will lead a bilingual story time for children at 10:30 a.m. with a drumming circle to follow during Saturday's Front Porch event at the Museum of Native American History in Bentonville.

Until they sat down together, Charlotte Buchanan-Yale and Jeannie Stone might not have known they were courting the same audience.

Buchanan-Yale is director of the Museum of Native American History in Bentonville, and one might think her target audience would be the indigenous people of North America.

FAQ

‘Our Front Porch’

WHEN — 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday

WHERE — Museum of Native American History in Bentonville

COST — Free

INFO — 273-2456

BONUS — Special guests Kyle Kellams of KUAF and Kody Ford, editor of the Idle Class, will be rocking on the front porch to chat with visitors.

Stone, from Russellville, founded a nonprofit called the Traveling Arts Fiesta a few years ago to "initiate an exchange of cultures and educate people about the diversity of Latin American communities."

The intersection, says Buchanan-Yale, is that "MONAH tells the story of the first people of the Americas from South America, Central America and Mexico, including an exhibit from the Antilles" -- the ancestors of many of the Hispanic immigrants of today.

Having found their own common ground, Buchanan-Yale and Stone set out to develop a space to share it. Stone offered her own Front Porch -- not literally hers, but one that she takes to communities to invite people to sit a spell, talk, listen and learn.

"We wanted to create something to bring people together in the most basic way -- and that's just being able to trust each other with our thoughts and discuss our views in a non-threatening atmosphere," says Stone, whose work is part of her doctoral dissertation at the University of Central Arkansas.

On Saturday, the MONAH version of that Front Porch brings together the artwork of Arkansas artists Suzannah Schreckhise, Tim Jacob, Lourdes Valverde, Angela Davis Johnson and Stone herself, inviting visitors to contemplate "the meanings of home, connectedness, rootedness, our common landscape and what it means to be a neighbor." Also, a video installation will feature Arkansans from around the state telling of their recollections of Arkansas porches of yesteryear, and an auditory installation will introduce visitors to the voices and stories of Northwest Arkansas immigrants.

"Al Lopez -- Papa Rap -- and Lourdes Valverde will present a bilingual story time for children with a drumming circle to follow," says Buchanan-Yale, "and kids will have a maker-and-shaker table to create percussion instruments to join in.

"And finally Padre Guillermo of the All Saints' Episcopal Church will lead a talking circle on the virtual Front Porch in the Native American tradition of the 'talking feather,'" Buchanan-Yale adds. "Afterwards we encourage Front Porch participants to take the tradition home with them by having a craft table to make talking feathers."

"I'm hoping local organizations will see new faces that will enter into their programming after the Front Porch is gone," says Stone. "That's the whole goal, to plant a seed that allows people to communicate without some kind of forced interaction like sports."

"I hold the storyteller in the highest regard, and the theme of the Front Porch is to re-create a more simple time when stories are handed down and civil discourse is honored," adds Buchanan-Yale. "The porch is where the magic happens -- gestures of hospitality, storytelling and reminiscing will abound."

NAN What's Up on 10/12/2018

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