Collaborative Poetry /
Dianne Feinstein Elementary

Fourth grade students at Dianne Feinstein Elementary School, working in partnership with the Del Sol String Quartet and teaching artist Andi Wong, are collaborating on an original book of poetry and audio recordings of student poems, for the world premiere of Your Wall is Our Canvas: The Angel Island Project.

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Better Angels of Our Nature

Bravery loves laughter, dive into
your heart and dreams caked with blue.
Bumping over the rough waves
You will find your inner self
Loved like the ocean

Someone can be whatever they want,
obsessed with Legos & Marvel,
ice cream, anime, soccer,
origami & Art, eating Skittles.
Happy life.

Daring. Allowed to be
a fox in a world of mystery.
Marvelous supreme Angel,
rarest of them all,
Never give up.

Bees
Bright adventurers, rich mind
eager to get home. A long distance away
tidy circle and shape.
Almost there.

Leaders always show pride.
Love beauty
In everything around us.
Imagination, inspiration and creativity.
You, my friend, can do anything.

Wandering the world,
Always by your side,
Keeping watch of life.
Nature’s love inside us all.
A Galaxy is waking to the power of Justice.

Yellow, Blue,
Colors will always be with you.
The red leaves in Fall, ever so green
in Spring. Every branch is connected.
Earth always looks forward.

The One. Very confident, even though shy anonymous, energetic. An amazing gymnast jumping to follow dreams. Engrossed in a book, making ideas up. Nice, never naughty. Always by your side.

Sincere as a butterfly,
artistic as a hummingbird,
true as an emotion.
Like a tree in the changing seasons,
We are changing the World.

Andi Wong _ DFES Better Angels of Our Nature ART.jpeg

Collaborating During a Crisis

Ms. Harrington, Ms. McCullough, and Ms. Rondone’s students were working on poetry when the COVID-19 pandemic closed San Francisco's public schools. In March, as the news came that school was to be officially closed for the rest of the year, teaching artist Andi Wong created a mirror from the student poems. Words and phrases were set in “stone”— stamped into earthen clay, using solar dyes to paint with sunlight in a time of great uncertainty. The visual art piece was created to inspire self-reflection and hopes for a future where Nature and Humanity are in harmony, joined together as One. The work was auctioned to raise much needed funds for school programs.

For two decades, Andi Wong has worked with students in San Francisco, engaging learners of all ages through inquiry, hands-on art-making, storytelling and reflection. As an Asian American artist with a family history linked to both the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in mid-1850s California and detention in the barracks of Immigration Station, Andi has a deep personal interest in exploring San Francisco’s cultural and environmental history through the arts, with a special focus on sharing stories of creativity, resilience, cross-cultural cooperation and the importance of collective action.

Your Wall is Our Canvas:
The Angel Island Project

Huang Ruo and the Del Sol String Quartet will bring the poems of Angel Island to life in the very space they were created. Composed by Huang Ruo, the 45-minute oratorio for string quartet and chamber choir will weave a story of immigration and discrimination of then and now.

 
AIISF's Voices of Resilience, curated by Russell Nauman, Operations Manager and Edward Tepporn, Executive Director, 2020.

Collaborative poems written by the 4th grade class of 2020, Dianne Feinstein Elementary School (Teachers: Alison Harrington, Rabea McCullough, Atria Rondone), 2020.

Your Wall is Our Canvas: The Angel Island Project is a collaborative performance by the Del Sol Quartet, Huang Ruo, and Volti. It is supported by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, Angel Island State Park, the Hewlett Foundation “50 Arts Commissions, Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and Grants for the Arts, 2020.