By Amy Doeun

This last weekend we celebrated Mother’s Day. The official holiday didn’t begin until 1914 however, mothers and families have been celebrated in life and art for as long as people have been on the earth. Some of civilizations earliest art dealt with images of family and home life. Folk tales from around the world center on this most important of human relationships.

Two of my favorite paintings portray the image of a mother and child. While not and image that represents my culture these paintings represent more about the deeper human experience of “Nurture” and “Harmony” then mere words can.

Students at the LEAP school in St. Paul practiced using their art to describe their lives, families, cultures and dreams, all of which became interwoven in the student written play “Accept, Respect, Crazy, Culture.”

LEAP is one of the schools available for newly arrived students. To attend a student must have been in this country for no more the 3 years and speak another language other then English.

The students in the interpersonal communications class practiced their English by thinking of words and sentences that describe their experience. These were then put into a play. With students doing a type of spoken word poetry.

Abdilatif Akil shared his shock upon hearing his first “Yo Mama” joke. In my culture, “if you abuse someone’s mother you are in a very dangerous situation.”

The students come from as varied backgrounds as Mexico, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Korean to name just a few. However, as they spoke about their cultures and the dreams they have for their “culture family”  it centered around staying together, identity and equality.

The family has been a basic unit of human society and culture from the beginning no matter how you describe it. It inspires us to contemplate, create art and celebrate. The mother is perhaps the greatest muse there is. Since we all have one we all have license to go out and live a more creative life.