
There are those among us who are doing vitally important work. Merna Ann Hecht is a bright light among those wonder-workers. She has been working for many years with refugee, immigrant, and asylum-seeking students in the Seattle area on projects called Stories of Arrival and WORD TRAVELS Refugee and Immigrant Poetry Projects. I first learned about her work through a mutual friend, Karen Cushman. Merna has been dedicated to these project for more than 16 years.
Each year, I am so moved and inspired by the art and deep-reaching thoughtfulness of these students that I want to share their work with the world.
In the introduction to this year’s Our Beautiful Homelands as Told in Self Portraits by Global Youth, Merna believes:
“Repeated newscasts and articles about the lack of housing for the recently arrived asylum seekers in our area tended toward broad sweeps of crises-based reporting which too easily can lead to mindsets that stereotype, marginalize, or worse demonize and dehumanize. Counter narratives that honor human rights and the human dignity of people in pursuit of the same peace, protection, and opportunities we want for ourselves and our families are too often absent from our local and national newsfeeds. The young people in this project are asking you to participate in one of the most fundamental acts of peace-making, which is to see them and in so doing honor their beautiful humanity.” (Introduction, pg. 13)
Merna works closely with multicultural learners teachers at Foster High School in Tukwila, Washington. This year, Hongyan Zhang Newton, English Language Learners teachers, was her partner.
Merna observes:
“The young people in this and every project yearn to abolish false assumptions about who they are and what they can achieve. If allowed, refugee, immigrant, and asylum seeker youth will help determine the more equitable and sustainable future they envision. Their experiences carrying multiple cultures, languages, and identities can enrich our ways of understanding the root causes of migration and help teach us to deepen our knowledge of how to support them in shaping the world they want to work toward.” (Introduction, pg. 14)
By reading the poems, studying the self-portraits, learning from the students themselves about what their self-portraits express, I believe your heart will open further, just as mine has.
May I suggest that you replicate this project in your own community? Encouraging memories of homelands helps us all. None of my forebears visited the homelands of their parents but they talked about that land as though they had. Memories of the homeland were that strong. For the young immigrants with whom Merna and Hongyan work, these are immediate memories, longings, for what could have been if violence had not forced them from their homes.
I share just one of the thought-provoking projects in this book, from Maryam Ayazi:

My Story and My Culture
I remember my grandmother and grandfather
and the city of Herat, Afghanistan.
I miss especially sleeping next to my grandmother
and I miss the poppies
and all of the yellow, red and green flowers
and the sheep and goats around their house.
I remember the beautiful city of Panshir, Afghanistan
where my friend Razmea and I lived
I miss her, I miss her cooking our Afghani food
I still treasure the love of cooking the food
of my Afghani culture.
I still miss my Uncle Masmood going outside,
eating ice cream,
and I still miss my Afghani culture,
and my friends from the city Herat,
and my family who are still far away
in Afghanistan, my homeland.
These young people are new to the United States, to the Seattle area, and very new to the English language.
Purchase your own copy of Our Beautiful Homelands from Chin Music Press
More Information about Merna and the Stories of Arrival project, which I’ve written about in Bookology magazine:
The Voice of My Heart: Unforgettable Memories in an Unforgettable Year, 2022
We Are the Future: Poems with a Voice for Peace, 2021
An interview with Merna Ann Hecht after the publication of Our Table Memories: Food & Poetry of Spirit, Homeland & Tradition, 2017
I’m so moved by these stories and portraits of young people braving a new country and new language. I wish them well.