Stories of Arrival: Refugee & Immigrant Youth Voices Poetry Project
Founded by Merna in 2009, the Stories of Arrival: Refugee and Immigrant Youth Voices Poetry project takes place at Foster High School in Tukwila, WA, one of the most language and culturally diverse high schools in the U.S.
Uplifting Voices: A New Word Travels Project
What does home mean when home no longer exists in the same way? The words motherland, exile, and belonging are not just concepts. They live in the body I come to tears every single time I say the word home or motherland.
The Stories of Arrival Broadside Project and Anthology
In 2019-2020, Merna and Foster High School ELL teacher, Carrie Stradley took a new direction for the Stories of Arrival Poetry project, with an ambitious poetry poster project. The creation of visual poems (broadsides) shows the deep humanity of each young person in the project.
Word Travels: Refugee and Immigrant Voice and Visibility
In autumn of 2018 Merna traveled to Europe to realize a longstanding goal of working with refugees in Berlin and Athens, two of Europe’s major hubs for immigration.
Namaste Garden Project
The new Word Travels project at the Namaste Garden in Tukwila, WA is part of the IRC New Roots program.
Holding the Earth Together
The garden is an IRC New Roots Program for refugee gardeners which also has a focus on youth programs that support learning about food systems and sustainability from a social justice perspective.
Our Table of Memories
As the project has grown, so too Merna’s commitment to nourishing community partnerships. In 2015 Merna established an intergenerational collaboration with Project Feast, an organization that serves refugee women that was located at the Tukwila Community Center and is now in Kent.
Voices from around the world: Art & Poetry
The Foster High School Multilingual students in this Word Travels poetry and visual arts project worked with Teaching Artists Merna Ann Hecht and Amaranta Ibarra Sandys.
Our Beautiful Homelands
This meaningful anthology reflects the humanity, the love for homelands and the dreams of each young person who contributed his or her art artist statement and poem to create a vibrant book of self-portraits.
The Voice of My Heart: Unforgettable Memories in an Unforgettable Year
These global youth voices offer readers a deeper understanding of the courage that it takes to hold on to the dream for a brighter future and a more peaceful, humane world even as they address with candor and bravery the pressing issues of our times.
Bridging Borders with Words: Writing with Immigrants and Refugees
Merna’s article, “Poems Without Borders: Writing to Bear Witness” is part of a series in Teachers & Writers Magazine on writers working with immigrants and refugees. Read Merna’s full article here on her work with refugee women in Athens, Greece.
We Are the Future: Poems with A Voice for Peace
Proceeds from this full color book of heartfelt poems and striking images will directly benefit the Stories of Arrival project.