Article: A true community celebration at Wilshire Park

A true community celebration at Wilshire Park

Wilshire Park Elementary third-graders walked in the shoes of four community elders-to places like the North Pole, Lebanon, China and the Mariana Islands.

Twenty-five years ago, Larry Long began "Elders' Wisdom, Children's Song," an intergenerational and interdisciplinary approach to building community through the arts.

"The music I've written my whole life has been rooted in the stories of the people," said Long, a recording artist who helps build bridges among communities of difference. "I've taken this folk process of listening and honoring people in song into school curriculum."

Long has been working with the West Metro Education Program, a group of 11 urban and suburban school districts in the Minneapolis metropolitan area that was formed in 1989 to address integration issues in the west metro area.

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