Article: Honoring elders, celebrating communities

Honoring Elders, Celebrating Communities

With honor, celebration and a new understanding, elementary students walked in the life stories of three community elders.

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 between 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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