Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee, is on a 17-day blitz through every corner of the Big Apple as part of a theater project hoping to raise awareness about immigration.
"When we talk about migration and refugees, we tend to forget that more than half of the people we're talking about are children," said playwright and director Amir Nizar Zuabi, the artistic director of Little Amal Walks NYC. "The reality is they're children and all children are beautiful in their own special way. And I think that's what Amal brings to the table."
At each of the 55 planned stops, organizers have reached out to community artists and leaders to create a special event anchored by the place visited. So Amal will join kids her age to hear a reading of the inclusive picture book "Julián Is a Mermaid" at the Brooklyn Public Library. And when she goes to Harlem she will listen to a drum circle performed by students from the Harlem School of the Arts and be accompanied by a stilt walker from Kotchenga Dance Company.
The puppet comes to the city after completing a 5,000-mile trek across Europe, from the Syrian-Turkish border to Manchester in northwest England. She has traveled through 12 countries - including greeting refuges from Ukraine at a Polish train station and stopping at refugee camps in Greece - and met with Pope Francis.
"She is a 10-year-old lost in the city," he said. "Whenever you are in doubt, go back to that. She's never safe in this city. If we understand that, I think we can make real magic."
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