Cheryl Moskowitz
Still Waters in a Storm… it’s a safe house, it’s a shelter, it’s a sanctuary. It’s a school and one that I am very happy to have happened upon. How best to describe it? It’s a ground floor room facing out onto a quiet street in Bushwick. It is the best kind of living room, the only kind of classroom all of us should have.
On a wet Tuesday in May I arrived to join in on the home school session that was about to take place that afternoon. I ended up staying not only for the home school session but for the after school homework drop-in session that happened afterwards and the rehearsal of scenes from Shakespeare that some of the older children self-organized after that. I couldn’t tear myself away.
On Saturday I was back to join in the creative writing session, the ‘heart of the project’ as Stephen Haff, Still Waters’ visionary chief and originator, described it to me. And indeed it was, full of life, full of love, full of heart. I invited the children to sit with me on a circle of cushions on the floor and we shared stories about our names, exchanged favorite words and explored ways to write poems together. At the end of the day we shared what we had written. It was the best kind of theatre, the only kind of performance all of us should know.
The atmosphere is warm, friendly, familiar. While children are arriving, eating their packed lunches, chatting and settling, one child picks up a violin, confidently, and bows a few clear notes. Another child sits at the piano and plays a tune. Everywhere there are books and children reading them, quietly to themselves or aloud to someone else who wants to sit and listen. The room is alive with laughter and healthy clutter of paper, pens and toys. Brothers and sisters sit side by side with friends, volunteers, teachers and the occasional guest, like me. There are children who know one another and children who don’t. No one is a stranger for long.
One has the profound and joyous feeling that none of this could happen without all of us present wanting it. When you enter Still Waters, you become part of it. Long may it continue.