This Wednesday, Memphis is welcoming a very special 10-year-old Syrian refugee as she makes her way across the United States. Little Amal, as she is called, is a 12-foot-tall puppet, who has traveled over 6,000 miles to 15 countries since July 2021, searching for family and friends, as part of one of the world’s largest free public art engagements. And now, Amal is coming to Memphis for a parade around Downtown, stopping at the historic Clayborn Temple, the Orpheum Theatre, and Tom Lee Park, with Memphis youth joining along the way and carrying puppets made in their own image.
The goal of Amal’s journey is to spark conversations about who we are and where we come from, says Anasa Troutman, executive director of Historic Clayborn Temple, who organized Amal’s stint in Memphis. And to make her stay even more poignant, Troutman adds, “We brought in Jeghetto, a United States-based puppeteer, who also makes oversized puppets, and he is making a second puppet, so there’ll be the Syrian girl and a large-scale puppet of a little Black girl.”
Memphis Girl stands at eight feet tall and will join Amal in the parade, which kicks off at Clayborn Temple, where attendees will learn about the history of Clayborn Temple and walk around the I Am A Man Plaza. “Then they’ll proceed together with a whole bunch of kids from all over Memphis,” Troutman says. After Clayborn Temple, the parade will proceed to the Orpheum Theatre, chosen for its connection to storytelling, and students from the Refugee Empowerment Program will welcome her with personal messages.
For the final stop, the group will take the walking celebration to Tom Lee Park. “I would never have Amal come here and not take her to the river,” Troutman says. “The city is built on the river, the history of the city begins on that river. … Also because of all the work that’s been done there, it is the premier location of the city to be able to take people to experience that part of our culture and our infrastructure.”
At Tom Lee Park, Amal will receive a “Culture of Love” quilt as a parting gift. “Culture of Love,” Troutman says, has been the guiding theme for Amal’s stay in Memphis. In preparation for the big day, Clayborn Temple collaborated with a number of organizations — from BRIDGES USA, to Shelby County Schools, to Memphis Youth Arts Initiative — to facilitate workshops for kids to create the puppets that’ll be used in the parade.
“Our goal was to be able to reach 1,000 children,” Troutman says. “Instead of trying to go and recruit all these young people to our organization, it felt really juicy and exciting to go to places where children already were because we want to support organizations that are already supporting young people, and we want to become part of their community and have them become part of our community. So the message of our local work has amounted to building a culture of love. This project has really brought us closer to the Memphis community and I love that.”
In addition to love shared among community members, Troutman hopes to instill self-love into the individual youths participating. “We talk all the time about the future,” she says. “The young people of this city deserve an opportunity to become the possibility of the future. The story of Amal is that refugee children bring possibilities, not problems. We’re saying the same thing. In a time when there’s a lot of conversation about crime, about poverty, these children in Memphis bring possibilities, not problems. If they’re engaged in the creative process, it allows them to open their minds and imagine what their future could be, what the future of the city could be.”
She continues, “There’ll be 1,000 children from all over Memphis who are getting to make puppets in their own image to be able to say things like, ‘I am beautiful, I am worthy, I am the future, and I am going to show that by creating this puppet, that’s going to show everybody what who I am.’ That is a powerful exercise to be able to create something in your own image, to be able to then put it on display in such a public way is very empowering and very healing.”
Walk with Amal begins at 4 p.m., and all — those young and young at heart — are welcome to join in at any of the three stops. You can support this project by donating here.