Still Waters in a Storm
Mature
Audio only

Still Waters in a Storm

The One-Room School Where Everyone Listens to EveryoneBy Stephen HaffNarrated by Stephen Haff
Length9h 50m

About this audiobook

Previously published as Kid Quixotes: A Group of Students, Their Teacher, and the One-Room School Where Everything Is Possible “In my years of experience as a writer and as a college professor, I have never seen anything like this: the love for language, the passion for discussion, clarity of mind, and humility of heart. Stephen Haff invents impossible projects and makes them possible.” —Valeria Luiselli, author of Lost Children Archive The unlikely, inspiring true story of a one-room school where children of undocumented immigrants and their teacher discover their voices and speak truth to power. Still Waters in a Storm is an after-school program held in a small room in Bushwick, Brooklyn; it is a place for kids to practice reading and writing in English, Spanish, and Latin. For the students, many living in constant fear of deportation, Still Waters is a refuge. For Stephen Haff, a former public-school teacher, it is the sanctuary he built following a breakdown caused by bipolar depression. At Still Waters, all agreed that there would only be one rule: “Everyone listens to everyone.” And this has unlocked spectacular potential.  Since 2016, the students have been collectively translating Don Quixote into English, taking the Spanish tale—a story about a dreamer who never gives up—and adapting it into a bilingual musical. Six-year old Sarah tells of her mother’s journey across the desert from Mexico riding on the back of a tiger. Alex, a very private teenager, sings her coming out song to standing ovations. As the kids perform their work across NYC, they learn that they belong in this country—their voices amplifying to deliver a message of diversity, love, hope, and resilience essential to us all.

Audiobook details

GenreEducation and Learning, Biography and Memoir, Psychology
Length9 hrs 50 mins
Narrated byStephen Haff
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateApr 21, 2020
LanguageEnglish

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