In 1989 the Waterways Project of Ten Penny Players worked out of a space in Liberty High School, a transition school for recent adolescent immigrant.
Streams III (1989) contained student writing from Bayard Ruskin High School for the Humanities, West Side High School, Liberty High School, Career Employment Centers (Brooklyn Arms Hotel, Hotel Martinique, Saratoga Interfaith Family Inn, South Bronx Job Corps), Offsite Educational Services (DAYTOP, The Door, Dynamite Youth Center, El Puente, Marlborough Houses, Odyssey House, Phoenix House, PRACA, Project Contact, Queens Outreach, Samaritan Village), Rikers Island Educational Facility, Rosewood High School, and Austin H. MaCormack Island Academy.
The perfect bound anthologies included poetry and prose written in languages other than English; and writing in English about the immigrant experience.
Arad by Bogosel Florin
I’m from Arad Roumania.
I left my country in January.
When I was in my country,
I played soccer with my friends.
When it was summer and the weather was nice,
we went to the beach to go swimming.
We went to the park with bikes.
Sundays and Saturdays we went to the discotheque.
My best friend was Sorin.
He was together with me everywhere.
In school he stood with me.
If ever I had a problem he would help me.
Now I have left him.
Maybe I will never see him again.
He plays soccer for Arad’s ‘Motorul’
and goes to school every day.
I Lived in Viet Nam by My Tang
I lived in Viet Nam seven years ago.
Living in a refugee camp, life was very boring.
We had nothing to do and nowhere to go.
So many people ran away
from the refugee camp to Ho Chi Minh City
looking for a job to help their families.
Sometimes they came back.
Once a month they gave their parents
some money or some food.
Then they left again.
Now, I came from Viet Nam to America.
I don’t like it here because I haven’t any friends,
just classmates. I feel no pleasure.
I felt good in Viet Nam, although there was no freedom.
The people were most kind.
They were good to each other.
I’ve been here about eight months.
I feel some American people are cold,
but I’m not sure.
Maybe my thinking is wrong.
I will grow to like America,
because I know many teachers,
the principal and students.
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