What’s the best idea you’ve ever had? Regale
us with every detail of the idea — the idea itself, where it came to you, and
the problem it solved.
I had an
idea (still partially written out within my documents somewhere) to seek out a
grant to create a series of children’s picture books that would recount and
introduce the various Marshallese myths, legends, and cultural traditions. My thought was to have schools around the
Marshall Islands host contests to create the artwork for these books and assist
with the content and editing of the final story drafts (to be written in both
Marshallese and English). The idea came
to me when I heard about some American schools having “artists in residence.” I
would serve as a sort of visiting author in residence and work to teach the
children about writing as well as story plot, theme, setting, and other
literary elements. My original plan also included an illustrator friend of mine
who would also serve as an “artist in residence” at the schools while we were
working on the books, teaching the children about various forms of art and how
to create illustrations for a book. There
is not so much a problem this idea would solve, but more a purpose for the
project. The purpose would be to increase reading and writing literacy in the
schools that participate as well as help preserve the myth, legends, and
traditions of the Republic of the Marshall Islands through “setting down” their
oral history to paper, so to speak.
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