Little Amal, a 12-foot-tall puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian Refugee, visited Centennial Park in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 5 starting at 5 p.m. CDT with the mission of inspiring hope in children fleeing war, persecution, genocide and violence.
The ongoing war in Syria has left many without homes and searching for refuge in other countries. This move from home and uncertainty about the future can be especially unsettling for children with no grasp of the future.
As a symbol of human rights and freedom, Little Amal was designed by the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa — a company founded by Artistic Director Adrian Kohler and Executive Producer Basil Jones in Cape Town, South Africa. Since Sept. 7, Little Amal has been traveling across the United States on her 6,000-mile journey to 40 cities. Nashville, Tenn. was the 20th stop on her journey.
The Amal Walks Across America tour is produced by The Walk Productions, a not-for-profit company founded by David Lan and Tracey Seaweed to bring communities together to rethink narratives and motivate change. They imagined Amal as a performance art project to celebrate human migration and bring awareness to children refugees searching for a home.
Little Amal’s journey to more than 100 events across the United States was notably described as one of the country’s largest public art festivals due to its clear impact on young people and mass circulation in the media. The puppet’s walks are meant to unite communities and highlight the importance of offering immediate resources and assistance to refugees and asylum seekers.
As Little Amal visited Centennial Park, numerous adults and children followed the puppeteer as she strolled around the park and shook many people’s hands. The celebration also consisted of performances choreographed by Thea Jones and Shabaz Ujima and performed by children while the audience cheered on. At the end of the performance, participants gathered around Little Amal and thanked her for creating a path full of hope for future generations.
