UNIQUE SERVICE LEARNING OPPORTUNITY:
LEARN BY HELPING AFRICAN ELDERLY IN
WEST PHILADELPHIA
Help out an African senior center by creating a brochure and
newsletter
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Learn ethnographic skills such as observation and interviewing
Learn how to document and interpret traditional expressive
forms (stories, songs, material objects)
Explore the learning process of traditional skills and the about
the aesthetic standards for telling a good story, making a good
mat, fishnet, or costume.
Help create an exhibit of documented traditional arts.
Also, Learn about the issues affecting refugees, and aging
populations in cities; do research on African refugees from Liberia;
understand the role of traditional arts in the life cycle and the
adaptation of traditional rural skills by elderly in urban settings,
and more.
Exploring Memory and Tradition in West Philadelphia
FOLK 321.401/URBS 321, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3-4:30. Williams 3
In this course we will explore the integral role of traditional arts in the lives of a group of
elderly men and women in West Philadelphia. Students will learn and use oral historical and
ethnographic interview skills to develop their own research papers and also to serve
particular needs of the community. Students will interview elderly men and women and
document traditional skills, such as mat and basket weaving, fishnet-making and traditional
costume making and create a final exhibition project.
For more information, contact the instructor, Meltem Turkoz: meltem@sas.upenn.edu