Walking With Little Amal in DTLA
Little Amal has been walking all over the world and came to Los Angeles on November 1st to 3rd.
Little Amal is a 12 foot puppet named after Amal, a ten year old Syrian refugee girl. Amal in Arabic means hope. The overall mission of walking with Little Amal is lifting up human rights, especially the rights of refugees.
Little Amal is a global phenomenon and Los Angeles is the second to last American city — from Los Angeles to San Diego — in a walking tour that began September 7th and covered 40 American cities. After San Diego, Little Amal travelled to Mexico and now to Latin America.
Each place Little Amal walks is prepared in advance by organizations in that neighborhood, mainly arts organizations, and each walk has a completely different theme and purpose.
In Los Angeles, Little Amal walked in seven different places with three of them in Downtown Los Angeles — Olvera Plaza, Arts District/Skid Row, the Music Center Plaza.
I didn’t go to Olvera Plaza and so I don’t know the theme or how it went. I went briefly to the Music Center, it looked great, and folks I know who were there for the whole experience loved it.
I was heavily involved in the Arts District/Skid Row walk. The walk was a little under a mile and it was just extraordinary.
Before walking into Skid Row, we went past Para Los Ninos and Inner City Arts, a school and after school arts program. Dozens of kids from six to twelve at each place were screaming and jumping up and down as we arrived and then crowded around Little Amal to give her the cards and flowers they made. During that time it was clear how skilled the puppeteers were as they interacted with the kids.
The title for this walk was Looking For Home and so as Little Amal and the hundred plus people walking with her slowly walked, she kept staring at all the different buildings wondering if this would be her new home.
In Skid Row, folks in tents greeted Little Amal and as she said hello, she looked at the tents wondering if perhaps this would be her new home.
I’m curious what type of Little Amal momentum was generated in these 40 American cities and what type of follow up has taken place. I hope the seven locations in Los Angeles are in some type of dialogue with each other, especially with how three of the seven were in Downtown.
I want to give a special Little Amal shout out to Leeav Sofer. Leeav travels to Israel once or twice a year to visit family. He is the Artistic Director of Urban Voices Project, a community choir in Skid Row. He was asked to help organize and lead the Little Amal experience at the Music Center. Leeav was named one of the top 30 Jewish leaders in Los Angeles under the age of 30 by the Jewish Journal.