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Jennifer is a poet who has been supporting FUNDAHMER’s international outreach and education efforts for the past year. In addition to creative writing, Jennifer has acted in plays, and she enjoys painting, drawing, ceramics, jewellery-making, singing and playing the guitar. Her art in El Salvador seeks simultaneously to celebrate the country’s beauty and speak out against its injustice, as witnessed by poverty, gang violence, rape, torture, domestic violence, racism and impunity.    

Jennifer taught literature and artistic expression at the Yinhatil Nab´en (Seeds of Knowledge) High School in San Mateo Ixtatán, a rural indigenous community in north-western Guatemala in 2008.  There she learned just how opposed to creativity the Central American public education system is. In her Guatemalan colleague’s classes art classes, students were learning how to copy lines and geometric shapes, and poetry was something to be memorized and recited. Many students expressed fear and resentment when Jennifer asked them to write poetry in literature class, but soon witnessed their self-esteem improved upon finding out they could not only write poems, but write beautiful, insightful poems describing life in their community.

This year, she guest taught a poetry workshop for the FUNDAHMER staff members during current ArtCorps Artist Laura Smith´s art and creativity workshops.  While many staff members expressed initial scepticism at their ability to write, once they had begun, they found that that poetry helped release pain and tension and made it easier for them to express themselves.  Jennifer’s favorite part about facilitating an artistic workshop is converting the participants who initially refuse to participate. The ones who say “I can’t” become those who love it the most!

Jennifer´s belief in power of art for social change has motivated her to take over the role of ArtCorps Artist at FUNDAHMER in 2011 where she will continue Laura Smith’s work of promoting art and creativity in the office and in the communities. She looks forward to collaborating with staff members and community leaders to facilitate poetry, theater and song-writing workshops. Her goal is to help others discover their inner voice and heal the emotional wounds caused by the civil war in the 1980s and the gang violence that plagues the nation today.

The role of the artist, like the rooster, is to yell, “Wake up! Come outside and play!

¨He who has awakened can no longer sleep soundly because the light has been turned on.¨   -Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero