The streets of the Cultural District, Downtown, filled with Billy Strayhorn’s music and sounds of joy Wednesday as Pittsburgh welcomed Little Amal, a 12-foot-tall puppet. As she explored the streets, she waved at those around her, led a marching band and hugged children who looked up at her in awe.
“Don’t forget about us” is the message that Little Amal seeks to tell the world and shared with the Pittsburgh community.
Amal is a 10-year-old Syrian refugee who represents all children forced to leave their homes, often separated from their friends and family along the way. “Walk With Amal,” the project behind Wednesday’s event, was started in 2021 with the purpose of advocating for human rights and refugees around the world.
Titled “Take the ‘Jitney’ train,” Wednesday’s walk started at noon in front of Pittsburgh Public Theater’s O’Reilly Theater with a performance from the All City High Schools Marching Band. The band and cheerleaders then guided Amal up Penn Avenue toward the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.
On her way to there, Amal stopped in an open area on the corner of Eighth Street, where she danced with community members to the sound of the marching band. There, organizers also took a moment to play a monologue read by Jalina McClarin, engagement manager at the Pittsburgh Public Theater. The monologue, written by TJ Young, is a modern response to Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus,” which is displayed on the Statue of Liberty.
“Mother of exiles, won’t you welcome us,” read McClarin. “We bring with us more than the sorrows of our path to you, we bring with us life and joy and the hope that has pushed us down our often fractured paths.”
With a hand over her heart, Amal listened to the monologue, which offered the perspective of refugees like herself who come to the United States filled with hope but are often only defined by the “sorrows” they’ve experienced.
Creating a welcoming environment and building community were among the main focuses for Wednesday’s event, according to Kimberly Jacobs.
“Our goal was to organize an exciting march with Amal to stand in solidarity with her search to build community and to create a welcome for her here to Pittsburgh,” said Jacobs, exhibitions manager and assistant curator at the AWAACC.
The puppet’s walk was hosted in partnership with the AWAACC, Pittsburgh Public Theater and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Along with welcoming Amal to Pittsburgh, the free event paid homage to musician Billy Strayhorn and playwright August Wilson, who offer similar messages of searching for community in their works.
Cathryn Calhoun, director of education and community engagement at the AWAACC, emphasized that Amal represents freedom, community, courage and so much more to so many people. The blue and purple ribbons waved by participants as Amal walked the streets of Pittsburgh also highlighted those messages. Blue represents freedom and adventure, while purple represents fear and courage.
“We’re so grateful for the community to show up and for just everyone involved who helped put this production on,” Calhoun said. “We’re excited to see where Amal ends up.”
Amal ended her walk in front of the August Wilson Center, with a performance by senior jazz concentration dancers from Point Park University and brief speeches from organizers. While Amal continues on her journey around Pittsburgh and the rest of the U.S., she left participants with an impactful and joy-filled experience in the Cultural District.
Soren de-Niz, a North Hills resident, interns on Penn Avenue and had the opportunity to participate in the walk with co-workers. De-Niz said the event brings awareness to the experiences of refugees and immigrants such as Amal, who are “just other people, other children, just like us.”
“America is based on this idea of the Statue of Liberty kind of inviting others into this new country, new possibilities, and that includes refugees,” de-Niz said. “Nowadays there’s a lot of trouble with a lot of people not understanding those differences from refugees or from any kind of immigrant to the country.”
De-Niz noted that watching Amal interact with the children, both on the streets and those looking through their classroom windows, was especially heartwarming.
“She’s just a kid, and you can tell she’s just a kid by how she dances and moves, and that artistry of the puppet is really what humanizes her and all of the immigrants and refugees just like her,” de-Niz said.
Since July 2021, Amal has traveled more than 6,000 miles around the world and now will visit 40 cities the United States.
On Wednesday evening, Amal was to visit Swissvale’s Carrie Blast Furnaces for an event, with RealTime Arts, titled “Ghosts in the furnace.”
Amal will be in Pittsburgh for three more free events on Thursday. One is called “I hereby declare that I’m only 10,” where Amal will celebrate new U.S. citizens as they complete their naturalization ceremony at the City-County Building, Downtown.
The other two appearances, as described on Amal’s website, are:
• “Play in peaces” starting at noon and going from the Great Lawn to the Watersteps at the North Shore’s Riverfront Park, where “Amal sees a group of children gathered together for World Peace Day. She wants to join in, but as she approaches the group bureaucrats rush in to stop her ….”
• “Imagination is my playground” at 5 p.m. at Whitney Park at 915 Wilkins Ave., where “Amal wants to play with kids in a playground in Wilkinsburg, but none of the equipment is her size. But that doesn’t stop her from inventing her own games ….”
Amal will travel to Cincinnati next and will tour the U.S. until Nov. 5.
For schedule details, visit https://walkwithamal.org/events.
Betul Tuncer
Betul is a fall intern at the Pittsburgh Media Partnership, of which the Pittsburgh Union Progress is a proud member. She is a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is editor-in-chief of The Pitt News. She can be reached at betulstuncer@gmail.com.