ABSTRACT
Jesusa’s Laugh is a dramatic musical performance created to report findings from educational research I conducted in South Africa. It combines live and pre-recorded music with dance, poetry written by my students and me, journal entries, taped interviews, and visual imagery. Through my trip, I was looking to understand two things: How might I apply arts-based pedagogy to a cultural context much different from my own? What have been some of the experience of ten teenage boys from a South African township? Then, through the performance that ensued, I was hoping to find ways of sharing what I learned, some of which were related to my original inquiry, but most of which were not. The entire endeavor has propelled me towards ongoing investigations into my professional practice and family history, and has stirred up longings among many parts of myself. Like a ball of yarn with its strands of fibers wrapping and spiraling all around each other, the many facets of this project come together through seemingly unrelated, yet connected people, places, and events configured and reconfigured in New York City, Puerto Rico, and South Africa.
