RPCV Alliance for Ukraine at the Kennedy Center.
On September 22, the Alliance for Ukraine participated in the REACH Opening Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Perched on a bank overlooking the Potomac River, the Kennedy Center is the nation’s leading performing arts center located in the U.S. capital, and stands as a “living memorial” and enduring testament to President Kennedy’s lifelong contributions and advocacy for the arts.
The Opening Festival (from September 7-22) was celebrating the grand opening of the REACH, which is a part of the Kennedy Center’s 60,000 square foot expansion project to add pavilions, classrooms, rehearsal rooms, performance halls, and beautiful outdoor spaces designed to enrich the general public and encourage engagement and dialogue between art, artists, and audiences in the spirit of interactivity, inclusivity, and inspiration.
And to celebrate these new spaces, it seems only fitting that the REACH Opening Festival would include perhaps President Kennedy’s most renowned contribution to public service, foreign aid, and intercultural exchange: the Peace Corps. Among the day’s many events, the Kennedy Center hosted the film premiere of A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps, a documentary directed by Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Alana DeJoseph. The film explores the lasting impact of the Peace Corps and provides audiences a window on global citizenship in practice (and remembrances for those who have served). Another exhibit space in the pavilion was the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Showcase: Building a Community of Global Citizens, which displayed clips from the RPCV Oral History Archive Project, in a tribute to and spotlight on the mission of the Peace Corps.
The Alliance for Ukraine participated in the exhibit Peace Corps Place, a gathering of the diversity and energy of the Peace Corps Community. At the Festival, there were 15 exhibits run by Returned Peace Corps Volunteers from throughout the Peace Corps Community, representing different countries of service, and providing a variety of immersive activities, including language learning stations.
For its booth, the Alliance for Ukraine offered a unique experience by working with the educational company Kinful to provide Kennedy Center guests with a peak into the world of currently serving Peace Corps Volunteers in Ukraine. Previously, the Alliance had partnered with Kinful to launch a VR project in Ukraine, using a social-emotional learning curriculum and VR equipment, to develop and nurture emotional intelligence in students in the classroom and through summer camps. With this VR equipment, Peace Corps Volunteers in Ukraine have been innovative: they have created video content centered on life in their adopted Ukrainian communities. At this booth, Kennedy Center guests had the opportunity to see life in Ukraine through volunteers’ eyes. Trying on one VR headset, guests could stand in the middle of a vibrant Ukrainian bazaar. Trying on another headset, one is transported into the middle of a Ukrainian school’s dance class. In another, one could rest seated in a currently serving volunteer’s apartment, complete with all the amenities returned volunteers became used to over the course of service.
The immersive nature of the exhibit did much to spark conversation about Ukraine and to further the Peace Corps’ Third Goal. After trying on the headsets, children turned to their parents in wide-eyed wonder, babbling about what they had just seen, asking what the Peace Corps is. Parents tried on headsets, reflecting thoughtfully about how they once wanted to join the Peace Corps but unfortunately the opportunity had never presented itself. Ukrainians remarked in amazement how similar things in the videos seemed to them in their memories but also, remarkably, how different. For other guests, the videos sparked questions. Where was this video taken? What is Ukraine like? How many volunteers does Peace Corps have in Ukraine? What languages do Ukrainians speak? Where did you live in Ukraine, some asked, as they leafed through photos in the Alliance for Ukraine’s “Spirit of Ukraine 2019 Calendar.” What projects did you work on in Ukraine? Perhaps the most moving question: What did you learn most from Ukraine?
On this day at the REACH, the Alliance for Ukraine worked to discuss the work of current PCVs and to share our experiences about life in Ukraine in a room with other volunteers discussing their countries of service. But maybe the most illuminating question was raised by one woman who tried on headset: “Oh wait, I know where this is. Is this bazaar in Colombia?” While our countries of service may be different, our experiences and shared values forged through service are often the same.