Aerie InternationaL - Missoula County Public Schools

To the Reader,
Aerie International is housed in Missoula’s Big Sky High School, across
from and ironically contrasted to nearby Fort Missoula which served
as a detention center for Italian nationals and Japanese-Americans held
prisoner during World War II. Aerie International represents a peaceful
and celebratory step in building relationships across international
boundaries. It is visionary, communal, and brilliant.
You should see the classroom where it happens. It’s a workroom with
tables layered in images and writing that have come from the United
States, England, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Russia, Japan, Namibia, and
Finland. This is a place where students can sit together, seminar-style,
to converse with each other, with board members, and supporters.
Presiding over it all is their magical teacher, Lorilee Evans-Lynn, the
originator of this vision, the elegant orchestrator, promoter, fund raiser,
supporter, and the encouraging voice that allows Aerie International, and
its sister journal, Aerie Big Sky, to move systematically from conception to
print. It’s an honor to serve with the other advisory board members on
this amazing journey that is Aerie International.
Youth have frequently been leaders in peace efforts, and I believe Aerie
International contains elements important to a peaceful future. The
editors have the good fortune of communicating with global youth,
and the readers have the good fortune to encounter visual and written
work from many continents. In each issue, Aerie’s expert editors conduct
interviews with several contributors which give readers a glimpse of the
many conversations going on behind the scenes.
The work of Aerie International is created, selected and published by
young people whose futures and whose memories will be inextricably
tied to this experience. Rather than seeing themselves primarily as
separate, they will be part of a cooperative whole, a group who has been
able to communicate actively and effectively in spite of physical distance
and in celebration of cultural diversity. .
In January, I wrote a note to Lorilee about an Iranian friend whose
husband had been arrested for his participation in human rights
work. The story is similar to many other arrests in various regions,
some well-publicized and many which are not. He was fortunate to be
released after two months of detention, but not everyone is so lucky.
In this context, where people can be arrested for their beliefs and
where information can be easily manipulated and censored, journals
like Aerie International are essential. It is my hope that Aerie International
will continue to be a fine example of cooperation, artistic vision, and
inclusive thinking for years to come.
Tami Haaland, poet and Aerie International Advisory Board member