Following is the full text article from: The Linking Ring,
Vol. 83 No 8, August, 2003
Bob Neale profiles Tom Verner and Janet
Fredericks a husband and wife team dedicated to bringing wonder, laughter and
inspiration to refugees around the world.
Magicians Without Borders
I am deeply touched and impressed
with the story told here and believe that you will be, too. It has been said
in jest and as an out, but here is a story of two people who sincerely use their
magic for good. It is an article about a world, or worlds (for that is what
they are to the people in them, their entire world, and it is not a happy one),
ignored for much too long by far too many of us. I hope and believe it will
touch your hearts, too, and that at least some of you will be moved to do something
about it. PRW
by Bob Neale
There are hundreds and hundreds
of refugee camps. There are thousands and thousands of refugees in many of these
camps. And so very many have lived in them for years and years. Do you recall
the adventure of the young people in one camp who had nothing to do and so left
it and wandered a thousand miles for new lives?
The Demme Refugee camp is in Ethiopia. A magician
and a clown are walking through this camp in search of the crowd gathered for
them. The elders have told the people that the magic they will experience is
neither the true magic of their own healers nor the destructive magic of evil
magicians, but only entertainment magic. The organizing authorities have told
the two entertainers from the West that the crowd will consist of two hundred
people. They arrive at the informal gathering to see two thousand people, arranged
in a large circle and silenced by the their entry.
While the magician sets up his table and small
props, the clown begins her antics. The people do not understand. Besides, they
observe to one another, she looks like a broom. They withdraw as she approaches,
so she withdraws. Once they understand that she is mimicking them, they laugh.
She blows soap bubbles. They are surprised, having never seen them before.
She tries to catch them and fails. She pulls out cloths to wipe her tears away.
She juggles them. She blows bubbles with renewed anticipation. The magician
has finished setting up his table and quietly joined her. He reaches into the
air for a bubble, catches it and offers it to her. The clown retires to
the sideline. The magic has already begun.
The magician continues creating it with his nearly silent
act. The clown assists, especially in bridging the gap between the audience
and the magician. Between tricks, the audience chatters loudly with wondering
speculations. At the end, the clown is back with the magician, the people laughing
and applauding, and their faces having shown delight throughout.
Afterward, an elder told the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) representative who sponsored the event; "We
will be talking about this show for a very long time. We sometimes laugh among
ourselves, but this is the first time I can remember that we are laughing deeply
and together as a community." Perhaps entertainment magic can be true magic.
Performers: Magician and Clown
The magician and clown are Tom Verner
and Janet Fredericks. They live in the hills of Vermont with their daughter,
Mira, adopted from India. Tom was born in a small Irish Catholic coal-mining
town in western Pennsylvania, left home at thirteen, and lived in a cloistered
monastery for the next seven years. He left this "13th Century" world
for the 60's world, joined the Peace Corps, went to Iran and taught English.
During the 70's, he received education in clinical
psychology, working with patients in a drug and alcohol hospital for four years.
In addition to his private practice, he completed his doctoral dissertation
on the healer as trickster. From 1979 to the present, he has administrated
and taught at Burlington College in Vermont. Magic has been an interest for
some thirty years. He has performed parlor magic in hotels and inns, schools,
and private parties. He has taught magic to hyperactive kids and been co-owner
of a magic store. He discovered the difference between doing tricks and performing
magic when working in an act with a mime. His presentations use symbol, metaphor,
and poetry to fashion moments of strong feeling and sharp insight. Tom is a
healer with a specialization in dream work. What we experience during his performance
would please two of his most importance influences - Carl Jung and Dai Vernon.
Janet (the clown La Fleur) has been a Vermont
artist for over twenty years. Her drawings and paintings incorporate the colors,
textures, and forms of her natural environment in such a manner as to give the
sense of entering into the landscape. She exhibits internationally and is in
many corporate and private collections.
The experience described above is her first one as a clown.
Needless to say she surprised herself and her husband. She was employed by Tom
to distract children from playing with his props while he was setting up. Obviously,
both discovered that her play with people involved more - the magic that occurs
without tricks.
Beyond the Experiences: Goals and Learning
Tom and Janet are the founders of Magicians
Without Borders. Here is where this fledgling organization has gone thus far.
In November of 2001, Tom traveled by himself to Macedonia and Kosovo. Under
the auspices of the United Nations, he was set up to do seven shows and ended
up doing fifteen for over two thousand refugees in camps and relocation centers.
In January of 2003, Tom and his daughter, Mira, traveled
to India for three weeks. He performed in the orphanage from which she came
as well as in other orphanages and hospitals. It was in March of 2003 that Tom
and Janet traveled to Ethiopia to do 21 shows for ten thousand people in the
refugee camps, as well as performances for UN staff and street children groups.
And other trips are planned for Haiti and Bangladesh.
Why such trips and performances?
Because there are such places in which little, if anything,
happens, so that trying to set up a magic table is difficult because everyone
is excited by the color and novelty of the props and performer. Because there
are places where there is little hope. And, because there are places where the
deep laughter of a group is so rare.
His assistant for one show was a Roma girl about five years old,
named Fatima. She helped Tom pick volunteers from the audience, selecting with
uncanny wisdom. "At the end of the show, when I got into my car, she was
sitting in the back seat," Tom recalls. "She wanted to run away with
the magician." Older members of the audience asked for magic of equal strength,
"Pull some visas to America out of the air."
When Tom is asked about the why of Magicians Without Borders,
he has much to say. He found his first trip a cathartic experience, with the
full ranges of emotions only hitting him after he got home. He likened it to
the delayed explosion of undersea depth charges. "A lot of the experiences
were heartbreaking and heart-opening at the same time," he said. "I
really want to contribute something to my country and to people around the world.
I came back feeling so grateful that I live in such a wonderful place. I have
a home, food, family, and friends." But feeling moved is hardly sufficient,
any more than are good intentions.
What matters beyond this?
Specifically, beyond Tom and Janet and Mira? He is
delighted to answer:
"I set out to create an organization that would enable
me and perhaps other magicians in the future, to perform magic for refugee children
around the world."
"I think this matters for a number of reasons. I found
out from my experience in Macedonia and Kosovo in 2001 that there had never
been an entertainer in most of the camps in which I visited and performed. I
think performing magic is particularly good for refugees because:
• Magic is a universal language that does not require
knowledge of the local languages of the refugees. I can communicate with the
refugees in serious, humorous, intimate ways using the universal language of
magic.
• Magic stimulates the minds and imaginations of children
living in refugee camps where their minds and imaginations get little or no
stimulation."
The new director of UNICEF has spoken recently about the
minds and imaginations of refugee children wasting away in many of the refugee
camps because of lack of stimulation. In Ethiopia, when I finished a routine
many of the kids would begin chattering among themselves. I could tell they
were puzzling out how the trick was done; I could sense the theories being spun
out by the children. Their minds and imaginations were awakened and working.
I could feel their energy coming alive.
"It was wonderful to see so many new things that we
have never seen before. We will be talking about this show for a very long time."
one of the elders said to the UN officer who interviewed him after the show.
• Magic provides laughter, wonderment and at least
relief for these refugees who live day after day, month after month, year after
year with little laughter or relief from the interminable waiting to go home
again.
We can also represent our country to others in the
world. Citizen diplomacy is important right now, when America is being perceived
in somewhat negative ways by many of the countries where there are refugee problems.
Developments: Plans and Needs
Magicians Without Borders was incorporated in September
of 2002 and Tom is on a one-year, unpaid leave of absence from his teaching
job to lay more groundwork for the organization. The mission statement includes:
"Using the universal language of magic to bring relief, laughter, and amazement
through non political performances to refugees and others in war torn countries.
Upon returning to the United States we will visit schools and give presentations/performances
on the countries visited."
To this end, there are plans for four trips, each two to
three weeks long, working through the UNHCR and other NGO's to set up the performances
and gain entry into the refugee camps. The trip to perform in Haitian orphanages
in June is being assisted by St. Michael's College in Vermont and additional
organizations in Haiti. There are plans for a trip to Bangladesh to be sponsored
by a foundation that supports orphanages there. The UNHCR has asked for a return
visit to Ethiopia.
Before going to these countries, Tom and Janet plan to contact
the Middle schools in Vermont to see if they are interested in participating
in a partner ship before the trip to introduce them elves and distribute learning
packets. The packets will include a map of the country(s) they will be visiting
and their itinerary. The students can track their trip each day and the teacher
can either present a fact about the country, play a piece of music from the
country, share some food from the country, show films, read poems, etc. All
these suggestions will be in the packet and each teacher can choose to get as
involved in the partnership as he or she wishes. When they return, they will
go to the schools and do a performance/presentation on the trip.
This will include a magic show with slides and stories about
their experiences in the country(s). Hopefully, through this partnership with
the schools the students will learn geography, current events and some historical
and cultural information about the country(s) in a relatively interesting, personal
and fun way.
Even more is being planned because the UNHCR has asked for
new programs to be submitted. Tom and Janet imagine two possibilities:
Janet could work with students after the shows to draw
and paint their impressions of the performances and/or their life in the camps.
They could create cards, books. posters, etc. from these drawings to advertise
refugee problems and raise money for the organization. Art supplies, as happened
with their trip to Ethiopia, would be donated by art supply stores.
Tom would like the camp directors to possibly identify a
half dozen refugee children ahead of time that he might work with for a few
hours a day for a week teaching them magic. They would put on a performance
for their peers at the end of the week. This might create the possibility of
one or two of the refugee children themselves continuing to develop their magic
abilities (through mail, video tapes, correspondence, return visits, etc.).
Magic dealers could donate props for this activity and other magicians could
go to the camps to perform and follow up with more teaching.
This fledgling organization has experienced an exhilarating
beginning. But there is much to be developed. It has sought and received donations
from friends and family. Even so, Tom and Janet have paid for their own travel
expenses to reach and return from the countries. So the organization will be
applying for grants from foundations.
They plan to develop their contacts with the great
number and variety of agencies and orphanages that could be involved, as well
as with American school systems. They are quite aware of much to be learned
about performing venue situations: what kind of routines are appropriate and
doable; how to work when you do not know the local language; how 'magic' is
understood by traditional peoples?
Not the least of these sought developments are those connected
with other magicians. The organization wants to learn from the experiences of
others that have performed in similar situations, hospitals, orphanages, and
refugee camps in foreign countries. It would like to have a list of individual
magic performers, dealers, and organizations that want to be kept informed and
even available to assist. Of course, tax-deductible donations would be appreciated,
but the offering of one's name and address, as a sign of interest would be quite
meaningful.
Magicians Without Borders challenges us to engage in "citizen
diplomacy." It provides an adventure in which our entertainment of others
reveals the depth and breath of our magic. If so, we magicians may offer more
than we usually assume we do. Obviously, Magicians Without Borders has taken
its name and approach from the already-established Doctors Without Borders.
Not so obviously, it may be accomplishing, in how ever different a manner, the
healing required for the reduction of our fears and enrichment of our hopes.
This is magic!
Magicians Without Borders can be reached by writing to Tom
and Janet at 100 Geary Road, Lincoln, Vermont 05443, calling them at 802 453
5425, or by email at verner@gmavt.net. Can you help? www.magicianswithoutborders.org
Magicians Without Borders, 100 Geary Road,
Lincoln, Vermont 05443 802-453-5425 verner@gmavt.net