“Are you with me now” A J Ryder
En plein air - in the outdoors
Years ago I wrote a piece about Outlearners, a term I coined describing youth learning outside of school. And, with graphic help from our friends at FableVision, a poster was made to go along with it. In September the article will appear in Voyager.
Around the same time, I read about a way of painting during the Impressionist period called en plein air. Here instead of painting inside of studios, artists went outside to capture the fullness of light, wind, air, movement and on and on. It occurred to me that this sort of outlearning is what we want our youth to experience as well. Outside you are way more in the elements. Inside your work is more of an abstraction of the real.
This week two things emerged for me around en plein air and Outlearners. First the French decided to use the entire city of Paris as the place where Olympic sports events and festivities would take place. They hardly built new buildings - 95% of buildings were either temporary or already standing — and no air conditioning systems were installed in the athletes village bedrooms. They used their places, streets, roadways and waterways as the venues. This was a bold move that made an en plein air statement where the entire city would be the setting and, in some cases, the entire world where the surfing event takes place in Tahiti. What does all of this do to the athletes as well as to the audience and flaneuses and flaneurs? Is everyone an Outlearner and outlearning together?
A final note about the Olympics and outlearning is that every Olympics now features sports as first-time events. This time, they were climbing, surfing, breaking and skateboarding all taking place outside – en plein air. What I love is that with all of these, one can legitimately argue they were either started or popularized by youth with a passion and devotion to making them a big part of their lives. They didn’t do it to make money or to be in the Olympics. Those are outcomes. The real drivers were the becomes. This became a part of who they are, a way of life and a community of practice. This outlearning gave their lives meaning.
The second part of Outlearners in the en plein air happened when after Big Bang I flew to Kauai to participate and prepare for the opening event of Namahana School. Joined by Andrea, Anthonette, parents, BPL alums and Jessica Rishe from SMASH, we became part of the greater Namahana community where almost everything we did was en plein air.
The Namahana community is in full preparation mode, putting up very large tents, making food, leis and music and a whole host of other things. This is truly an all in community gathering that will happen right on the land where the school will be. Honestly, I’ve yet to see anything like this happen for a school event.
As part of our outlearning, our team went on a food and farm tour at Waipa where we learned about native and invasive plants, eating both types. Waipa is this amazing 1600-acre watershed that is a physical manifestation of ‘āina from the sky, mountains, rivers, land out to the sea. It is a place where folks can connect with the “‘āina (that which feeds us – the land and resources) and learn about Hawaiian values and lifestyle through laulima – people working together.” Waipa is in partnership/community with Namahana and part of its work is also B-Unbound site.
Everyone I’ve met in preparation for the event has been wonderful. From mingling at dinners, to playing music with the Kilauea Social Club, all of us from our team have been embraced by the community where Auntie’s and Uncle’s abound showing us ways to join in that we are neophytes at.
When it opens next year around this time Namahana is going to be a school/community center that will soon become an incredible place of learning. There is just so much going on where old and new ways are creating new forms and new ways to measure en plein air.
Everything is outdoors and this is truly an Outlearners experience.
Photo by Owen Purcell
Be well!
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