Kid Quixotes

In my years of experience as a writer and as a college professor, I have never seen anything like this: the love for language, the passion for discussion, clarity of mind, and humility of heart. Stephen Haff invents impossible projects and makes them possible.Valeria Luiselli, author ofLost Children ArchiveThe unlikely, inspiring true story of a one-room school where children of undocumented immigrants and their teacher discover their voices and speak truth to power.Still Waters in a Storm is an after-school program held in a small room in Bushwick, Brooklyn; it is a place for kids to practice reading and writing in English, Spanish, and Latin. For the students, many living in constant fear of deportation, Still Waters is a refuge. For Stephen Haff, a former public-school teacher, it is the sanctuary he built following a breakdown caused by bipolar depression. At Still Waters, all agreed that there would only be one rule: Everyone listens to everyone. And this has unlocked spectacular potential.Since 2016, the students have been collectively translatingDon Quixoteinto English, taking the Spanish talea story about a dreamer who never gives upand adapting it into a bilingual musical. Six-year old Sarah tells of her mothers journey across the desert from Mexico riding on the back of a tiger. Alex, a very private teenager, sings her coming out song to standing ovations. As the kids perform their work across NYC, they learn that they belong in this countrytheir voices amplifying to deliver a message of diversity, love, hope, and resilience essential to us all.

In my years of experience as a writer and as a college professor, I have never seen anything like this: the love for language, the passion for discussion, clarity of mind, and humility of heart. Stephen Haff invents impossible projects and makes them possible.Valeria Luiselli, author ofLost Children ArchiveThe unlikely, inspiring true story of a one-room school where children of undocumented immigrants and their teacher discover their voices and speak truth to power.Still Waters in a Storm is an after-school program held in a small room in Bushwick, Brooklyn; it is a place for kids to practice reading and writing in English, Spanish, and Latin. For the students, many living in constant fear of deportation, Still Waters is a refuge. For Stephen Haff, a former public-school teacher, it is the sanctuary he built following a breakdown caused by bipolar depression. At Still Waters, all agreed that there would only be one rule: Everyone listens to everyone. And this has unlocked spectacular potential.Since 2016, the students have been collectively translatingDon Quixoteinto English, taking the Spanish talea story about a dreamer who never gives upand adapting it into a bilingual musical. Six-year old Sarah tells of her mothers journey across the desert from Mexico riding on the back of a tiger. Alex, a very private teenager, sings her coming out song to standing ovations. As the kids perform their work across NYC, they learn that they belong in this countrytheir voices amplifying to deliver a message of diversity, love, hope, and resilience essential to us all.