InterPlay with Ruth Schowalter

 Sustaining International Sisters Share “What They Know” After spending time in breakout rooms naming the different women in their lives who were mentors to them, international sisters told a story about one of their mentors. Then we spent time writing in the chat box what we know about being strong women. We are changing the way people perceive the strength of women one assertion at a time! Happy International Women’s Day! This what we know…   I know that   I know that kindness and generosity can change the world. I know that this time together is important. I know that spending time together makes a difference. I know that being strong makes a difference. I know that making new friends makes a difference. I know that listening to our bodies - goes a long, long way.... I know that every bad thing in your life looks a bit better after you've shared it with someone. I know that patience is important. I know that laughing together makes a difference. I know that nature has ...

Atlanta InterPlay's Sustaining International Sisters (SIS) met together on Saturday, May 18th, 2019, to break the fast during Ramadan with their Turkish Muslim sisters. More than 30 women from Pakistan, Israel, Canada, Iraq, Libya, China, Brazil, Spain, Ecuador, and the United States came together at one of the Turkish SIS InterPlayer's home in Alpharetta, Georgia. Two Turkish women drove in from the Atlanta suburb to midtown and filled their cars with SIS participants who were experiencing an Iftar for the first time.  The large spacious home had four tables set for a feast to share their tradition of breaking the daylong fast of Ramadan. The abundance of delicious food spilling off of kitchen counters and tables filled everyone with gratitude. But first we gathered in a large comfortable bonus room to meet one another through the forms and tools of InterPlay. Canan Arikan, co-founder of SIS and InterPlay Leader-in-Training, welcomed everyone and informed them of our...

Happy First Birthday to Sustaining International Sisters  & Happy 30th Anniversary to InterPlay! “There is a ‘we’ in me,” writes Cynthia Winton-Henry, co-founder of InterPlay.* That is, “the group” is within each one of us. However, what happens to the “we” when the individual is a refugee, a person seeking asylum, or an international visiting the United States and is feeling like a fish out of water?  Here in Atlanta, our InterPlay community is offering a way for individual international and American women to create a new sense of “groupness,” a new “we” in their “me.” We have created Sustaining International Sisters (SIS), a 3-hour monthly “play and potluck” so that women can begin to weave themselves into a new communal fabric. Each month, we are figuratively and literally stepping across cultural boundaries through movement, storytelling, using our voices in fun and surprising ways and sharing an international lunch together. The InterPlay tools an...

Connecting, Inspiring & Supporting Women from Around the World through Play & Meal Sharing A woman from Egypt, head covered in a hijab, bursts into a big smile as she enters the Little Five Points (L5P) Community Center Café in Atlanta, Georgia, for a morning of InterPlay and meal sharing. She sees a roomful of women, many wearing hijabs – and until this moment – she has felt isolated in this metropolitan city of five million from women like her. Although these other women in hijabs are Turkish, there is a visible commonality signaled by the scarves covering their heads. Likewise, a woman from Mexico, softens as she steps into the room filled with international women – she is not the “different one” as the only “foreigner” present.  Sharing Stories Across Turkish & Egyptian Cultures Over the next 30 minutes, close to thirty women arrive. They are asylum seekers, American citizens, internationals working or studying abroad. They differ in age, nationa...