Bilingues & Artistes November 2013 | Page 3

Letter from the editors “My father used to say that stories are part of the most precious heritage of mankind.” –Tahir Shah, In Arabian Nights Heritage is defined as “something handed down from one’s ancestors or the past as a characteristic, a culture or tradition.”. As important as we feel it is to look to the future when it comes to art, it is also essential to look into the past. What we sometimes forget is that what makes us who we are often transcends our personal experiences and breaches into the experiences of our ancestors or of the culture in which we were brought up. While tradtition and culture is in the midst of dispersing and evolving, EABJM is a microcosm of how all kinds of people from all kinds of places can fit together and strive to make the world a more interesting place. The pieces in this issue – all artwork from EABJM students – embrace not only cultures from our past, but also emerging ones – the ones that will shape the future we are responsible for passing down. This is our first issue, and we are proud to continue B&A’s long history. Literature and art are also great witnesses to our heritage. When looking over the submissions to this issue, we were amazed at how elementary, essential and finally beautiful our heritage ended up being in our minds. In each piece here there is a story and it is our utmost pleasure to share the treasures of our wildly imaginative EABJM family. Sophie Benson is a part time student and part time althlete. She loves science fiction/fantasy and microwave pizzas. Sophie has lived in California, Oregon, New Zealand and now France. Her dream is to direct Step it Up 8. She currently resides in Paris, where she is very content napping with her cat, Mimi. BA & 3 Aili Izsak-Niimura is a lifeguard who can’t swim and is a huge fan of both poetry and chocolate. Before moving to the City of Lights, she resided in the Big Apple. Her hobbies include cello, singing, the poetry club and debate. Her dream is one day to become the mayor of a very small American town. Bilingues Et Artistes - N*13