Facebook and the Huffington Post. Not where I expect to go for primary sources.
Yet this morning, that's what prompted my journey in search of Library of Congress resources on Kahlil Gibran's writing to young immigrants like himself.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_12958/?st=gallery
The algorithm of Facebook offered me a new page to follow, "English Literature," with an unattributed mini-essay* on Gibran that focused on his experience as an immigrant boy, illustrated by a beautiful, and widely known, portrait. I had not realized that Gibran first came to Massachusetts, my state, and that he had written the words quoted in the essay, "I believe you can say to the founders of this great nation. 'Here I am. A youth. A young tree. Whose roots were plucked from the hills of Lebanon. Yet I am deeply rooted here. And I would be fruitful.'"
I searched the Library of Congress collections, but also in Google, putting in those evocative words as my search term. And I came upon the most wonderful primary source set in an essay from 2017 in the Huffington Post by Magda Abu-Fadil, Kahlil Gibran: Beyond Borders.
In this review of the book Beyond Borders by Gibran's late cousin and his cousin's wife, Abu-Fadil shows the page of the book in which "Gibran's Message To Young Americans of Syrian Origin" is printed, and the cover of the Interlink Press collection of his work, (coincidentally, a Massachusetts publisher that is 7 miles away from where I am writing).
Abu-Fadil provides a Sketchbook self-portrait of Kahlil Gibran herding
sheep in Lebanon, late 1890s (Courtesy Museo
Soumaya, Fundacion Carlos Slim, Mexico City)
and also
Pages from Kahlil's notebook for "The Prophet" around 1920 (Courtesy
Museo Soumaya).
and
The last portrait of the Gibran family together before their departure
to America in the spring of 1895 (Courtesy Museo Soumaya)
And Abu-Fadil provides her own photograph of the title page of her own copy of the book whose photo I took from the Library of Congress collection at the top of the page. (Along with personal photos of the landscape of Lebanon, and of artwork connected to Gibran's journey as a writer and artist of his time--her essay is rich with visual sources.)
Such a rich teaching set of primary sources! I am grateful to the Facebook post for leading me to the the HuffPost review of the book published in my own backyard. And happy that in the TPS Teachers Network, I have an outlet to share the sources so that perhaps other teachers will find and use these sources when they teach poetry, immigration, and the vital presence of Arab-American members of the US citizenry that can be an inspiration in dark times.
*Facebook post from "English Literature" on December 6, 2023
English Literature
Page · Books & Literature
"As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases."
His mother had made a difficult decision to take him, his two younger sisters and a half-brother to America, seeking a better life for their family. They settled in Boston's South End, at the time the second-largest Syrian-Lebanese-American community. The family would struggle and the young boy would lose one sister and his half-brother to tuberculosis. His mother would die of cancer.
He would write, “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
He was born in poverty on January 6, 1883 in what is now modern day Lebanon.
He believed in love, he believed in peace, and he believed in understanding.
His name was Kahlil Gibran, and he is primarily known for his book, "The Prophet." The book, published in 1923, would sell tens of millions of copies, making him the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Laozi.
Published in 108 languages around the world, passages from "The Prophet" are quoted at weddings, in political speeches and at funerals, inspiring influential figures such as John F. Kennedy, Indira Gandhi, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and David Bowie.
He was very outspoken, attacking hypocrisy and corruption. His books were burned in Beirut, and in America, he would receive death threats.
Gibran was the only member of his family to pursue scholastic education. His sisters were not allowed to enter school, primarily because of Middle Eastern traditions as well as financial difficulties. Gibran, however, was inspired by the strength of the women in his family, especially his mother. After one sister, his mother, and his half-brother died, his other sister, Mariana would support Gibran and herself by working at a dressmaker's shop.
Of his mother, he would write:
"The most beautiful word on the lips of mankind is the word 'Mother,' and the most beautiful call is the call of 'My mother.' It is a word full of hope and love, a sweet and kind word coming from the depths of the heart. The mother is everything – she is our consolation in sorrow, our hope in misery, and our strength in weakness. She is the source of love, mercy, sympathy, and forgiveness."
Gibran would later champion the cause of women’s emancipation and education.
He believed that “Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.”
In a poem to new immigrants, he would write, "I believe you can say to the founders of this great nation. 'Here I am. A youth. A young tree. Whose roots were plucked from the hills of Lebanon. Yet I am deeply rooted here. And I would be fruitful.'"
He would write in "The Prophet":
“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.”
○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○
● THE PROPHET ●
Do not live half a life
and do not die a half death
If you choose silence, then be silent
When you speak, do so until you are finished
If you accept, then express it bluntly
Do not mask it
If you refuse then be clear about it
for an ambiguous refusal is but a weak acceptance
Do not accept half a solution
Do not believe half truths
Do not dream half a dream
Do not fantasize about half hopes
Half the way will get you no where
You are a whole that exists to live a life
not half a life. ~Khalil Gibran
(Book: The Prophet https://amzn.to/3LqsqAN)
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There is so much here to digest, but what I especially like about your post, 
Alison Noyes
, is the potential for using the experiences of Kahlil Gibran for teaching immigrant children. I would be interested to read what other members of the TPS Teachers Network might do to connect the two. I'm playing around with one idea, as I explain below:
Use the words of Gibran as a Question Prompt in the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) - "Here I am. A youth. A young tree. Whose roots were plucked from the hills of Lebanon. Yet I am deeply rooted here. And I would be fruitful."
My first thought is that ELL students would have questions about vocabulary words such as plucked and rooted and fruitful. But after that, I think they might ask questions about the deeper meaning of the quote and how they, too, might feel about being a young tree, or about replacing Lebanon with their own countries of origin.
That's just one idea. Perhaps others know of picture books or other books that a teacher might use to introduce the emotions or experiences of being an immigrant child. At any rate, I do love the connections between immigrant children today and such a famous writer, and I'm also excited about finding a resource that speaks specifically to Arab immigrant children.
(Probably neither here nor there, but Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet entered the public domain in 2019, according to this blog post from the Library of Congress - https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2019/01/published-works-enter-the-public-domain-in-the-united-states-for-first-time-in-twenty-years/)
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