The Lost Boys of Sudan: the lost art of the lost boys

I am sure that some of you reading this remember the story about the Lost Boys of Sudan.  Pictured above is a ceramic sculpture made by John Chol who was one of several lost boys that lived in my neighborhood.

Recently, a friend of mine in the neighborhood, Millicent Black, asked me if I would be interested in partnering in a pop-up to help sell some of John's ceramics.  The woman who sponsored John here in our neighborhood still has a significant amount of John's pieces, along with two of the other boys, and would like to sell them and send them the proceeds.  John now lives in Liberal, Kansas with his wife and five children.  He and his wife are both inspectors for the USDA in the meat processing Industry.  John works the night shift and his wife works the day shift.  John takes care of the children during the day.  

The pictures shown here are of pieces of Johns ceramics that belong to women in my neighborhood who were kind enough to loan them to me to photograph for this piece.  I wanted my readers to have an idea of the beautiful ceramics that will be for sale at the upcoming pop-up.  I continue to learn more about John and so many more of these boys and their journey and will continue sharing more with you here on my blog.

When I asked, "Why the ceramic animals?"  I learned that as young boys living in Sudan, they had no toys so they made their own out of mud from the banks of the Nile.  Linda, their sponsor, encouraged the boys to create something that they could possibly sell to make more money.  These pieces are the result of that.

The Lost Boys Pop Up will be on September 15th from 1-6 here in my neighborhood. Please save the date and tell anyone you think might be interested.

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about the Lost Boys in general, I recommend reading Dave Eggers book, "What is the What"

The journey of the lost boys is an extraordinary story and one I am so happy to share.