RadioKind - Kids Crossing Borders

Global Arts Corps has always found a way to include children in our work. But we wanted to go further - to ask what it might mean to place young children, ages 6 to 12, at the very center. What if the same ensemble techniques we use to train adult actors could be adapted for kids? That question became RADIOKIND, launched in 2025.

We embarked on a series of workshops around the world with children who had either experienced conflict themselves or grown up carrying its aftermath — the second generation, shaped by wars they didn't fight.

From the small town of Isniq in Kosovo to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, from post-apartheid South Africa to refugee populations in Jordan, and all the way back to the streets of South Los Angeles, we let kids listen to other kids from around the world. Often, a wild and noisy group would suddenly become quiet and transfixed when they heard other children's voices interpreting from Albanian, Sesotho, or Arabic into their own languages.

RADIOKIND is predominantly, although not exclusively, an audio project. During the workshops, children explore storytelling that includes personal narratives, family stories, songs, poems, folktales, and indigenous wisdom. These stories are recorded, compiled, and shared with other children from our other locations around the world. What emerged immediately was something we hadn't fully anticipated: these workshops are, at their core, an exercise in listening. In a world where children are bombarded by endless images on screens, RADIOKIND asks them to slow down — not just to listen, but to truly hear another child's voice across geography, language, and culture.The workshops center on fun and imagination. But broader questions surface naturally — what does home mean to you? What do you fear? Children always arrive through play, but sometimes find themselves in history.

In 2026, RADIOKIND is pushing into new territory. We are actively exploring ways to work with kids in the aftermath of the Minnesota immigration crackdown. We have a trip planned for October to work with kids in the West Bank, in Palestine. And we are looking to work once more with kids in South Africa, only this time from mixed heritage backgrounds in Cape Town.

RADIOKIND doesn't end in the workshop. GAC's new production Caravan, directed by Michael Lessac, will weave the voices of RADIOKIND children directly into the theatrical fabric of the show — carrying their stories from the recording studio onto the stage.