“Struggles” is a history and ELA project that is integrating 19th- and 20th-century African-American literature and poetry with the history of African Americans through four phases of U.S. history: Abolition, Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights Movement. Students have been working in collaborative groups to produce reflection logs and original poems as they work with two visiting artists to gain knowledge, awareness, and empathy for the struggles of African-Americans. This arts-integrated partnership was funded by art$TART, the Local Capacity Building grant administered by PAE.
On Wednesday, March 8th, "Struggles" teaching artists Quraysh Ali Lansana and Vanessa Johnson performed with their students from Cicero North Syracuse High School at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Dewitt. It was the third of a series of poetry readings correlated with the "Community Life in Poetry" project. Quraysh Ali Lansana shared poetry from his book They Shall Run: Harriet Tubman Poems, published by Third World Press in 2004. Lansana is the Director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University, where he is also an Associate Professor of English. Noted CNY storyteller and teaching artist Vanessa Johnson was formerly the Education Director of the Onondaga Historical Association.
C-NS student participants in the “Struggles” partnership presented poems written during their course of study to provide a broad perspective of the issues they investigated and notable facts they have learned during their work with teachers Wendy Thowdis (Social Studies) and Randi Downs (ELA). You can read student poems.