Nationally Noted Poet, Local Storyteller and Students Read Poems of “Struggle”

(Syracuse, NY, March 1, 2006) Barnes & Noble Booksellers Dewitt presents the third of a series of poetry readings correlated with the “Community Life in Poetry” project, a collaboration between Partners for Arts Education and the YMCA’s Downtown Writer’s Center. On Wednesday, March 8th at 7 pm, Quraysh Ali Lansana and Vanessa Johnson will perform with students from Cicero-North Syracuse High School.

Lansana and Johnson are teaching artists in an arts-integrated partnership entitled “Struggles,” funded by art$TART, the local capacity building grant administered by PAE. “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 19th and 20th Century U.S. history: Abolition, Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Quraysh Ali Lansana is the author of “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.

CNS student participants of the “Struggles” partnership will be presenting poems written during their course of study to provide a broad perspective of the issues they have investigated and notable facts they have learned during their work with teachers Wendy Thowdis (Social Studies) and Randi Downs (ELA).

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Partners for Arts Education inspires learning and leadership for arts in education in Central New York and throughout New York State. We provide funding and support to deepen and enrich educational experiences in and through the arts for students, teachers and artists.

Partners for Arts Education
Delavan Center Suite 221  501 W. Fayette St.  Syracuse, NY  13202
315.234.9911  info@arts4ed.org  www.arts4ed.org

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