Civil Rights, Poetry & Meditation

We had a great week here at Shaw Heights as we celebrated the 15th anniversary of YESS by creating some really great pieces of art to celebrate all those who have donated and have made our amazing program possible (pictures to come next week!). We also continued our discussions on leadership and accountability. On Monday we had a really detailed, complex talk about Martin Luther King, Jr and the Civil Rights Movement. We also had a really great day writing poetry as we did an exercise entitled, "I am a Poem." We finished our week off with a guided meditation on Friday where our scholars got to learn more about how to manage stress and anxiety and how to disengage negative thoughts that tend to ruminate in the brain. Our scholars especially loved writing poems and learning how to meditate!

Our Mentor Monday talk was an emotional one this week as our scholars had so many questions about the Civil Rights Movement. While many knew about Dr. King and his efforts, very few knew much else about the movement, especially in relation to the legal process that occurred in our country and other prominent figures who helped push for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since I am a Civil War historian and have a degree in American history, I took extra time to explain to our scholars the process of emancipation that began with Lincoln's proclamation in 1863 and which was impeded by the "separate but equal" ruling in lieu of the Plessy V Ferguson Supreme Court case in 1896. We discussed the lynchings in the south in the wake of this ruling, and the mass exodus of African Americans during that same time period. Not one of our scholars had any idea these lynchings had occurred, and they were shocked to learn that such a reign of murder and terror once existed in our country. These feelings were further solidified when I explained how Emmett Till's murder acted as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. Our scholars could not believe that Till had been blatantly murdered and yet his mother was denied justice. We also touched on Ruby Bridges and the Supreme Court ruling in Brown V Board of Education that resulted in her having to attend an all white school in Alabama with armed guards as escorts. We even discussed the Japanese interment camps that our government created during WWII as we were on the subject of the protection of civil rights for all American citizens. This fact might have been the most shocking of all for our scholars as they marveled that the US government interned over 120,000 Japanese Americans against their will--giving away their houses, businesses, and forcing them to labor in dire conditions with little food and restricted access to healthcare. These details about the Civil Rights Movement in America left a deep impression on the minds of our scholars as they watched Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech with new-found knowledge. I had some really amazing responses from our mentors as they reflected on our talk. This talk was well timed in that many of our scholars are worried about the federal government's role in enforcing civil rights for all citizens. One mentor wrote:

"I also learned about Alabama and how it was full of racism at the time. They had a lot of lynching. They even refused to follow the government's law about the new laws on civil rights...One thing that really brought attention to the lynching and more was a 14 year old boy. He was going to the store and then said hi to a white woman. When he was in the store a mob of white men were outside. They took the boy by force and dragged him for miles and beat him in the woods. Then they hung him. His mom had an open casket to let people know how bad they hurt him."

As we teach our mentors to become leaders, it is imperative that we teach them about such atrocities so that they understand the context of what, exactly, leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., faced as they campaigned for social justice.

Caillou's poem from 5th Period

While this talk alone would have made for a successful week, it was followed by a wonderful day presenting projects and then creating a new art project the 15th anniversary party for YESS. I will post some of the extremely heartfelt and moving pieces next week!

Some of our mentors writing poetry outside last Thursday!

We ended our week with poetry and meditation. Since my other degree is in Creative Writing, this week's lessons really aligned with my strengths as an educator. I was able to speak to our YESS scholars about the nature of poetry (no, it doesn't have to rhyme!) and was delighted to read them a few poems from an anthology of poetry from which I used to teach freshmen classes at my college. We discussed "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost, "The Waking," by Theodore Roethke, and "Another Weeping Woman" and "Thirteen Way of Looking at a Blackbird," by Wallace Stevens. I mentioned that poetry does not place constraints on language, and many of our mentees connected with the fact that ee cummings did not use puncutation or capitalization and instead made up words like, "mudlucious" and "puddlewonderful." It was amazing to see our scholars connect with the poetry that I read and to see them really take off on the assignment on their own. We had so many moving poems, but perhaps one of the best came from a mentee named Caillou. His poem, "I am funnystrong," is posted here so that you are able to see the format of the worksheet and the way in which he responded.

We made it outside during 6th and 7th hour to write our poems as it was unseasonably warm last week!

We finished out our week in YESS with a guided meditation meant to help our scholars manage stress and anxiety. The guided meditation asks one to relax, muscle by muscle, and then asks one to imagine a peaceful place to which one may return during stressful moments or during high anxiety situations. This was a favorite day for many of our scholars as they really felt empowered and calm afterwards! Stay tuned next week to see some more great artwork from our scholars and to hear about our ESMART goal setting!