Most of my students have not seen Swagger, the Apple TV+ show that has been filming at our school for a few weeks. The plot centers around a Black teenager, growing up in public housing, who has the potential to be a basketball star if he can learn to heal…

***This letter is dedicated to Ms. York, Ms. Brockman, Ms. Fought, Mr. Owenby, Ms. Williams, Ms. Vermillion, Mr. Garber, Mr. Clark, Mr. Gaskins, Ms. Hein-Sadler, Mr. V, Ms. Siebers, Vic, Brigette, Clary, Emily, Caroline, Lorah, and every public school educator who has loved, supported, and tolerated my children. Dear fellow…

This is for the kids who die, Black and white, For kids will die certainly. The old and rich will live on awhile, As always, Eating blood and gold, Letting kids die. -Langston Hughes, 1938 The last two nights, I’ve read Harry Potter…again (The Prisoner of Azkaban, to be exact)…

A Teacher Gives the Tea. I’ve figured out what is wrong but it’s going to take a while to explain so bear with me. I’ve been teaching public high school for 20 years. I have 2 teenage children of my own…I think I can qualify for teenage expert status. School…

Last night I had the pleasure of listening to an online discussion between Ibram X. Kendi and Clint Smith. Clint Smith has been a favorite poet of mine for several years and he has just published his first work of prose, How the Word is Passed. I listened to the…

Teachers and students and all Americans are still recovering from last week’s Capitol’s assault. My high school students and I have had several conversations about the events of January 6th in the past week. We’ve spoken about the anger that we’ve experienced in the past few days, and many students…

Six months ago, The Virginia Museum of Fine Art in Richmond, VA, dedicated Kehinde Wiley’s Rumors of War, its newest acquisition, and installed it in front of the Museum along Arthur Ashe Boulevard. The monumental equestrian sculpture of a Black man, proud and contemplative, turns his head North, towards Monument…

Here’s our working definition: “A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical, political, technical or…

Mr. Alan Zimm died a few days ago of Covid-19 at the age of 97. I first met Mr. Zimm in 2007 when I organized a Holocaust Remembrance Day for my high school students at the school in which I taught. He sat on the stage next to his wife…