The Work Ahead

READ MORE AT GILMAN.EDU/JUNETEENTH

Established in 2021, Gilman’s Juneteenth Speaker Series is designed to highlight and celebrate modern-day contributions to African American culture and initiatives. This school year’s speaker series was supported by generous gifts from the 2020‑2021 Juneteenth fundraising effort. The series included (pictured starting from top left):

• André Robert Lee, filmmaker • Susan Yao, educator • Izetta Autumn Mobley, Ph.D. and Drew Hawkins,

Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African

American History and Culture • Molly Baldwin, founder and CEO, Roca • Richard Antoine White, DM, tubist, inspirational speaker • Richard Bell, author of “Stolen: Five Free Boys

Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey

Home” • Phoebe Kilby Baldwin and Betty Kilby, co-authors of

“Cousins” • Brendan Kiely, author of “The Other Talk:

Reckoning with Our White Privilege”

COMMUNITY, INCLUSION, AND EQUITY (CIE) Speaker Events Recap

Authors Dr. Lawrence Brown and Lawrence Lanahan joined the Gilman community on Thursday, October 21, 2021, to discuss Baltimore’s history in regard to racial divide, residential segregation, and redlining, as well as the continuing impact on individuals and communities.

READ MORE AT GILMAN.EDU/LAWRENCE

READ MORE AT GILMAN.EDU/WILKERSON

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson spoke to the Gilman community on Tuesday, March 29 about our country’s invisible caste system, radical empathy, and bringing hard topics to light.

Cultural Arts Festival Brings Together Diverse Gilman Community

The Office of Community, Inclusion, and Equity was excited to bring back — in person — the annual Cultural Arts Festival on Sunday, February 27. The event highlighted the rich diversity of the Gilman community and celebrated art, music, history, and customs of cultures from around the world.

Attendees were issued “passports,” in which they collected stamps for each culture display they visited. They enjoyed entertainment including musical acts, taekwondo by Perry Hall White Tigers, and tai chi and lion dance performances by Korean Culture and Art of Maryland. Participants sampled foods from different countries, played games, and learned how to write their names in different languages.

“The Cultural Arts Festival allows us to gather and learn how diverse the Gilman community really is. I love that we can bring together so many cultures and shared experiences,” said event co-chair Meisha Dockett P’23. “To see how much work our fellow parents and the CIE department put into this event, exhibiting traditional clothing, artifacts, and food from their culture is truly amazing. This is such a teachable moment for everyone, and I am honored to be a part of it. This is what makes our community so special.”

APIDA HERITAGE MONTH

May is APIDA Heritage Month, and this year marked 60 years of Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) students at Gilman. In honor of this historic milestone, students were invited to participate in a poetry, art, and photography contest, and the Parents of Asian American Boys at Gilman Affinity Group made special “We are Gilman” t-shirts that were available for purchase. On the back of the t-shirt, the Gilman Five is written in nine different languages representing the School’s APIDA community, and on the back of the sweatshirt, there are translations of “Gilman” written in six different languages. The profits from the sale were donated to the gilman fund in appreciation for the School’s effort to build an inclusive community over the last six decades. Thanks to the Gilman community’s fantastic support, 245 t-shirts and 38 sweatshirts were sold in less than three weeks, raising more than $3,000 for the gilman fund. Friday, May 13 was a schoolwide dress-down day dedicated to wearing APIDA shirts or dressing down in orange — signifying courage, happiness, and good health.

MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT LEADERSHIP DIVERSITY CONFERENCE (MSSLDC)

Seven Gilman students participated in the MSSLDC, held virtually on Wednesday, April 6. The conference supports sixth through eighth graders from Maryland-area independent schools and their Middle Grades Partnership (MGP) public partner schools. Students took part in presentations and engaged in small-group activities based on skill-building around identity, voice, and community, all led by student leaders.

AIMS FACULTY DIVERSITY CONFERENCE

Gilman hosted the AIMS Faculty Diversity Conference on Thursday, May 5 with keynote speaker Caroline Blackwell, vice president, equity and justice for the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). Blackwell spoke to the challenges that our community is facing and also highlighted what she sees as progress in our work. The conference continued virtually on Friday, May 6 with topics such as talking about race and racism in the classroom.

People of Color

CONFERENCE

The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) held its People of Color Conference (PoCC) November 29 through December 2, 2021. A group of 12 Gilman faculty, staff, and students attended virtually, learning more about the concept of “Reckoning with Impacts, Rolling with Just Intent,” which was this year’s theme.

Upper School classics teacher Sarah Miller said PoCC 2021 was the best online event or virtual learning experience she has ever attended. Though she enjoyed the keynote speakers, including award-winning documentarian, journalist, speaker, author, and philanthropist Soledad O’Brien and civil rights and liberties expert john a. powell, the most value for her came in the affinity group sessions. “It’s the most powerful and meaningful part of the entire conference every year,” she said.

In both 2020 and 2021, Miller participated in the TRA — transracial adoption — affinity space. She explained that members of the group keep in touch after the conference is over via an email chain and a WhatsApp thread. A year after the 2020 PoCC, she feels like she knows some of the repeat participants who have shared their experiences throughout the year.

Miller hopes to bring back what she learned at the conference to her teaching and mentoring experiences at Gilman. “I have been more conscious about explicitly sharing and owning my own identity to my students and colleagues. I’m aware of [other] faculty and staff who are transracially adopted, but I do not know of any students. I’m hoping that if Gilman does have TRA students that they will come to see me as an adult they can identify with or turn to in times of need.”