Andover Bread Loaf Spring 2015 Newsletter

Andover Bread Loaf Spring Newsletter 2015

A Phillips Academy Outreach Program

From the Director

Tapping the Energy, Idealism, and Talents of Young People

Andover Bread Loaf transforms students, teachers, schools, and communities by igniting a passion for learning through written self-expression.

The collective energy and action that Andover Bread Loaf teachers, youth, families, and youth-serving organizations bring to Lawrence and other ABL sites is boundless—as are the ways ABL’s assorted community-based literacy projects cross boundaries of age and ethnicity to enrich school learning for all involved students.

This newsletter identifies some of the beliefs and practices that support our work in Lawrence and at networked sites that are part of our local initiatives. Stories and reports also reveal some of the ways ABL moves from intention to action.

You’ll read about young people as emerging leaders (and the adults with whom they work side by side), the practices that support their work, and their contributions as they move ABL into action, bringing skills, insights, and idealism to a wide variety of leadership tasks.

These accounts provide the strongest possible evidence for our claim that young people— who breathe life into community organizations, agencies, and classrooms, creating opportunities for themselves and for all of us—are the most underutilized resource in education and social change.

This newsletter also raises questions: What outcomes are we looking for and why? How do we measure success? How can we strengthen the interplay between local policies and practices and ABL’s participation in national and international partnerships and networks, including the Bread Loaf Teacher Network? What tools work best to document ABL practices for our own purposes of growth and critique and as blueprints for others?

Answers to come!

Emma, a Lawrence 6th-grader, is a star participant in ABL workshops and events.

Lou Bernieri

What’s Inside?

Teacher Jineyda Tapia

2

El Taller Attracts Talent

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The house was packed at the Speak Your Truth open mic, hosted on January 18 by poet Harlym 125. ABL coordinated the event at Lawrence’s El Taller café—at the request of ABL Writing Leaders—so that area youth and adults could voice their feelings about the recent killings of people of color in Ferguson, Missouri, and other parts of the country.

Haitian Massacre Remembered 2 ABL Study Under Way

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Superhero Poetry & Fun

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Video Grant Awarded

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Guerrilla Society Speaks Out

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Photos by John Hurley

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Inspire

Teacher Profile

Connecting ABL, the Classroom, and the Community

Teach

“I’ve always known that words have power, and I realized somewhere along the way that if we want to make some type of change, it has to start with education,” says Jineyda Tapia.

The daughter of immigrants, Tapia discovered the power of her voice as a high school student in an Andover Bread Loaf classroom. “I was asked to talk to my family about their American Dream,” she says. “That class took me out of the basement classes and into a world where academia was relevant to my life.”

A teacher in the Lawrence public schools since 2006, Tapia incorporates ABL methods in everything she does, from classroom management to language acquisition to improving test scores.

“I want my students to be able to read The Odyssey and enjoy books by Junot Díaz,” says Tapia. “I want to give them access to the world of academia.”

Tapia earned a BA degree from UMass–Lowell and, as an Esperanza Fellow, an MA degree in literature from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English. She was named an Unsung Heroine in 2012 by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women.

Phillips Academy and Andover High School slam teams have joined the Guerrilla Society (see back cover) as regulars at ABL open mics and other events in Lawrence. PA’s Dakoury Godo-Solo ’17 (above) and Ian Jackson ’16 (opposite page) take the mic at Speak Your Truth.

Lawrence’s El Taller Café

Community Hotspot Welcomes All Ages For more than 20 years, former public school teacher Mary Guerrero and her Bread Loaf Teacher Network (BLTN) colleagues—including ABL director Lou Bernieri—were convinced that if they could hang their ABL shingle in Lawrence, the crowds would come. They were right.

El Taller (Spanish for The Workshop) opened in 2012. Owned by Guerrero’s family, the café and bookstore quickly became a congenial gathering place for youth, families, and community groups and has emerged as a vibrant Merrimack Valley cultural hub. Its Open Mic Nights often draw 100-plus youth and adult participants from area towns and cities.

Among El Taller’s most active visitors are members of Phillips Academy’s slam poetry team and Alianza Latina club. “It’s like coming home to family you never knew you had,” says PA 10th-grader Dakoury Godo-Solo.

PA Spanish instructor Mark Cutler goes there often “to meet up with people, do my best thinking, and take advantage of cultural events, exotic food, and the eclectic atmosphere.”

He also takes his students—to soak up the vibe, to engage in social activism, and for poetry slams and intellectual exchanges that unite PA and Lawrence High School students.

Several youth poetry events at El Taller are cosponsored by BLTN partners Movement City and Elevated Thought. The café also hosts diverse community events and programs and has hosted public readings by Martín Espada, Natasha Trethewey, Raquel Cepeda, and Carlos Contreras.

Remembering Those Who Died in the 1937 Haitian Massacre In September and October of 1937, between 9,000 and 18,000 ethnic Haitians and their Dominican-born descendants were systematically rounded up and killed in Dominican territory.

We will never truly know the exact number. The murders were ordered by Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina.

To mark the 77th anniversary of the Haitian Massacre, ABL sponsored an Open Mic and International Virtual Vigil at the El Taller café on October 3, 2014. The event was in support of the Border of Lights project started three years ago by writer and poet Julia Alvarez, a 1967 graduate of Abbot Academy. Border of Lights is an international coming together to commemorate, collaborate, and continue the legacy of hope and justice.

More than 40 people turned out for the event, which featured ABL teachers and youth who had worked in Haitian schools during ABL’s August 2014 conference. Mostly from Lawrence, the crowd also included students from Phillips Academy’s Alianza Latina club.

ABL’s commemorative gathering—now planned to be held each year in October—culminated in a candlelight vigil outside Lawrence City Hall. (photo by Carmen Muñoz-Fernández)

Yearlong Study to Guide ABL Thanks to a generous gift from ABL Advisory Board member Scobie Ward (PA Class of ’84), ABL has contracted with Pathways, Inc., for a yearlong study of its practices and programs. Drs. Eva Gold and Elaine Simon will observe ABL summer and school-year programs, review data gathered about ABL, and interview youth and adults with whom ABL has worked closely. Their final analysis will be used as ABL moves forward, particularly toward its goal of increasing the capacity of low-income communities to influence educational policies and practices at local and state levels.

Student Poetry Salutes Favorite Superheroes “I know. I can’t go because I’m blind,” said first-grader Alex to a staff member of the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence.

“It’s for second- to fifth-graders, but if you want to go, of course you can!” she replied.

On March 28, Alex joined 100 other children and 30 adults and high school/ college Writing Leaders for a three-hour ABL Eat a Poem conference. Following an inspiring performance by the Guerrilla Society, students wrote poetry about their favorite superheroes as well as superheroes in their everyday lives.

Alex, who had dictated his poem to a Writing Leader, raced to be first at the mic during the initial sharing session; more than 70 other students followed. Later, they joined workshops led by local artists, teachers, youth, and Addison Gallery of American Art staff.

This event was modeled on a 2014 Superhero Saturday in New Orleans organized by ABL alumni.

Create

Pathways, Inc., has completed numerous local and national research and evaluation studies on issues important to urban school reform, with a special focus on the role of organized youth, parents, educators, and citizens in school improvement.

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Video Grant Awarded ABL recently received a grant to document its popular Family Literacy Nights and create a training video for teachers interested in organizing their own FLNs. Funding was awarded through the LRNG Challenge, a project supported by the National Writing Project, John Legend’s Show Me Campaign, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Introducing the Guerrilla Society

ABL Advisory Board

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Michael T. Cahill ’84, Chair New York, N.Y. Timothy P.F. Davenport ’80, P’17, ’18 New Canaan, Conn.

José A. Dobles ’98 Brooklyn, N.Y. Ricardo Dobles ’85 Holden, Mass.

Richard B. Gorham ’86 Andover, Mass.

Cynthia L. Greene ’87 Newton, Mass.

Donald M. Kendall ’85 Weston, Conn.

Tucker Levy ’88 Charlestown, Mass.

Abby J. Shuman ’84 Cambridge, Mass.

Gabriela Poma Traynor ’88 Cambridge, Mass.

Scobie D. Ward ’84 Hong Kong Sturgis P. Woodberry ’84 Darien, Conn.

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Their Words Are Changing the World One of the goals of ABL’s youth development programs is to nurture young artists, such as the members of the “Guerrilla Society,” Lawrence’s youth slam poetry team. The Guerrilla Society (pictured above) has given inspiring performances at several student conferences and headlined the fall 2014 ALIVE professional development conference for teachers.

The world needs artists and truth-tellers Guerrilla Society (GS) was birthed in 2013 at Movement City in Lawrence, Mass.

Young, passionate souls met four days a week to talk and write about everything and anything under the sun.

It’s a door opener, has given me amazing experiences, and allowed me to expand as a writer The group decided to call itself the Guerrilla Society because we were a small number. We found that our voices were powerful. The GS tag line is “Wisdom in small numbers.” Using guerrilla tactics, our words are weapons that attack societal problems and stigmas. We are willing to be controversial and tackle topics others are unlikely to address.

Warriors with pens functioning as wings In 2014, we started meeting at El Taller and in members’ homes. From the eclectic urban atmosphere of open mic nights in Lawrence to the biggest slam poetry competition in the world, Louder Than A Bomb, GS has made a name for itself by focusing on creativity and speaking our truth boldly.

Saucy flavors from every country Within our group we try to promote the society we want to see. We are diverse in every way—ethnicity, race, age, spirituality, sexual orientation, class, and culture. Every individual in the group matters.

It’s a tree; deeply rooted in free and ethical diversity Our mantra is “no disclaimers”; we encourage one another’s unique voice, acknowledging that each one is important, no matter how uncomfortable we might feel about what we write.

It’s the cave in the rain storm of a climbing trip gone wrong Through our voices we are able to raise awareness of injustice and oppression.

We give others a model to connect their inner voice more deeply to the reality of the world around them. We have definitely found that we, the Guerrilla Society and all of us, are more beautiful, free, and powerful than we can possibly imagine.

The place and the people you will always come back to because it feels like a second home We are dynamic in different levels of seriousness. We love to have fun, but we also see ourselves as the beginning of a revolution, starting with ourselves, unlocking locks, breaking barriers, and setting new standards in approaching life.

We are crashing waves against the unjustifiable, raging tides thrashing forward to freedom.

Andover Bread Loaf Phillips Academy 180 Main Street Andover MA 01810-4161 978-884-8452 lbernieri@andover.edu www.andover.edu/breadloaf

Support Andover Bread Loaf!

Help us make a difference in the lives of ABL students and teachers who participate in ABL activities.

Please visit www.andover.edu/ablgiving to make your gift today.

—The Guerrilla Society (written collectively)