10 minute read
Piecing Me Together
–Renée Watson, author of Piecing Me Together
INTERSECTIONS, CONNECTIONS, AND IDENTITY THE ART OF COLLAGE AND STORIES IN EIGHTH GRADE ENGLISH
by Colleen Carroll, Admissions and Communications Coordinator
The most important task of adolescence is the search for identity, and along with this comes the struggle for independence. This past year’s national and global reckoning with racism and white supremacy has sparked a more urgent need for all of us to consider identity and the intersections between race, class, gender, and power. Eighth Grade students at The Bush School stepped into this academic year eager for conversations about how they relate to the world around them. The grade level theme for Eighth Grade was activism, and students explored their own identities and considered how they could make a difference in the world.
In English class, students read the award-winning book Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson. Like the main character, Jade, students sought to understand the intersecting pieces of their identities. Eighth Grade English teacher Sarah Cohen shared, “Starting the year with this book helped to normalize conversations about identity. Students were already hungry to talk about themselves and their world, and this was a great tool to help frame those discussions.” The class focused on themes of self-reflection, empathy, and intersectionality to create art collages as Jade does in the novel, and write literary nonfiction essays. Student essays explored how an artifact such as an object, a story, an event, or a person reveals something about their identity and their relationship to the world.
To complement their exploration of the book in class, author Renée Watson also visited the Bush Middle School for a virtual author visit in February. Head of School Percy L. Abram was on hand to welcome Ms. Watson and shared with students, “Ms. Watson’s stories give us another idea, another conception of what it means to be human. Her work not only helps to expand the canon, it expands our notion of what stories can be told and what stories should be read. It expands our viewpoints and perceptions of personhood, genderhood, and Blackness, and it expands our minds to think beyond what we view as the traditional narrative.” Our collective understanding of humanity is enriched and deepened in powerfully important ways when the narratives centered in literature reflect the full range of voices that make up the human experience.
Ms. Watson reflected on key lessons from her work as a writer and shared, “I think that it’s important to tell your story and talk about where you are from because so many times people are telling your story for you. Growing up in Portland, Oregon, and in the Northeast Portland community, which was a predominantly Black community, I always knew that there were stereotypes about my people, my neighborhood, my block. And there were all these assumptions, and I was like, ‘well, some of it might be true but there is also so much of the story that is being left out.’ And so it is important for me to write my story so that I am filling in those gaps.”
Ms. Watson found her voice as a writer and an artist as a young girl, when her Second Grade teacher encouraged her to be a writer after she wrote a twenty-one-page story. It was a critical moment from which she has never looked back. She shared, “I literally have been writing ever since, taking myself pretty seriously as a writer all through my childhood.” For Ms. Watson, art and writing formed a key part of her identity, as she recognized early on that making and sharing art was a way to have a voice in a world that quiets the voices of youth, particularly Black girls. “Art is a way to help people see other people. It is a way, especially when I was younger, for me to express myself and speak up for myself. When I was young, like most of us when we were young, we did not have a lot of power. We cannot vote, we have to follow the rules at home and the rules at school, but on the page when I am making art, I have full control. I can break the line of a stanza. I can paint the way I want to paint. I can create art, and that is how I found my voice as a young person.”
Bush Eighth Grade students also shared their own work and reflections with Ms. Watson. Earlier in the term, each Eighth Grade student had identified two or more layers of their identities and explored the intersections through collage and writing. Sarah noted, “Our students created work about aspects of their identities— race, gender, class, heritage—that can be difficult to talk about. They did this honestly and beautifully.” By reflecting on their own identities and grappling with the intersectionality of their lives and experiences, the students offered visions of their full selves. The resulting pieces of work spoke to students’ histories and lived experiences.
Ms. Watson, too, was impressed with the students’ work and their willingness to share their work publicly. After the students finished presenting their collages and essays, she thanked them and said, “I am so moved by all of these. They are beautiful and brilliant and vulnerable, and thank you so much for going there, first of all. And then for sharing them with me, I really appreciate having this moment with you all. And artistically, they were all just so unique and different and beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing and for being brave today.”
The deep connection between Bush students and Ms. Watson was not surprising, as she masterfully centers youth experiences and voices in her writing. She recognizes the power of thought coming from teenagers as they take in the world around them and critique it with clear eyes and radical imagination. She noted that for adults the challenge is “that we assume we already know. And young people are trying to tell us something, and I do not think we are always listening.”
In looking back at the experience of teaching Piecing Me Together and the culminating experience of students hearing directly from Ms. Watson, Sarah recalled when she first came across the book. She was in her local bookstore and was nearly forty pages in before she looked up from the book. She said, “I knew then that I wanted to teach it. It is so beautifully and poetically written that I could use it to teach motif, allusion, symbolism, and theme. It is also so relatable to our students. Jade is a Pacific Northwest teenager at an independent school trying to balance it all.”
Sarah sees literature as an opening to discussions not only of the characters’ layers of identity but, by extension, the identities of everyone in the classroom. “Every one of us possesses identity and culture. By reading moving works that examine and celebrate the identities of characters, we all can better understand our own identities and culture, and we become more understanding of those around us.”
In reflecting on this experience, Sarah shared, “The youth are, I think, really ready to lead us older folks in matters of identity.” Books like Piecing Me Together offer powerful narratives that open conversations around identity, community, and race. In addition, teachers and adults across our school community are partnering with students to build spaces for these real conversations, centering identity, and allowing students to process what they are experiencing at school and in this nation. It is here where they will find their voices as young people and lead us forward.
“ So whether it is through song, writing, poetry, or actually telling a story, think art is a way to help people see other people. t is a way, especially when was younger, for me to express myself and speak up for myself.
–Renée Watson, author of Piecing Me Together
–Percy L. Abram, Head of School
EIGHTH GRADE ART COLLAGES
The Eighth Grade class focused on themes of self-reflection, empathy, and intersectionality to create art collages as the character Jade does in the novel Piecing Me Together. Students also wrote essays that explored how an artifact such as an object, a story, an event, or a person reveals something about their identity and their relationship to the world. The following are examples of students’ art collages and excerpts of their writing.
in achu icchu
by GianLucca W. ’25
In Peru eating guinea pigs is a big part of their culture, which many other people find gross and or unethical. My mom grew up eating cuy—unlike my dad, who ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Both these foods are part of my identity intersection and show a part of who I am. Although these are just foods, they have history and meaning behind them.
Art Intertwining with Activism
by Eva G. ’25
Protest and activism is human nature; it’s something we have always done when we see injustice. And art is the same way—it’s fundamentally part of human existence. So when they are combined it’s such a naturally beautiful thing that is relatable and understandable to all.
Frank Kitamoto
apanese merican tory
by Kenzo Y. ’25
Approximately twenty of my Tamura and Fujimura family members—including my grandmother, great aunts, and great uncle—were all sent to the camps. It is an important lesson in American history. It teaches us to uphold the rights of Americans even during times of crisis. There’s a Japanese phrase that describes why this is relevant for me. It is, “Okage sama de,” which means, “I am what I am because of you.” I honor my ancestors’ struggles; it is because of them that I can live the life I have today.
ordan s
by Abdullah K. ’25
To most people, this story may seem insignificant; buying a new pair of shoes is not that important. But to me this story signifies me being able to choose how I express myself and therefore choose a part of my identity. I find it interesting that clothing has a huge part in your identity. At its base form, clothing is just a piece of cloth that we use to cover ourselves, yet it is still so significant to us. It makes us who we are.
think that it is important to tell your story and talk a out where you are from, ecause so many times people are telling your story for you.
–Renée Watson, author of Piecing Me Together
