Ways of Laughing

 

I look at the young women

in our class—Inola, my mother

is there in some of their eyes when they share

with each other whatever little they have: four pieces

of candy, two, or even three, are given away. On the lower back

of one is a tattoo, an adornment to beautify what is already

brown and beautiful, all of them wear colors

like the sky after a spring rain, moisture sparkling

in the atmosphere colored the most promising of colors, their

sharp voices are some times sweet, some times bitter

taking on the taste of their life experiences, their eyes

are so old to be housed in such youthful faces, despite

disasters they are still full of hope and the romanticism

of youth thinking that life is not uncaring, is not totally unfair, will

give them a chance to be something other than disappointed

 

like their earrings they come in all sizes and shapes, and different

ways of laughing

 

__________________________

 

 

 

 

YESTERDAY’S TOMORROW IS HERE TODAY

 

I have been writing professionally since 1968 when I joined The Free Southern Theatre. Over the years while continuing to write in all genres including award-winning radio production work, I was a community activist and organizer around social issues. Today, in addition to moderating e-drum, a listserv for black writers, and Breath of Life, a music blog, I am the co-director of Students at the Center (SAC), a writing program that works in New Orleans public high schools.

 

I am in the classroom daily, interacting with, teaching and encouraging high school students. This collection grew out of my work with students at three specific schools. Frederick Douglass, which had the dubious distinction of being academically ranked as the worse high school in the state, was our home base prior to Katrina. McDonogh #35, which is where SAC was founded in 1996, was the first post-Reconstruction high school open to Blacks in New Orleans in 1917.  Eleanor McMain Secondary School, which we went to after Katrina, is considered one of the best public high schools in New Orleans.

 

Although there are differences in the composition of the student body at each school, there is also a surprising amount of overlap in the social background of the students. After Katrina the differences between the schools was both sharpened and rendered moot. McMain and McDonogh #35 are both trying hard to live up to their reputations for academic excellence while at the same time working with a less selective student body. Traditionally, both of these schools had high admissions standards but post-Katrina they are no longer the first schools of choice for academically advanced Black students. At the same time Douglass is on the verge of being closed essentially because the Recovery School District, which had taken over running the school, could not effectively administrate and educate.

 

Because of strong differences with the Recovery School District administration at Douglass, SAC is no longer teaching there—the principal refused to allow us to conduct an Advanced Placement English class because he didn’t think Douglass students were capable of that level of work.

 

This principal was a post-Katrina import from Georgia. He had no confidence in the students. The school atmosphere continued to deteriorate. The last we heard the plan was to turn over to KIP what was once a neighborhood school with a long and storied history in New Orleans. In a nutshell that’s the unfortunate story of public education in New Orleans—those who need education the most are receiving the least. The prevailing power-brokers have virtually given up on offering a quality education to all students.

 

The alleged success story of the charter movement notwithstanding, the hard fact is that impoverished Black students are neglected, mis-educated, and far too often shunned off into incarceration rather than provided quality education.

 

SAC does not romanticize poverty. We know first hand how difficult it is to teach students who have been systematically denied quality education, students who also have serious social and economic issues to deal with outside of the school setting. At Douglass 20% of the student body was classified as “special ed.” One out of every five students had a serious learning disability that had been identified—and that doesn’t even address the needs of those whom have not been diagnosed.

 

Regardless of status, we knew our students were able to learn and develop. We recruited and trained SAC students to help their peers. We start with oral intensive methodologies and then moved to writing-focused lessons. Lesson prompts and assignments were based on student experiences rather than the examples of the state mandated texts even though the mandated texts were used.

 

For example, when we teach Gilgamesh, we emphasize the process of becoming human by interacting with another human and ask the students to talk and write about times when they became human through their relations with someone. When we teach Beowulf the question is: what’s worth fighting about and the prompt is discuss a time when you stood up and fought for something. Student life experiences become the platform for appreciating texts that are outside the student experience.

 

The essays in this collection did not just fall from the sky. The student writers didn’t just happen to think about these issues. They were encourage to examine their lives and to express themselves howsoever they thought appropriate—we set no limits or boundaries. But more important than individual freedom is the development of community in the classroom.

 

The key to achieving a high level of personal expression is creating a classroom environment of mutual respect and support. To share one’s deepest feelings and complex personal experiences in a public space is not easy. We as teachers write and express ourselves, participating as part of the class rather than positioning ourselves above the students. In our “Story Circles” we share our experiences. We write personal essays and take the advanced placement pre-tests. We also encourage people to embrace rather than judge each other; to discuss how the ideas were written rather than whether we agree or disagree with the ideas. The idea is to improve our communications skills and not to correct or reject the individual who is expressing an experience or emotion.

 

In this way our classroom becomes a sanctuary where one can find an opportunity to release. The essays included here are but a few examples of the depth of work produced in SAC classes.

 

* * *

 

THE ESSAYS

 

The idea for this book originated in a class at Douglass. Inspired by my students I wrote the poem that gave title to this collection. That was back in 2006, right after Katrina.

 

The oldest essay in this collection is by Rodneka Shelbia. I Ain’t No Little White Girl is from the pre-Katrina days at Douglass. The most recent essays are by Dominique Townsend and Shardae Womack. Both their essays were written and shared in our 2009 summer workshops. Dominique and Shardae are 2006 graduates of McMain and SAC staff members who go into the public schools weekly to work with high school students.

 

I specifically wanted to cover a wide range of experiences written at varying levels of complexity and literary expertise.

 

* * *

THE PHOTOGRAPHS

 

Back in 1959 when I entered high school is when I first fell hard in love with art. The object of my affection was photography. I’m still in love. Since seventh grade I have owned a camera. My industrial arts teacher, Mr. Conrad initiated me into all aspects of photography. From taking pictures with available light to intensive darkroom work, I enjoyed it all. At Rivers Frederick Junior High School my nickname became “the picture man.”

 

Half a century later I use digital photography and video cinematography as part of SAC. Three of my students have majored in film in college following their SAC experiences. Alex, whose essay leads of this collection, is a professional photographer as well as a film major in college.

 

The transition to digital photography has its challenges. Auto focus, point and shoot digital cameras are easy to use but limited in their flexibility. I don’t use flash or artificial light. I’m severely myopic and have trouble focusing but my old eyes are often better than the results I get with digital autofocus, which means that I have to struggle to get the camera to record what I see.

 

In addition to presenting their personalities, I like working with strong contrasts of dark and light, negative space and dominant subject focus, plus using the eyes or mouth as the focal point of the portrait.

 

The issues of depth of field and capturing detail in high contrast situations are technical matters that are actually secondary. They are just technical issues and not content issues. In much the same way we teach writing—technique is important but in the final analysis, content is always the key issue. I try to convey the personalities of the subjects and not simply take a technically exact reproduction.

 

Of course it helps when one knows the person one is photographing, also important is that the subjects trust the photographer and are willing to let their emotions show.  My goal was to present photographs that are as strong as the content of the writing.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

Finally, there is a larger issue which is not obvious. In the first decade of the 21^st century book publishing has gone through a major transformation. Indeed, some argue that the book is dead. The truth is far more complex. More books than ever are being published but the computer and other aspects of digital technology have completely changed the publishing game. Today anyone can publish a book and traditional book publisher are finding near impossible to make money the way they formerly did.

 

I believe the book will become an art object rather than the universal media for the dissemination of information and entertainment—that function is now dominated by video.

 

This particular book is available in two forms. In the traditional hardcover book format we are using this book as an SAC fundraiser. People who want to support our work can do so by buying this art object. In the new media format we are making the contents of this book universally available on the web as a free e-book download.

 

In other words, you can buy the book to support SAC and you can read and or download the book for free to share in the experiences of SAC students.

 

Welcome to the future.

 

—Kalamu ya Salaam

New Orleans – August 2009