My "Black Holocaust for Beginners"
BookTalk
August2007
August2007
Here's my presentation celebrating the republication of Black Holocaust for Beginners. It was held on August 23, 2007 at the Brecht Forum in NYC. Sorry, the sound is not that great.
The book can be purchased online at the usual places and in many Black Bookstores around the US... and in Europe.
Part I
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Part II
1 comment:
I just read your article on the diminishing numbers of Black and Latino educators in NYC (it is a post that is about a year old). I love your blog!
I moved to New York City with the intent of teaching in the public school system. I was fresh out of graduate school (M.Ed.) and, as a Chicago teacher, I had reciprocity with New York. After paying $1,000 in fees and being placed in a couple of horrible environments where no one wanted to mentor me, etc., I still did not have certification in New York, even though I had it in Illinois.
A friend of mine, a brilliant Black Latina, tried to enter the system through the teaching fellows program - she is a playwright, has great energy, and would be a perfect classroom teacher. She called, set up appointments and was blown off so many times. However, during this same time, I was going into schools as a teaching artist (I taught poetry and art classes) and I saw no end to the number of newly appointed White teaching fellows. Some of these fellows were so young and inexperienced, they often looked to me to keep their classes on track.
I ended up teaching at the community college level, so I ended up reaching the same students a little later, but they clearly needed mentors of their own race/ethnicity at an earlier age. My husband (Latino) was a certified teacher in Newark and he ended up leaving the profession to also be a teaching artist because even though he was very successful as a classroom teacher, the harassment he had to endure from certain factions of the administration simply broke down his will.
I've tried to explain this situation to so many people in my family (the same discouragement doesn't occur in Chicago, at least it didn't when I lived there). I am glad to read an acknowledgment of the issue. Now, perhaps, the issue will be addressed by the powers that be? I am a graduate student in San Antonio now, but if there is something I can do, let me know.
Peace,
Grisel
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