Celebrating Black History Month All Year Long Through Literacy, Media, and Arts

Study Skill 14.15 Celebrating Black History Month All Year Long Through Literacy, Media, and Arts

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Introduction

Carter G. Woodson is credited as the founder of Black History Month. In 1976, the celebration  moved from a week-long event to the month-long practice we know today. However, Woodson’s intention was never that the celebration be finite. Instead, he viewed this period as the culminating events of a full year of regular study and celebration. 

At Mizzou Academy, we celebrate the didactic power of story, literature, and arts. Our 2024 Black History Month Teaching Guide includes recommended reading, strong connections to the arts, lesson plans and activities for continued engagement all year long. 

Each year, our school forms a team to put together an annual resource of readings and activities aligned with the Black History Month theme. In 2024, the theme is art as a platform for social justice. The National Museum of African American History and Culture Links to an external site.writes that, “African American artists — poets, writers, visual artists, and dancers — have historically served as change agents through their crafts.”

Our conversations this month (February) focused on sculpture, story, poetry, painting, and quilting, and music. Lisa DeCastro, our Elementary Coordinator, shared about taking her sons to the Kehinde Wiley exhibit in San Francisco. Lou Jobst, Language Arts Lead, spoke at the power of teaching Langston Hughes. Kathryn Fishman-Weaver, our Executive Director, shared about a transformative moment meeting Nikki Giovanni in her twenties. 

As Giovanni, the great American poet writes, “If everybody became a poet the world would be much better. We would all read to each other.” Our 2024 Celebrating Black History Month project team agrees, and adds that we would also sing to each other. To kick off our school-wide African American Read-In, Language Arts faculty member, Lou Jobst picked up his guitar and performed an acoustic rendition of Langston Hughes’, “The Weary Blues.”

Whether it’s hip hop, blues, or jazz, as you ramp up for continued celebration and study, queue up your inspiration music. We tended back to classic standards this month like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong,  Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and B.B King. However, we also shared that we had Ben Harper, Tracy Chapman, and, of course, Beyonce playing in our cars as we drove to and from school meetings. 

Music matters. Connection matters. The arts matter. Our history matters. Black history matters. We hope the recommendations and activities in this guide inspire you and your students to learn, lead, create, read, sing, laugh, and celebrate.

 

BOOKS THAT MATTER TO US AS TEACHERS, LEARNERS, AND HUMAN BEINGS

Publishers Descriptions listed below

Elementary and Early Childhood

I am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James

The confident Black narrator of this book is proud of everything that makes him who he is. He's got big plans, and no doubt he'll see them through--as he's creative, adventurous, smart, funny, and a good friend. Sometimes he falls, but he always gets back up. And other times he's afraid, because he's so often misunderstood and called what he is not. So slow down and really look and listen, when somebody tells you--and shows you--who they are. There are superheroes in our midst!

 

My Hair is a Garden by Cozbi A. Cabrera

After a day of being taunted by classmates about her unruly hair, Mackenzie can't take any more and she seeks guidance from her wise and comforting neighbor, Miss Tillie. Using the beautiful garden in the backyard as a metaphor, Miss Tillie shows Mackenzie that maintaining healthy hair is not a chore nor is it something to fear. Most importantly, Mackenzie learns that natural black hair is beautiful.

 

Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe

Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe's vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat's own introduce young readers to the powerful message that art doesn't always have to be neat or clean--and definitely not inside the lines--to be beautiful.

 

A Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson

There’s a sweet, sweet smell in the air as two young girls sneak out of their house, down the street, and across town to where men and women are gathered, ready to march for freedom and justice.  Inspired by countless children who took a stand, two Coretta Scott King honorees offer a heart-lifting glimpse of children’s role in the civil rights movement.

 

Middle Grade

Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks by Jason Reynolds

Jason Reynolds conjures ten tales (one per block) about what happens after the dismissal bell rings, and brilliantly weaves them into one wickedly funny, piercingly poignant look at the detours we face on the walk home, and in life.

 

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacquelyn Woodson 

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.

 

High School and Adult

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

From the moment of its publication in 1952, Invisible Man  generated the impact of a cultural tidal wave. Here was a pioneering work of African-American fiction that addressed not only the social, but the psychic and metaphysical, components of racism: the visibility of a large portion of this country’s populace and the origins of that invisibility in one people’s willed blindness and another’s habit of self-concealment.

But Ellison had created far more than a commentary on race. He had attempted to decipher the cruel and beautiful paradox that is America, a country founded on high ideals and cold-blooded betrayals. And he sent his naive hero plunging through almost every stratum of this divided society, from an ivy-covered college in the deep South to the streets of Harlem, from a sharecropper’s shack to the floor of a hellish paint factory, from a millionaire’s cocktail party to a communist rally, from church jubilees to street riots. Along the way, Ellison’s narrator encounters the full range of strategies that African-Americans have used in their struggle for survival and dignity–as well as all the scams, alibis, and naked brutalities that whites have used to keep them in their place.

In his prose, Ellison managed to encompass the entirety of the American language–black and white, high-brow and low-down, musical, religious, and jivey–and reshape it to his own ends. In Invisible Man he created one of those rare works that is a world unto itself, a book that illuminates our own in ways that are at once hilarious and devastating.

 

Nikel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Elwood Curtis has taken the words of Dr Martin Luther King to heart: he is as good as anyone. Abandoned by his parents, brought up by his loving, strict and clear-sighted grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But given the time and the place, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy his future, and so Elwood arrives at The Nickel Academy, which claims to provide 'physical, intellectual and moral training' which will equip its inmates to become 'honorable and honest men'.

In reality, the Nickel Academy is a chamber of horrors, where physical, emotional and sexual abuse is rife, where corrupt officials and tradesmen do a brisk trade in supplies intended for the school, and where any boy who resists is likely to disappear 'out back'. Stunned to find himself in this vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold on to Dr King's ringing assertion, 'Throw us in jail, and we will still love you.' But Elwood's fellow inmate and new friend Turner thinks Elwood is naive and worse; the world is crooked, and the only way to survive is to emulate the cruelty and cynicism of their oppressors.

The tension between Elwood's idealism and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision which will have decades-long repercussions.

 

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.

Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.

 

Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not-Quite Poems - Nikki Giovanni

Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea is a tour de force from Nikki Giovanni, one of the most powerful voices in American culture and African American literature today. From Black Feeling, Black Talk and Black Judgment in the 1960s to Bicycles in 2010, Giovanni’s poetry has touched millions of readers worldwide, focusing a sharp eye on politics, racial inequality, violence, gender, social justice and African-American life. In Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, Giovanni turns her gaze toward the state of the world around her, and offers a daring, resonant look inside her own self as well.

 

Beyond February: Teaching Black History Any Day, Every Day, and All Year Long, K–3 by Dawnavyn James

Dawnavyn James believes Black history shouldn't be relegated to the month of February. In her groundbreaking book, Beyond February: Teaching Black History Any Day, Every Day, and All Year Long, K-3, she provides a practical guide for elementary educators who seek to teach history in truthful and meaningful ways that help young students understand the past, the present, and the world around them.

Drawing on her experiences as a classroom teacher and a Black history researcher, James illustrates the big and small ways that we can center Black history in our everyday teaching and learning practices across the curriculum using read-alouds, music, historical documents, art, and so much more.

 

All Ages

Bold Words from Black Women by Dr. Tamar Pizzoli

This incredible volume honors fifty modern women, presented with their own words, who have dared to raise their voices and persevere through hardship and injustice to become revolutionaries and dreamers, artists and creators.

Featuring women like musical powerhouse Beyoncé Knowles; tennis star Serena Williams; Meghan, Duchess of Sussex; and activist Angela Davis, this stylish book is perfect for any reader who is seeking grace, courage, strength, and self-love.

 

Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic by Connie Choi

Filled with reproductions of Kehinde Wiley’s bold, colorful, and monumental work, this book encompasses the artist’s various series of paintings as well as his sculptural work—which boldly explore ideas about race, power, and tradition. Celebrated for his classically styled paintings that depict African American men in heroic poses, Kehinde Wiley is among the expanding ranks of prominent black artists—such as Sanford Biggers, Yinka Shonibare, Mickalene Thomas, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye—who are reworking art history and questioning its depictions of people of color. Co-published with the Brooklyn Museum of Art for the major touring retrospective, this volume surveys Wiley’s career from 2001 to the present. It includes early portraits of the men Wiley observed on Harlem’s streets, and which laid the foundation for his acclaimed reworkings of Old Master paintings by Titian, van Dyke, Manet, and others, in which he replaces historical subjects with young African American men in contemporary attire: puffy jackets, sneakers, hoodies, and baseball caps. Also included is a generous selection from Wiley’s ongoing World Stage project; several of his enormous Down paintings; striking male portrait busts in bronze; and examples from the artist’s new series of stained glass windows. Accompanying the illustrations are essays that introduce readers to the arc of Wiley’s career, its critical reception, and ongoing evolution.

 

Lesson Plans and Activities for Further Engagement and Learning

Elementary

Artist Spotlight: Alma Thomas
Elementary Lesson | Submitted by Lisa DeCastro

Screenshot 2024-02-28 at 1.57.34 PM.png Image source and article on Alma Thomas Links to an external site.

Key words to introduce or review throughout the class discussion: abstract art, lines, colors, shapes, and repeat/repetition

Introduce Alma Thomas to the students.  Alma Thomas was an African-American artist and teacher known for her colorful, abstract paintings.

Show students some examples of paintings by Alma Thomas on the following website, https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/alma-thomas Links to an external site., and click on the “Online Gallery”.

Invite students to share observations and comments about the art.  Consider asking the following questions:

  • What colors, lines, shapes, or patterns do you notice?
    How do you feel when you look at her paintings?  What emotions come up for you?

  • What does the art remind you of?

Set up the materials needed (per student) for the art activity: white construction paper, an assortment of tempera paint, paintbrushes, paper plate to use as a palette for paint colors, small cup of water to rinse paint brush between colors

Invite students to create their own art in the style of Alma Thomas.  Ask them to think or talk about their favorite landscape or natural places as inspiration for their own art. Encourage them to think about the colors, shapes, and patterns they can use in their art.

Encourage students to try vertical or horizontal lines or a circular format for their abstract art.  Remind them that Alma Thomas used small or dashed lines to create her art, rather than long brush strokes, and would fill the entire paper with colors.  It may be helpful to display some of Alms Thomas’s art for students to be inspired for their own painting.

Additional Resources

Meet the Superhero: Stunt Boy In the Meantime
Elementary Lesson for grades 3-5 | Submitted by Lisa DeCastro

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Image source: https://www.jasonwritesbooks.com/books Links to an external site.

An engaging read aloud and graphic novel for upper elementary grades.  Who doesn’t love reading about superheroes? In the novel Stunt Boy in the Meantime by Jason Reynolds, Portico Reeves has the best superpower he can think of - keeping superheroes AND his family and friends safe.  In the meantime, Stunt Boy also navigates the ups and downs of his own life, school, and family challenges.

For this novel, it is important to show the students the text and how words and illustrations appear on the pages.  If the book is not available to the classroom, listen to Episode 2 (Chapter 2) in a video read aloud from the following links:

  • Introduce the main character and setting of the story;
    • Stuntboy (Portico Reeves)
    • Zola (Stuntboy’s best friend)
    • Gran Gran (Portico’s grandmother)
    • Hebert Singletary the Worst (Portico’s enemy)
    • Skylight Gardens (also known as the Castle)
  • Read or listen to the video read aloud of episode 2 over three lessons with the students:
    • Why is Herbert Singletary the Worst Portico’s enemy?
    • Why does the illustration on pages 70-71 have green smoke?
    • Video Read Aloud - Part 2 Links to an external site.  (pages 69-85)
    • Discuss the following comprehension questions with the students:
      • Why does the illustration on pages 78-79 take up two entire pages?  Why is this part of the story important?
      • How do Portico and Zola help each other as friends?
    • Video Read Aloud - Part 3 Links to an external site. (pages 86-89)
    • Discuss the following comprehension questions with the students:
      • Why is the Super Space Warriors story on pages 83-85 important to the story?
      • Why does Portico turn into Stuntboy on page 87?
      • Why does Portico take some of his potato chips and blow them into his father’s eyes?
  • Point out the various text features that help bring the story to life and add important (and funny) details.  For example:
    • “Commercial Break”on page 64
    • “How to Sell a Lawn Chair” on page 74
  • After reading, ask students to make connections to the main character, Portico, also known as the Stunt Boy.
  • Readers Response:  If you could choose a secret superhero identity for yourself, who would you be? What would be your secret power? Create and draw your superhero cape on blank white paper.  Be ready to share your superpower with a partner or small group.  Use the following sentence starters:
    • My superhero name is….
    • My superpower is…

 

Lesson extension: Students can read or listen to the entire graphic novel. 

 

Secondary

“Beautiful, also, are the Souls of My People”
Grades 7-10 | Submitted by Kathryn Fishman-Weaver

Introduce: Share background information on Langston Hughes

Student-Friendly Resources 

Read: My People 

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Discuss: What patterns do you notice in this poem? 

Encourage students to look at form, function, and grammar.

Brainstorm: Who are your people? 

  • What is one community you belong to? 
    • Think about school, work, family, neighborhood, hobbies, faith, and activities.
  • What is one adjective (word to describe) your community?
    • For example: beautiful, supportive, connected, loving 
  • What are some natural elements that you can describe in the same way? 
    • Think about the things you see in nature around you every day. 

Create Poem: Prompt: Write a short poem on your people. (Template below.)

  • Optional: Illustrate your poem with a sketch. 

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Poetry Slam: Optional extension: Perform poems as a class community

Story Quilts:  An illustrated Personal Narrative
Grades 7-12 | Submitted by Sherry Denney

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Image source Links to an external site.

(Tell the students in advance, they will be creating a "guilt" inspired by Ringgold's work that will be shared with others.) 

 

Art key words to introduce and review throughout the class discussion: line, shape, form, space,  texture, value, and color (see Resources)

Writing key terms to introduce and review throughout the class discussion: introduction, plot, characters, setting, climax, and conclusion (see Resources)

Introduce Faith Ringgold to the students. Faith Ringgold is an African-American painter, mixed media sculptor, performance artist, writer, teacher, and lecturer. Use her website,  https://www.faithringgold.com/ Links to an external site.and click on the “About Faith>Biography”. Read her biography aloud as a class. Allow students to ask questions, discuss, and investigate her contributions.

Faith Ringgold expresses herself in a variety of mediums, move to the "Art" tab and show students her work (as time allows). Let the class choose one piece to examine more closely and ask the students to describe it in one word. Talk about how art affects our thinking and brings out our emotions. 

 

Set up the materials needed (enough for all students) for the art activity: 

11 x 17 white paper folded into 12 boxes (Video Links to an external site.) (Figure 1.0)

pencils

erasers

notebook paper

an assortment of colored pencils/markers

rulers

correction fluid (for small errors)

an assortment of colored construction paper (optional)

scissors (optional)

glue (optional)

Using the Ringgold's story quilt shared above as a model; students will be asked create six art pieces (A) and six writing sections (see below) expressing a personal story.  

Figure 1.0: 11 x 17 paper folded into 12 boxes

A

1)

A

2)

3)

A

4)

A

A

5)

A

6)

 

Writing: Teach the basics of a narrative essay (see Resources) and tell them that each section of their writing will be placed in its own box* of the 11 x 17 paper (Figure 1.0 and below). Tell them not to write their essays on too broad of a topic. They should think of a specific story that is memorable for them that they want to share.  

1) introduction

2) plot

3) characters

4) setting

5) climax

6) conclusion

*Best Practice Tip: Prior to finalizing their writing and putting it on their paper, have them work with a partner and edit each other's essays (See Resources) for clarity.

 

Art: The art pieces they create will be placed in the boxes with an "A" (Figure 1.0). The pieces should relate to the story they have written. Remind your students that art is about personal expression and not perfection*. They can draw and color a picture or glue on pieces of construction paper (optional material) to create their art pieces (or a combination!). Take the time to show them Ringgold's work again for inspiration. Ask them to think about the words that were shared in the early discussion to aid them in expressing themselves.  

*Best Practice Tip: Ask students how they would like to display their work and/or share their stories with others. 

 

Resources:

The Power of Song:” A Brand New Day” from The Wiz
Grades 9-12 | Submitted by Lisa DeCastro

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Image source: https://wizmusical.com/ Links to an external site.

 

  • Introduce and share historical background with the students: In 1974, the musical, The Wiz opened on Broadway in the United States and retold the story of L. Frank Baum Links to an external site.'s children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Links to an external site. (1900) in the context of contemporary African-American culture Links to an external site.The Wiz was a huge hit on Broadway, won seven Tony awards, and is one of the most beloved shows in the Black theater community and the American musical theater.  The musical was adapted into a movie in 1978 starring well-known American actors and actors, such as Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Lena Horne, and Richard Pryor.
  • Download and read the synopsis Links to an external site. of the musical, The Wiz, with the students.  After reading, students will learn about the main characters (Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, Lion, The Wiz), the setting (Kansas and the Magical Land of Oz), the problem, and solution of the story.  If students are familiar with the story of The Wizard of Oz, then they can apply that background knowledge to understanding the story of The Wiz.
  • Highlight the song, “Everybody Rejoice (A Brand New Day)”, which is featured at the end of the musical.  The song is sung to celebrate after Dorothy Links to an external site. has killed Evillene, the tyrannical Wicked Witch of the West Links to an external site.. Dorothy Links to an external site., the Tin Man Links to an external site., the Lion Links to an external site., and the Scarecrow Links to an external site. sing the song with the newly freed Winkies Links to an external site., who were ruled and enslaved by Evillene. 
  • Project and watch the song/video: Everybody Rejoice (Brand New Day) Links to an external site. (3:01).  The video is a remastered clip from the 1978 movie version of The Wiz.  Lyrics are included as reference for the students.
  • Also, pass out a copy of the lyrics Links to an external site. for students to follow along and reread.  Key vocabulary to define and review: rejoice, liberty, freedom, oppression
  • Facilitate a discussion with the students:  The Wiz is a magical story that teaches us to dream big, be courageous and believe in ourselves, and to keep love in our hearts.  However, oppression is also a major theme in the play because there are some people in Oz who do not have their freedom because of Evilene, the Wicked Witch of the West.  Discuss the following questions with the students:
    • What are examples of oppression currently faced in our society today?  
    • Even though this song is almost fifty years old, what are examples or things that we can rejoice about?  Can our communities and world also have “brand new day” like in the musical?

 

Lesson Extensions:

 

Compiled with love, hope, and song by Kathryn Fishman-Weaver, Lisa DeCastro, Sherry Denney, and Lou Jobst