Programming Spotlight: Muhammad Ali at the New York Historical Society

George Kalinsky
Muhammad Ali training at Madison Square Garden, 1967
Chromogenic print from original scanned film
Courtesy George Kalinsky

Ali, who had a soft spot for children, took a break from a workout to banter with a young fan. Kalinsky recalled this young admirer announcing, “I am the greatest for a moment.”

Students residing in the three group homes visited the New York Historical Society this afternoon for a private tour of the two Muhammad Ali-themed exhibits currently on display.  Students learned about the timeline  of Ali's fights, watched historical footage of the athlete, activist and humanitarian, and examined photographs like the one above in a beautifully arranged gallery at the Manhattan institution.  Many thanks to Literacy for Incarcerated Teens for providing the funding that made this trip possible, along with purchasing gift copies of The Greatest: Muhammad Ali by Walter Dean Myers for all participating students.  The image above, by George Kalinsky, can be viewed at the museum as well as by clicking on the museum's website gallery here. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Authors and Artists Series: Patricia McCormick visits Belmont

On Tuesday, December 20th, award-winning author Patricia McCormick visited with two groups of readers inside Belmont’s school library.  The first group, comprised of young men and women residing at Boys Town sites, prepared with their ELA teacher, Ms. Ernyey, by reading I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World.  The second group, comprised of young men residing at two different SCO sites as well as a Martin DePorres site, prepared with their ELA teachers, Ms. Nadel and Mr. Villaronga, by reading Never Fall Down.  Both groups read and discussed the respective texts, both heavily researched by Patricia McCormick, and drafted their own questions to ask the research-oriented author.  

All of us are grateful to Ms. McCormick for her generosity with her time and talent, as well as the beloved titles and enduring understandings she has made possible through her writing, and to Literacy for Incarcerated Teens for generously purchasing copies of both books for all of the participating students, faculty, and staff. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Between Me and the World by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Is this relatively small, relatively short book going to appeal to Passages’ students?

Addressed to Coates' fifteen-year old son, which Tressie McMillam Cottom discusses as a literary device, this book is alternatingly approachable and impenetrable for less sophisticated readers thanks to its uneven, complex structure.  Teens will be interested in the man who talks about “people who think they are white” and takes on America’s history of brutality toward African Americans, but they’ll lose interest during long passages about Coates’ time at an elite historically black college and they’ll question a man who says he knows the streets, but whose father was a university librarian.  Moreover, for students who have not known their fathers, the whole conceit of a man addressing his son in a professorial tone may be alienating.  

This book definitely qualifies as a non-fiction text class read and a solid addition to a classroom library, but you will have to have read and process it first yourself, and that will take longer than the narrowness of the spine might intimate.  I highly recommend this book to educators for personal independent reading.  I expect you will find the sections that will speak most clearly to the students you work with, you’ll excerpt them, and then you can facilitate the meaningful conversations many are aching to have around Coates’ discoveries and philosophies that speak most profoundly to our learners. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

An excerpt of the text may be found here.
Discussion questions by Alexis Elafros at the University of Central Florida can be found here.

Coates, Ta-Nehisi.  Between the World and Me.  New York: Random House, 2015. Print.

Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers poems by Frank X. Walker

Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers poems by Frank X. Walker

This slim volume of accessible poems packs a profusion of potent punches.  For readers interested in learning more about Evers, as well as students of American history, racism, and creative writing, these fifty poems offer a rich experience in several voices.  Educators focused on social justice will appreciate Walker’s clear intent articulated in his introduction:

I believe acknowledging and working to fully understand history can create opportunities to better understand racism.  I offer these imagined poems in hope that art can help complete the important work we continue to struggle with-- the access to economic and social justice that Medgar Evers and so many others died for, and ultimately the healing and reconciliation still needed in America.

Poems like “Ambiguity Over the Confederate Flag” (p.4) and “After Dinner in Money, Mississippi” (p. 29) may be useful to teachers introducing aspects of the craft of poetry.  “Unwritten Rules for Young Black Boys Wanting to Live in Mississippi Long Enough to Become Men” (p.  23) offers a form sure to inspire imitative drafts for the current generation of teens living in the wake of Trayvon Martin and recent events in Ferguson, MO.  Recommended for independent reading for eleventh and twelfth graders due to mature content. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Walker, Frank X.  Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers.  Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2013.

Click here  for an interview with Walker in which he discusses his use of form and craft in Turn Me Loose.  The full text is available via the Project Muse database, currently accessible through the New York Public Library.

Quicksand: HIV/AIDS In our lives by Anonymous

For a student who needs immediate answers, or a teacher looking for a slim volume to read through with students during a non-fiction ELA unit, Quicksand’s length and hybrid format offer an interesting option.  Opening with a first-person narrative, this quick read is eighty-five pages of large font with plenty of white space. Quicksand commences with a chapter entitled “Why I Wrote this Book: The Still Hidden World of HIV/AIDS in America” and uses subtitles like “What is AIDS?” and “How can you tell if someone has HIV?” to toggle between the anonymous author’s experience learning about her brother-in-law’s diagnosis and anticipating the reader’s questions.  The author keeps the text simple enough for a less-experienced, yet  proficient reader to comprehend the content, but the unique format will be best navigated with a knowledgeable guide for less-experienced readers, recommending this text to ELA teachers, social workers, and reading and ESL specialists.  Backmatter includes websites for more information about HIV/AIDS (essential for updated information since this book appears to have been written in 2008), a glossary for terms like “window period” and “viral load,” a narrated bibliography of works consulted, acknowledgements, and an index. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Anonymous.  Quicksand:  HIV/AIDS in our lives.  Fairfield: Candlewick Press, 2009.  Print.