Blues Vision Workshop for Educators

”An enlightening, transformative, and safe space to learn and grow as an educator. Crucial learning for anyone who teaches in Minnesota and beyond.” - Allison Merrill, Educator

Join other educators for a very unique professional development opportunity: Blues Vision in the Classroom,to be held at the Minnesota Humanities Center on July 25 and 26, 2017. This workshop uses Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota as the starting point for rigorous discussion and activities that will help participants create practical strategies for using texts from the book as catalysts for conversation and potential change in the classroom. This opportunity prepares participating educators for meaningful engagement with their students by encouraging a deeper understanding of African American experiences and the black literary tradition in Minnesota.

If you join us at this two-day workshop you will will receive supplementary resources, strengthened relationships with colleagues and authors, clock hours, meals, and a copy of Blues Vision as part of this experience. Space is limited so register soon!

For more information about this opportunity, visit mnhum.org/blues.

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April is National Poetry Month - Blues Vision

Artwork by Ta-couma T.Aiken, “Speak”

Blues Vision
African American Writing from Minnesota 
Edited by Alexs Pate With co-editors Pamela R. Fletcher and J. Otis Powell‽

Blues Vision is a groundbreaking collection of incisive prose and powerful poetry by forty-three black writers from Minnesota who educate, inspire, and reveal the unabashed truth.

In celebration of April as National Poetry Month two poems from Blues Vision are featured this week. This anthology was co-published with the Minnesota Historical Society Press, which was made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2004.

The Humanities Center offers educators a professional development opportuntiy focused around Using Blues Vision in the Classroom July 25-36, 2017 at the Humanities Center.

Apology for Apostasy?
by Etheridge Knight
Soft songs, like birds, die in poison air
So my song cannot now be candy.
Anger rots the oak and elm; roses are rare,
Seldom seen through blind despair.

And my murmur cannot be heard
Above the din and damn. The night is full
Of buggers and bastards; no moon or stars
Light the sky. And my candy is deferred.

Till peacetime, when my voice shall be light,
Like down, lilting in the air; then shall I
Sing of beaches, white in the magic sun,
And of moons and maidens at midnight.


Anniversary
by J. Otis Powell‽
There is no clean slate
No blank sheets of paper
To write our lives on
We palimpsestically erase
And rewrite existence like
Painters whitewashing
And rescaping canvas
With images telling new stories
Often by another painter
In some other time
With alterative visions
No story is complete
Life goes on in ways
That tells the same story differently
From other sides of truths
Celebrated narratives previously promulgated
Shading views ancestors left
Our stories don’t disappear under
Cover of news but hover like
Ghosts beneath dominant voices
Parchment establishes new anniversaries
With every twist of tongue
Every keyed in message 
Penned privet document
Of lives lived on a record 
Each year unrolls another scroll
Retelling stories to recover
From the pseudology of war
Every lesson confirms that fighting
Is the absolute right thing to do
In my rear view mirror I see
People with bad ideas
About what the world is made of
They will need to learn for themselves
I will need to fight where I can win
I never thought when
I was an undergraduate
Studying philosophy that aesthetics
Would become an over used word
But every time I turn an ear
In the direction of pop culture
Some artist is talking about life
Values and style
Flipping the script to post modernism
Uncomfortably confronting antiquated myths
Deconstructing master stories with
Post-traumatic truth 
Everyday is muffled
In acoustics
Of diamond sprinkled snow
Reflecting how hard
It is to be relevant 
Complete
Whole
We thought we knew
What we could not have known
And it made fools of us
Made us overreach and prevaricate
Had we known better we would have done more
But retrospect is false 
And the clock is relentless
Secretly I like the story so I’m perpetually
Telling it draft after draft in sequels

Available for purchase at the Minnesota Historical Society Online Store and Amazon.com.

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Sushmita Hodges, PhD - My Absent Narratives Journey: Bringing Human Connections Into Focus

Dr. Sushmita Hodges currently teaches courses in world history (10th grade) and global issues (senior elective) at St. Paul Academy and Summit School in St. Paul. During her 15 years at SPA Hodges has advised student groups including Women in Learning and Leadership and Intercultural Club and Common Ground (affinity group for students of color). She has also held adjunct positions at Hamline University teaching the South Asian immigrant experience as well as courses for the Asian Studies department at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University. Hodges’s focus as a historian has been to develop curriculum that engages students in critical thinking and problem solving skills through relevant collaborative projects.

As a historian and globalist who has taught for 25 years, both in higher and secondary education, I deeply value and support the humanities as a core aspect of a liberal arts education, and believe they can help build a globally competent society. Regardless of whether students pursue science, technology, or business, the humanities provide the tools necessary for individuals to relate to each other in the real world. The humanities are the window into the past, present, and future from which we can learn and build a better, more sustainable and equitable future. I believe – both on a personal and a professional level – it is the humanities that provide a cross-cultural context to recognize the importance of how all humanity is inter-connected.

Over the course of the last three years the various professional opportunities that the Minnesota Humanities Center has afforded me have strengthened and informed my work as a historian. Starting with their foundational workshop, Increase Engagement Through Absent Narratives, to participating in the year-long Absent Narratives Collaborative, utilizing the Digital Suitcase curriculum resources on human trafficking, taking part in the Humanities Center’s Educators’ Institute pilot program, and finally, collaborating on the development of  curriculum resources for use with the Blues Vision anthology of African American writing in Minnesota, the Humanities Center has raised my consciousness exponentially about the real impact of history on marginalized communities at the local level. I have always—in my curriculum development and teaching of world history—been aware of the dominant Eurocentric narrative and have made a concerted effort to teach with a focus on voices in the periphery such as the working class, women, indigenous people, slaves, and the global south. However my association with the Humanities Center, and continued work with the absent narratives pedagogy, has further helped me fine tune and hone in those skills.

Throughout writing lessons for my 10th grade world history classes I am conscious of the power of words and descriptions of the historical narrative. I see the importance of teaching students to question and challenge the master dominant narrative as they engage in this writing exercise. Teaching about the modern period in history I constantly struggle with trying to help students be open to new ways of knowing and being that are different from mainstream cultural norms. This teaching process frequently involves critically examining how the idea of “modernity” is only defined through the lens of Western values. For example, I have shown students how the “colonial enterprise” flourished as a result of the exploitation and oppression of the colonized peoples which resulted in the demise of traditional cultural practices, quashed by European ruling class practices. Once students can attribute the “rise of the west” to the resources, labor, and land of the colonized, and not merely to the prowess of the colonizer, they are able to begin opening their hearts and minds to an honest narrative. Understanding a more multi-dimensional narrative makes room and space for communities and groups whose voices have been historically silenced.

For students to gain insight and build empathy it is important to develop authentic projects that are inquiry-based and include a problem solving component. Teaching students the framework of grassroots movements, how to campaign and resolve conflicts as well as build a future based on equity and justice. To arrive at this juncture I emphasize the value of dialogue and conversation rather than simple debate. The absent narratives method has taught me to move beyond deconstruction and “healthy skepticism” to understand and embrace experiences that have been historically undermined. It is important to recognize not just adoption of the additive approach to absent narratives but also being willing to accept the value of different worldviews.

As a teacher in the humanities it is my responsibility to create opportunities for students to experience and feel the historical narrative from the disenfranchised perspective through research projects and other relevant activities. This approach in the long run will help build global and cultural competencies among students and enable the creation of a more collaborative, sustainable world.

Personally, for me, the absent narratives journey has empowered me not to just acknowledge wounds inflicted through the dominant master narrative, but through telling the whole story, begin the healing process that is long overdue.

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Blues Vision - African American Writing from Minnesota

Edited by Alexs Pate with co-editors Pamela R. Fletcher and J. Otis Powell‽

Enthusiasm is growing for Blues Vision! In celebration of the short summer season in Minnesota, we hope you enjoy these summer selections.

Blues Vision is a groundbreaking collection of incisive prose and powerful poetry by forty-three black writers from Minnesota who educate, inspire, and reveal the unabashed truth. This anthology was co-published with the Minnesota Historical Society Press, which was made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2004.

Lilac Week by Roy McBride
It’s lilac week.
Everywhere you
look/lilacs.

Heard these punks
Running down the
alley
Laughing their fool
heads off,
Old Lady Duncan
yelling at them about
stealing her lilacs.
It’s lilac week.

Hey, man!
Some good shit!
Meet me back
in the alley
Smell those lilacs.

Purple
Blue
Red
Pink
White
and every shade
between,
accented
by
the
Green.

It’s lilac week.
Lilac week.
The world
surrenders to lilacs.

Migrations by Angela Shannon

The diesel truck grunts to pick up the house, to
ease the residence onto its broad back, to haul 1619

whole down the highway. The home­­­­­–––wobbles
without foundation, trembles by sudden movement,

by turbulence and blurring trees, is disturbed
by groundlessness. It wavers and hiccups,

reduced to numbers on a flapping door, growing pains
without Little Africa or Creek Center claiming its walls.

After this crossing from South to Minnesota, will
wooden floors hold when the truck settles them?

Will walls endure after being upswept or will
the house crack and crumble? What of the father

driving the Buick, the mother unwrapping
sandwiches, the three children in the backseat singing?

Preston’s Dream:  Version No. 1 by Philip Bryant

Preston came over one Saturday afternoon
with his usual six-pack of Miller
and armful of records. He was in a quiet
pensive mood – almost doleful.
My father caught on and started playing
some Billie Holiday.
“How’d you know I was thinkin’
about Billie?” Preston asked.
“I don’t know,” my dad said. “A hunch, I guess.”
They listened to
Billie’s version of The Way You Look Tonight.
Billie’s version of Pennies From Heaven.
Billie’s version of I’ll Never Be the Same.
Finally, Preston said,
“These are all Billie’s songs, you know.
She coulda written ‘em herself.
In fact, I think she just took ‘em
Hokey and corny as they are
‘cause nobody wanted ‘em anymore.
Like in slavery days, the slaves
gettin’ pigs’ ears, snouts, feet, and guts
---all the pieces
the massa felt beneath him to eat---
and makin’ ‘em into delicacies.
She mined songs,
Got the diamonds in ‘em that
Nobody cared for or knew how to get.
She got it.
Re-created these songs into her own.
She adopted them.
They were all her children,
and they called her Mama.
Because she was.”
My father drank a little beer and smiled.
Billie was singing Laughing at Life.
Preston continued.
“I had the strangest dream last night.
I was in this small Midwestern town, all white,
on the Fourth of July. It was sunny,
and a warm breeze blew the flags aloft.
I was watchin’ the parade go down Main Street,
bands playin’ Stars and Stripes Forever
and floats of all kinds advertisin’
the Jaycees and historical society
and people all dressed up in buckskin and Indian outfits.
I was gettin’ nervous
‘cause I was the only spot in the crowd,
when here comes the last float in line---
I hear Teddy Wilson playing the opening of
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love.
And there
on a float made of white and yellow gardenias
---Billie, in her prime---
big and beautiful and leanin’ and singin’
into one of those old-fashioned microphones.
and Prez was there, too---pork-pie hat
and shades and cream-white suit
and Little Jazz Roy Eldridge and Joe Jones
and Walter Page and Ram Rameriz! All of ‘em!
I couldn’t believe my eyes!
I said to a woman holdin’
a big blond baby boy high
over her head and
bouncin’ in time to the music
What year is it? I thought
They’re all dead---but there they are!
She didn’t say anything,
just nodded and smiled
and kept time to the music.
Then I saw Billie turn as she passed us
and smile at the baby
and throw a white gardenia to the mother.
By this time I was cryin’ and wanted to catch up---
the float had almost disappeared down the street,|
the crowds were too thick,
I couldn’t get through.
Then an old toothless farmer in dirty coveralls
put his hand on y shoulder and said
They’re gone now,
But they’ll be back next Fourth.
You be sure to come back, son,
you’re more than welcome here.
I shook his hand, so dirty and gnarled
And hard from heavy farm work.
I said I would, I will---
And then I woke up. My heart was poundin’.
I wondered how I could get back, but it was only a dream.”
Billie was singing Why Was I Born?
“Jesus, Preston, that was some dream.”
“James, it was like it was real.
Prez, Billie, Joe, Teddy
---all of ‘em alive!---
playin’ in that hick town somewhere
in the middle of nowhere
on the Fourth of July.”

Blues Vision artwork by Ta-couma T.Aiken, “Speak”

Available for purchase at Minnesota Historical Society Online store and on Amazon.com

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Blues Vision - April is National Poetry Month

 Blues Vision

African American Writing from Minnesota
Edited by Alexs Pate With co-editors Pamela R. Fletcher and J. Otis Powell‽

Blues Vision is a groundbreaking collection of incisive prose and powerful poetry by forty-three black writers from Minnesota who educate, inspire, and reveal the unabashed truth.

In celebration of April as National Poetry Month three poems from Blues Vision are featured this week. This anthology was co-published with the Minnesota Historical Society Press, which was made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2004.

Birth of the Cool: Minnesota
Philip Bryant

I know, Miles,
you didn’t have rural southern Minnesota
in mind when you
blew your classic mute
on your famous Birth of the Cool
sessions in New York, circa 1949.
But it’s the way the paper-thin
ice forms on the edge of the lake
in late October:
meeting at the cold dark water’s edge
---still open and free
though not for long---
with the ripples of these short choppy
muted notes of yours
blown just out of reach
this cool windy autumn morning.

Inland Sea
Roy McBride

Nearly everyone

you meet

in Minnesota

goes up to the lake

up to the shore

(white people that is)

Black people go to Chicago

Cleveland   Detroit   Gary

            down home

Native American people are home

                        within

                                    without

Many Southeast Asian brothers

dream of home

                        often

                                    dying

                                                in their sleep

I go with them

                        up to the lake

                                                to the shore

                        to Chicago

                                    Detroit

                                                            down home

                        within

                                    without

                                                dreaming

                                                            of

                                                              home

Carrying Home
Angela Shannon

I am carrying home in my breast pocket:
land where I learned to crawl,
dust that held my footprints,
long fields I trod through.

Home, where Mother baked bread,
where Papa spoke with skies,
where family voices gathered.
In my palm, this heap of earth
I have hauled over hills and valleys.

Releasing dirt between my fingers,
I ask the prairies to sustain me.
May my soil and this soil nurture each other,
may seeds root and develop beyond measure,
may the heartland and I blossom.

Artwork by Ta-couma T.Aiken, “Speak”

Available for purchase at Minnesota Historical Society Online store and on Amazon.com.