Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Students Perform at BOE Meeting

Students of Othell Miller presented a spoken word performance Aug. 12 at Washington Community School in the first such presentation to showcase the talents of young people in the district.
All dressed in black and holding black roses, the students took turns performing stanzas from Laini Mataka's poem, "The Strong Black Woman is Dead." Click here to read it.

While looking up references to the poem, it was quite surprising to see Mataka's work or variations on it in many online sources, some of which said, "Author unknown." Kind of sad to see the work of a strong black woman paid homage in one way, but disrespected by not giving her credit. Add it to the ironies in her poem.
Each business meeting in 2008-09 will have a student presentation at the start. Sorry I did not get each student's name to go with the captions, but I had to hurry up and take notes on the meeting. Maybe performers can be recognized in upcoming agendas.
And remember, all meetings - work & study and business meetings - will be at 1200 Myrtle Avenue.
--Bernice Paglia

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks, Bernice. I continue to be impressed with the seemingly new direction of the district under Dr. Gallon. I was at the meeting and am glad that you are recognizing these students on your blog. Remember, that is why the BOE exists. Dr. Gallon's remarks about the reasoning behind the performances make great sense.

7:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks, Bernice, for doing an excellent job covering the performances by our students.

They were outstanding!!

And, no, the strong, black women is NOT dead!

8:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am sorry, but I didn't get the phrase of "Remember, that is why the BOE exists."

What is that reason?

9:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The students is the reason there is a BOE. That's what it means. Sometmes we all forget. The performance was a good reminder.

1:17 PM  

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