The Final Chapter: “Wide Enough For Our Ambition”

Published on May 18, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

The Humanities Council asked literary historian and poet Kim Roberts to bring a D.C. story that mirrors the environment, times, and challenges of our characters in A Lesson Before Dying. For the past three years, Kim has personally led us to the sites of our Big Read D.C. stories through walking tours. This year the Humanities Council of Washington, D.C. brings the tour to you — on-line.

Photo: Addison Scurlock 1932, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History Archives Center

Wide Enough For Our Ambition:
D.C.’s Segregated African American Public Schools (1807 – 1954)
Whether you read the Big Read DC city book or not, you are invited to take a “virtual tour” of the history of D.C.’s Segregated African American Schools from 1807 to the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. “Wide Enough For Our Ambition” looks at schools in Washington, D.C. for African American children during segregation, and other institutions and individuals who affected the history of those schools. Beginning in 1804 with the establishment of public schools exclusively for white children, free African Americans were taxed at the same rates as whites to subsidize schools where their own children were banned In response, the first private school for African American children was established on Capitol Hill in 1807. Our D.C. story begins there.

In addition to archival photos found in the Charles Sumner School, the Smithsonian and other collections and archives, the exhibit features new photos by Sam Vasfi, an up and coming fine art landscape and architecture photographer and native Washingtonian.

Sam Vasfi - Jesse Lee Reno Elementary School (behind Alice Deal Middle School)

The official launch is Wednesday, May 26 at 6:30 PM at the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives, 1201 17th Street NW (nearest Metro stations: Farragut Square and Dupont Circle).

In preparing this exhibit and reflecting on A Lesson Before Dying which features an African American public school teacher in a segregated African American school in rural Louisiana in the 1940s, and his relationship with a young man on death row, Kim writes:

This led me to think about our own schools in DC. That’s an amazing story in itself: we were at the forefront of the development of segregated public schools, and our African American schools were once considered the top in the nation, a model for other cities to emulate. We were also at the forefront of desegregation, and the first city in the nation to implement a unified school system after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. My virtual tour will include sites in all eight wards of the city, and will highlight houses where noted teachers and administrators lived, churches that hosted schools as well as strategy meetings in the desegregation fight, and school buildings old and new.

Please join us for the dialogue!

Note: The link for this on-line exhibit will be posted in time for the launch.

The Power of a Book

Published on May 14, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

This week The Washington Post published a Style feature article on the Big Read DC authored by DeNeen Brown who attended our “Second Chances” programs and visited two classrooms studying A Lesson Before Dying thanks to Reading Is Fundamental who provided 2500 students with books to read and keep. Dr. Elizabeth Primas, at DCPS, has been delivering the books to DC’s public high schools since the first Big Read in 2007. Dr. Primas has been our introduction to some amazing teachers including Frazier O’Leary whose class is featured in the article.

The article has prompted deeper thought on the issues of education, rehabilitation, juvenile justice and other social challenges facing our city.

As DeNeen writes:

It had prompted a discussion, pricked the conscience of a community in pain, revealing no easy answers, much like a complicated book, an enduring novel without a happy ending.


Photo by Susan Biddle for The Washington Post

The article received a response from Rose Marie Berger, which was published in the Washington Post. Rose Marie has been leading writing workshops for incarcerated D.C. residents in prisons in Maryland through Hope House, a partner for the Humanities Council’s Big Read programs.

As we finished, one man looked me in the eye and said,’That book changed my life. Are there other books like that?’ Yes, brother. There are lots of other books like that.

You can read Rose Marie’s entire letter, “The Power of a Good Book” on her blog.

DC PUBLIC LIBRARY’S FINAL BIG READ DC EVENT
The DC Public Library presents its final Big Read DC event tomorrow (Saturday, May 15) at 11 AM at the Washington Post offices. The Town Hall Meeting and Reception will discuss the link between law, literacy and juvenile crime, comparing A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines to the lives of teens today.

The panel discussion will be facilitated by Washington Post Book World editor Ron Charles with R. Dwayne Betts (author of A Question of Freedom); Lisa Page, freelance writer and creative writing teacher at George Washington University; Julian Hipkins, III, 7th & 8th grade humanities teacher at Capital City Public Charter School.

The Washington Post
1150 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20071
Near McPherson Square & Farragut North

Book Report: North Portal Estates Book Club

Published on May 8, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Throughout Washington, DC, book clubs are picking up Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying and discussing some of the novel’s powerful themes. This exciting and rewarding experience was recently undertaken by North Portal Estates Book Club which has participated in the Washington, DC Big Read since 2008, reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby that year and Carson McCuller’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter in 2009. Club member Jerome Paige’s assessment of the group’s dissection of Gaines’ novel can be found below:

First of all there was an overwhelming appreciation of Gaines’s writing style and Gaines’s ability to “tell a story”. We all felt like we had read “some good writing”. The economy of Gaines’s style and his ability “to understate” eased us into to exploring some very difficult issues and challenges that just as easily could have been overstated and thrust in our face. We talked about how “powerful” it was when the story shifted to be told from “Jefferson’s perspective” in his diary. Through journaling, through listening to “music”, through his interactions with Grant and everyone else, Jefferson found his voice, his soul, his humanness.

We talked about how several of the characters were developed. We probably spent the most time on discussing Grant – his desire to leave, but he stayed; his desire to be a teacher, but his reluctance “to teach” Jefferson and “to stand with” Jefferson; his desire to teach the students, but his expression of frustration with them. We explored the extent to which Grant’s lack of clear goals for life may have lead to his frustration and his continued ambivalence. However, we felt that once he got around to reading “Jefferson’s Journal” (“Jefferson’s Prison Writings”), Grant would be validated as the teacher he was.

Focusing on the title of the book, we explored the extent to which there were all types of teachers in the book – the teacher, the preacher, the aunt, the deputy, and the doomed. Each had “a” lesson to deliver and “a” lesson to learn. We’re all “teachers” and “learners” when we confront difficult situations in life. Each character had something to teach or to learn. We all have lessons to learn about how we treat others and ourselves before and after a crisis arises.

For example, once folks knew that Jefferson was “going to die”, they became interested in him “as a person” and they became interested in him “becoming a man”. They became interested in him in ways they had not been interested before. In fact, the story seems to suggest that there was little, or no, investment in him prior to his death sentence. “A” lesson was how a whole society, culture, town can be complicit in “killing” someone.

However, whether we are a “victim” – as it appears Jefferson was – or a “perpetrator” – as in many ways, we can all be – there are times when we have to breakthrough our “assigned role” (our “known worlds”) – teacher, preacher, police officer, executioner, relative, non-relative, and racial and economic categories — and face the rawness of life without our “masks”. We are constantly confronted with “lessons” about what it take to gain or sustain our dignity — our “aliveness”; our “humanness” – in the face of adversity that fate throws our way.

One person noted a similarity between “A Lesson Before Dying” and “The Lovely Bones”. One was about a lesson before dying; the other, about a lesson after dying. Death and dying and other horrific things that happen “teach us” how “to live” – that is, if we don’t let the circumstance “break us”.

One question that was posed towards the end of our discussion was: “What does it mean to die like a woman?” Since the major character was a man and the book was written by a man, would we have a different type of “voice” if the main character had been a woman and the author had been a woman. While there were female voices in the novel – in particular the aunt and the girlfriend – they were focused on “manhood development”. What would constitute “womanhood development”. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to explore this in more detail. This is a discussion that needs to be continued.

Before we got our formal discussion going — while enjoying the food — we talked about the Jung Discussion Group that is in process and the four areas of Jung that this group is exploring – stages of life, collective unconscious, shadow and personality types. One question that was raised at our meeting last night and one that continues to be raised in the Jung discussion group, and that question is the extent to which Jung’s ideas are applicable today.

After our formal discussion, we talked about Buddhism and its various forms. People shared their knowledge of local Buddhist resources.
One person noted that research in neuroscience is forcing a reexamination of Jungian and Buddhist ideas.

We talked about one book we had read in our book club, The Turning of Wheel, by Charles Johnson and how his practice and studies in Buddhism played a role in that book and in his book “The Middle Passage”. “Buddhism” as a topic comes up from time to time in the book club. Maybe we’ll have to make that a topic of discussion.

- Jerome Paige

Thank-you to Jerome and the North Portal Estates Book Club for sharing their thoughts on the 2010 Big Read novel, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. If you would like to share your reading group’s discussion of the novel with the Humanities Council please email jcollier[AT]wdchumanities.org. Be a part of the story!

“The Tale of Two D.C.’s” by Reginald Dwayne Betts

Published on May 6, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .


Reginald Dwayne Betts served nine years in prison for his role in a carjacking. During that time, he became a voracious reader and writer. His first book, A Question of Freedom, tells the story of his coming-of-age in prison. He will appear in a forum on juvenile justice tonight at 7 PM at the AED Globe Theatre (1927 Florida Ave., NW). The event is free and open to the public. The following essay was written by Betts for the 2010 Big Read DC and the city read of A Lesson Before Dying.

The District of Columbia is the tale of two cities. One is cloistered around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, arguably the epicenter of power in the entire world; the other, represented by streets like 4000 South Capitol teems with people trying to make it, struggling against the violence and poverty that people on the outside looking in believes defines them. The paradox? At the moment, both places are defined by what the black men that run them do. President Barack Obama is the graduate of two Ivy League schools, author of two books and has been sighted clutching a copy of Derek Walcott’s Collected Poems. The nameless young brother in Southeast doesn’t walk around with those credentials yet, but the Big Read is trying to close some of the gap.

What if you walked down any street in the city and saw young folks clutching Ernest J Gaines novel A Lesson Before Dying? Call it bold. In a city struggling to keep a library open in each public school, there is a plan to encourage each citizen to pick up the same book. This idea that books matter, and can matter to the lives of regular folks, if only they had a platform to begin a conversation around them. Call it needed. The idea that an entire city reading the same book lays the foundation for a future where literature is woven into conversations on trains and buses, in taxi cabs and in the hallways of federal buildings and tenements.

This year, the Humanities Council of Washington, DC along with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the DC Public Library will bring Ernest J. Gaines’ 1994 novel A Lesson Before Dying into public conversation. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) launched The Big Read several years ago, each year sponsoring the DC community, and declaring a single book to be worth reading by the entire city. A wild ambition, The Big Read argues that good books have lives of their own, and are able to affect more lives as they are read and discussed.

A Lesson Before Dying can be argued to be about how to live once you know you’re dying – but it’s also about how to live. A young black male finds himself in handcuffs, accused of a crime that’s both foolish and heinous, a crime that means he’ll spend the bulk of his life in prison – how does he live knowing the rest of his days will be in jail? On some level, the answer to that question doesn’t interest us. We don’t want to be in the shoes of the child who has left a community scarred, who will have to live with the death of his victims forever. But what if we could imagine that long walk to a jail cell, to an electric chair, before the crime was committed? Would it change conversations we have? Would it change the way we thought about living before we had to think about it in the context of dying?

While the District of Columbia is seeing its population increase, seeing its pull to businesses and young professionals strengthen – there is still a violence, steady and sure, that permeates the city. For the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about Ernest J Gaines A Lesson Before Dying and trying to figure what it means to have many of the citizens of the District of Columbia reading the book together. This book alone won’t make the District a city without the vast gaps in wealth and educational opportunities and access that exist now, no more than the electing of President Obama lowered the incidence of black on black crime; yet, the Big Read, like the President’s election, proposes to start a series of conversations that can bridge gaps. That’s what we walk away hoping is the outcome of a whole city reading one book together, a series of conversations to change a series of lives.

Second Chances focus on juvenile justice

Published on May 2, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

This week the Big Read DC will host a series of 3 events as part of “Second Chances,” a focus on juvenile justice.

The dates of the events are May 4-6 and will take place at the AED Globe Theater at 1927 Florida Avenue, NW.
FREE with reservations.

The series includes two documentary screenings from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series, Independent Lens courtesy of ITVS (Independent Television Service):
May 4 – Sentenced Home, a film by Nicole Newnham and David Grabias. Raised as Americans in inner-city projects near Seattle, three young Cambodian refugees each made a rash decision as a teenager that irrevocably shaped their destiny. Now facing deportation back to Cambodia years later, they find themselves caught between a tragic past and an uncertain future by a system that doesn’t offer any second chances.
Update: Q&A with Helly Lee, Director of Policy, SEARAC on the impact of immigration laws on juveniles.

May 5 – Crips and Bloods: Made In America, a film by Stacy Peralta. In the southern portion of Los Angeles, a civil war has been raging for more than 40 years. Crips and Bloods: Made in America searches for answers by providing a historical and sociological context for the rise of the devastating gang violence. Narrated by Forest Whitaker. Q&A with Tendani Mpulubusi, Arts Commissioner for Ward 8 and Director of Programs, Helping Inner City Kids Succeed (HICKS); and Ashley Howard former gang member, youth member of HICKS.

As well as a panel discussion:
May 6 – Reginald Dwayne Betts (A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison), David Muhammad, Chief of Committed Services for the DC Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, and Shani Jamila O’Neal Director of Justice for DC Youth

In A Lesson Before Dying Jefferson is sentenced to death for the murder of a white store owner during a botched robbery, a murder, the author makes clear, Jefferson didn’t commit. Jefferson may not have a second chance for life, but he must fight for his humanity even as he faces death.

Sentencing juveniles as adults and the conditions during incarceration continues to be debated. Reform efforts to improve these conditions and general perceptions of youth in and out of the juvenile justice system hope to increase opportunities for second chances in our society. Simultaneously, race, class, income/employment status, and education must be addressed as well.

Justice for DC Youth’s website (www.jdcy.org) features data that illustrates a narrative of D.C.’s incarcerated youth. Most of the youth incarcerated at New Beginnings Youth Center are from Wards 5, 7, and 8 which statistically feature:
• The highest percentage of black and Hispanic families in DC
• The highest percentage of families in poverty
• The lowest average annual income
• The highest percentage of residents without a high school diploma
• The highest unemployment rates
• The highest percentage of violent crimes reported

Partners for the juvenile justice focus would like for DC residents to consider this lens while reading A Lesson Before Dying. It’s the start of a series of conversations about what is true justice, the role of education, and the need to create more opportunities for second chances. It’s a discussion about the humanity that must be restored to bring us closer to what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described as “beloved community.”

The Big Read DC focus on juvenile justice is presented by the Humanities Council of Washington, DC in partnership with AED, Justice for DC Youth, and Provisions Library.

Also…
The DC Public Library and The Washington Post will address the connection between literacy and crime in DC at the Washington Post (1150 15th Street, NW), on May 15th. Visit www.dclibrary.org/bigread for more information.

Cardozo “Lessons” April 29

Published on April 28, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Lessons commence Thursday, April 29 at 9 AM at the Cardozo High School with a dialogue between Cardozo’s English students and authors Pati Griffith, E. Ethelbert Miller, Admiral Stephen Rochon, and Yolanda Young about Ernest J. Gaines, Louisiana, and A Lesson Before Dying, the 2010 Big Read DC selection.

Francis L. Cardozo High School
Room 115
1200 Clifton Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
For information, contact Frazier O’Leary at oman9[at]aol[dot]com for details.

English teacher/baseball coach Frazier O’Leary is hosting the event. Here is a video of O’Leary at the Big Read DC event “Why I Do What I Do” educator celebration at Barnes & Noble Booksellers.

Law and Order: Big Read Special Units

Published on April 23, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Chapters Literary Arts Center and SpeakeasyDC brings “law and order” to the Big Read discussion of A Lesson Before Dying.

Tuesday, April 27 at 7 PM, Paul Butler, a criminal law professor at GWU and author of Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice, and Alan Baron of Seyfarth, Shaw LLP with a focus on white collar crime defense will lead the discussion at Teaism Layfayette Park.

Thursday, April 29 at 7 PM SpeakeasyDC presents its 4th Big Read themed “real stories” event at Busboys and Poets, 5th & K venue. One of the storyellers is Harold Wilson, the 122nd person to be exonerated based on DNA evidence. What is life like after being exonerated? Is there a clean slate? There will be a Q&A with the storytellers at the Speakeasy event.

After 16 years and a total of three death sentences, DNA evidence led to the acquittal of Harold Wilson on November 15, 2005. He was the nation’s 122nd person to be freed from death row. Harold was prosecuted during his 1989 trial by former Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Jack McMahon: best known for his role in a training video that advised new prosecutors on using race in selecting death penalty juries.

Harold was convicted of three counts of murder and sentenced to death row after the murder and robbery of three people in South Philadelphia. Harold cooperated with police questioning, having no idea that his trip to the police station would be his last voluntary act for more than seventeen years. “I was in shock for at least a month after the verdict,” Harold recalls. “The only thought that ran through my mind was, ‘How are they going to kill me three times?’ My life was gone and no one in the system cared about my innocence.”

In 1999, Harold’s defense counsel was determined to have unacceptably investigated, and therefore not presented, mitigating evidence during the original trial. His death sentence was overturned. A subsequent appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court resulted in a new hearing based on McMahon’s racially discriminatory practices in jury selection. A 2003 trial court ruled that the attorney had improperly eliminated potential black jurors. Harold was granted a new trial, and the court stated that the death penalty could not be sought.

When new DNA evidence demonstrated that blood from the crime scene was not Harold’s – indicating another assailant – the jury acquitted Harold of all charges. With his family in the courtroom, Harold wept as the jury read the verdict.

Since his release, Harold has been a passionate advocate against the death penalty and for criminal justice reform. He often testifies before legislators, asking, “Is the death penalty worth killing one innocent person? Was it worth killing me?”

He now lives in Manassas, VA.

Source:  Witness to Innocence

What’s Cookin’ at Miriam’s Kitchen

Published on April 17, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Miriam's Kitchen guest Fred Owens reads the final chapter of "A Lesson Before Dying" before the Miriam's Kitchen discussion group

Apparently, the Big Read is a big deal at Miriam’s Kitchen.  Miriam’s Kitchen, which provides services to the homeless including healthy, wholesome meals, art classes, and support, has been reading A Lesson Before Dying and cooking up some fun activities for their guests.

Deputy director Catherine Crum says the volunteers and guests have watched the HBO film adaptation twice (once with the Spanish language track), and have been reading the book to persons who cannot read.  The guests, chef, and kitchen staff have engaged in a discussion on “comfort food” in anticipation of a themed dinner planned as part of their reading of A Lesson Before Dying for the Big Read DC.

Miriam's Kitchen guest Jim Eads educates Chef Steve Badt on "comfort foods" in preparation for a special meal at Miriam's Kitchen.

“Comfort Food” is the title for an exhibit created by the artists at Miriam’s Kitchen opening 6:30 PM, Wednesday, April 21 at the Whole Foods Market in Tenleytown (4530 40th St., NW). The “Comfort Food” theme was taken from the interactions between Grant and Jefferson when Grant brings home cooked food to the jailhouse from Jefferson’s godmother.  Food is the first point of contact between the two men in the Big Read book.

The “Comfort Food” art event is free and open to the public.  At this point, we don’t have any previews of the art, but it’s expected that “fried chicken” will make an appearance as a subject.

To find out more about Miriam’s Kitchen or how you can volunteer, visit www.miriamskitchen.org.

To learn more about the foodways in A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, read “Louisiana Foodways In A Lesson Before Dying“ by Courtney Ramsay.

Kick Off!

Published on April 13, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

The Humanities Council of Washington, DC and the DC Public Library officially kick off the two month Big Read D.C. this week to encourage and continue the discussion of A Lesson Before Dying, out city book.

Tomorrow we’ll celebrate teachers at Barnes & Noble Booksellers –”Why I Do What I Do” — featuring stories from the classroom by Rita Daniels, executive director of Literacy Volunteers and Advocates; and Delores Bushong, resource teacher for gifted students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, VA; and Frazier O’Leary, english teacher and baseball coach at Cardozo High School in Washington, DC.  We hope educators will swap tips for teaching adults and youth how to read and to encourage more literary reading of books like A Lesson Before Dying.  Teri Wright, Senior Manager of Regional Initiatives for RIF and Dr. Elizabeth Primas coordinator of the Big Read for DC Public Schools will give brief remarks. B&N is located at 555 12th Street, NW.

Be sure to join the DC Public Library at the new Benning Road branch library Saturday, April 17 at 11 AM for the city kick off and orientation to the Big Read DC.  The Benning Road branch library is located at 3935 Benning Road, NE.  For more information visit www.dclibrary.org/bigread.

The Humanities Council is also happy to have our old Big Read friends  Chapters Literary Arts Center and SpeakeasyDC be part of the 2010 story.  Check out their events here and here.  Exciting stuff especially for those who are legal minded.

Get into the game with a good Big Read book.

2010 Big Read DC Focuses on Teachers

Published on April 7, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .


I needed someone to go to the prison and teach Jefferson, but also someone who would learn while teaching because he is also in a prison; Grant is in a prison of being unable to live the way he would like to live. I had to discover how he could break out of that. Jefferson, of course, finds release in death, and Grant must take on the responsibility of becoming a better person, a better teacher.

Ernest J. Gaines, The Missouri Review

Next week, the Humanities Council and Barnes and Noble Booksellers will host its first Big Read event focusing on teachers.

“Why I Do What I Do”

Wednesday, April 14 at 6:30 PM
Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 555 12th Street, NW


Why do I teach adults how to read?

Why did I use my summer to teach “A Lesson Before Dying” to prep young men for the new school year?

Teachers, literacy and education volunteers share inspiring stories about their choices in the work they do in our communities, making a connection to a key theme in Gaines’ masterpiece.  Featured:  Rita Daniels, executive director of Literacy Volunteers and Advocates, shares her powerful story about why she became a literacy tutor and advocate; and Delores Bushong, DC resident and high school teacher in Arlington, VA  will share her story of the summer she taught A Lesson Before Dying to African American and Latino male students and why this book is important to youth today.

Educators can sign up for a B&N educator discount card.
Door Prizes.
Opportunities to get involved and enhance the reading experience.