Beyond Diversity & Examining Whiteness: How All Educators Can Show Up Against Systemic Racism
In this brief solo episode, Jen unpacks new learning that she has gleaned from the Courageous Conversations training: Beyond Diversity. She shares insights and ideas for educators to continue to do this work and specifically speaks to her role as a white educator and the importance of white educators showing up for the work by naming their identities and recognizing the role that they play in systemic racism. She also discusses ways that schools can create Equity Teams to move from reflection to action. This courageous conversation is the first of many, but it is one that is worth listening to for those who want to see our schools be more equitable and safe places for all children and adults alike.
Show Notes:
Courageous Conversations
https://courageousconversation.com/about/ (https://courageousconversation.com/about/)
Collectively Renewing the Montessori Curriculum
https://montessori-action.org/renewing (https://montessori-action.org/renewing)
Robin DiAngelo
https://www.robindiangelo.com/ (https://www.robindiangelo.com/)
Peggy McIntosh: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack
https://psychology.umbc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2016/10/White-Privilege_McIntosh-1989.pdf (https://psychology.umbc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2016/10/White-Privilege_McIntosh-1989.pdf)
Charleston Jewish Federation
https://www.jewishcharleston.org/ (https://www.jewishcharleston.org/)
Episode Photo by Jon Tyson
18 Aug 2022
Reclaiming, Reframing and Renewal: New Perspectives on the Work
In this short episode, Jen and Techa are glad to be back and starting Season 3 with a conversation on entering the new school year amidst all that we have experienced and continue to navigate. They catch up with a few of the things happening in their worlds. They also provide the Namasteach audience with hope for a positive new school year and remind us to approach our work with open hearts and minds.
May you come to know that work
Which emerges from the mind of love
Will have beauty and form.
May this new work be worthy.
Of the energy of your heart
And the light of your thought.
May your work assume
A proper space in your life;
Instead of owning or using you,
May it challenge and refine you,
Bringing you every day further
Into the wonder of your heart.
– Excerpt from John O’Donohue, “Blessings for a New Position,” To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings (2008)
28 Mar 2022
The Power of the Story: How the Intersection of Storytelling, Folklore, and Empathy Can Create RADICAL HOPE
In this dynamic episode, Techa and Jen have a conversation with Spencer George, writer, teacher, artist, and folklorist. Spencer shares her experiences writing about the intersectionality of folklore, storytelling, and empathy and specifically the roles that stereotypes play in limiting our stories and thus limiting our transformative power. Sharing her own journey as well as a multitude of resources, Spencer enlightens listeners to the possibilities that are available to all of us when we embrace all parts of our stories and ourselves. She reminds us to focus on what is important and to open up brave spaces for our students to have conversations that matter. She reminds us that empathy is both a choice and a critical practice and that sometimes our smallest moments are the most impactful. This is one episode that you do not want to miss.
Spencer George is a Writer and Teaching Artist based in North Carolina. She holds a BA in English and Human Rights with a concentration in Creative Writing from Barnard College and is an MA student in Folklore at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her work focuses on the intersection of storytelling, folklore, and empathy in the rural south, with a particular focus on the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. Her writing has been published in The Bitter Southerner, The Adroit Journal, and Medium, and once received a shout-out in The New York Times. She is the creator and writer of GOOD FOLK, a weekly newsletter about the people and stories of rural America and the American South. Currently, she serves as an ArtistYear Senior Fellow in Creative Writing and the Special Initiatives Assistant at Girls Write Now. Spencer was the 2019 recipient of the Peter S. Prescott Prize for Prose Writing and is at work on a reimagined Southern Gothic novel about young, queer love and the radical power of hope.
IG @ spencerggeorge
Email: spencerggeorge@gmail.com (mailto:spencerggeorge@gmail.com) and goodfolksonly@gmail.com (mailto:goodfolksonly@gmail.com) .
References and Resources:
Ocean Vuong (Poetry)
https://www.oceanvuong.com/ (https://www.oceanvuong.com/)
Genevieve Hudson
https://www.genevieve-hudson.com/ (https://www.genevieve-hudson.com/)
Joan Didion
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/fashion/From-Joan-Didion-to-Andrew-Sullivan-some-writers-leave-behind-letters-when-they-leave-new-york-city.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CNew%20York%20was%20no%20mere,at%20the%20age%20of%2029 (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/fashion/From-Joan-Didion-to-Andrew-Sullivan-some-writers-leave-behind-letters-when-they-leave-new-york-city.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CNew%20York%20was%20no%20mere,at%20the%20age%20of%2029).
Projects about rural and queer South:
Amazing oral history podcasts about rural queerness:
https://www.countryqueers.com (https://www.countryqueers.com/)
interactive map on American LGBT history: https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/lgbtdivide/#/cover (https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/lgbtdivide/#/cover)
Books
Arcadia by Lauren Groff
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Empathy Exams and The Recovering by Leslie Jamison
Outlawed by Anna North (queer western reimagining)
Boys of Alabama by Genevieve Hudson (gender non-conforming author, magical realism about immigration/queerlove/religion in Alabama)
The Round House by Louise Erdrich (Native American author, stranger things vibes, heartbreaking but SO good)
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr (incredible debut about the deep South)
Low Country by J Nicole Jones (memoir about South Carolina)
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