Celebrating Mardi Gras Indians

This Black History Month we focused on the Mardi Gras Indians. After hearing a program on NPR, on how the Mardi Gras Indians were trying to copyright their costumes, I decided to celebrate them for Black History Month. I used a Tag Galaxy to show pictures of the Mardi Gras Indian's costumes. If you have not used a Tag Galaxy, it is a pretty cool way to show pictures. We combined this with a no overdue book reward. Lucy and I cooked up some Pain Perdu (lost bread) or New Orleans French Toast. The music is lively, the pictures are colorful, what's not to like about Mardi Gras.

Juneteeth in February, Anyone

Black History Month 2010 we will be celebrating “Juneteenth”.

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the US. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th in Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now now free. -www.juneteenth.com

Our activities for the celebration will include an art display by Annie Lee. Annie Lee is known for her realistic and humorous portrayals of contemporary and historical African American family life. Once again I purchased a wall calendar of Annie Lee’s work, this will give 12 pictures to display. Tip: wall calendars go on sale during the month of Feb. so plan ahead to save money.

We will have another Tasting. In all my research on Juneteeth Celebrations, people say it is a must to have a red soda. Because Juneteenth originated in Texas, we have chosen Big Red Soda. Big Red is not distributed in our corner of NC (northeast), so most of our students have not tasted Big Red before. We picked up our soda at Wal-Mart in Charlotte NC, while we were attending the AASL conference. We will have teachers sign-up in advance to bring in whole classes for the Tasting. I can accommodate 9 classes of 30 students. The teachers will collect the money for the tasting (this one being 10 cents per student) . Any student not wanting to participate can opt out of the Tasting, but will still come for the very short PowerPoint Presentation.

So that is our plan. I will post a picture or two after the event and leave a comment.

The Gullah Culture

This year for Black History Month we are celebrating "The Gullah Culture". Gullah, Geechee, or Gullah Geechee descibe African Americans who live in the Low Country region of South Carolina and Georgia. The Gullah are known for preserving more of their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African American community in the United States.

Our activities for the celebration include an art display by Jonathan Green. Green's art reflects the everyday life of the Gullah people. As a child Jonathan lived with his grandparents in SC where he learned the dialect and cultural heritage of the Gullah culture. I purchased a Jonathan Green calendar and mounted the calendar pages for this display. This was the cheapest way to obtain this artwork.

We have purchased a CD of Gallah music. This will be played throughout the month including the day of our third activity, "The Shrimp and Grits Tasting". We will be serving a small taste of Shrimp and Grits (about a 1/2 cup) for 50 cent per person during all our lunches.

Our students love tastings and while they are visiting the library for this activity we will share more information about the rich Gullah culture and show them our display of books that have Gullah characters, are about the Gullah region, or are by a Gulla author.

A Page in Black History

Several years ago I made about 14 single sided scrapbook pages, with an unusual black history fact on it. I made the pages 8½ X 11 and slipped them into sheet protectors. During Black History Month we place the pages in the middle of each table in the Library; every few days I move the pages around to different tables (so that the student who sits at the same table every day would get to see different sheets). The pages are bright and colorful, to catch your attention. I have reused them over and over again. Below are some of the people and/or events I used for the scrap booking sheets.

* John Myers-WWII Test Pilot
* Quilts-Secret Slave quilt code
* Marie Laveau-Voodoo Queen
* Henry O. Flipper-1st Black Graduate of West Point

P.S. If you’re not a scrap booker this could be a project for a history class, a contest for students, or a Volunteer project for someone to do.

P.S.S. This would work for Women's History Month, Native American Heritage Month, etc.

Visit THE HARLEM RENASSANCE @ your Library

Had this idea in the summer and we are going to try it out this February. During the month of February we will celebrate “THE HARLEM RENASSANCE” in honor of Black History Month.

Here’s the plan. (We will let you know in March if it was a success or not)
During the month of February we will have the following activities in the Library:

Afternoon At The Movies-This will be after school and we show A Cabin In The Sky. This movie is short, 98 minutes long. A Cabin In The Sky was a groundbreaking production for its time due to the decision to use an all African-American cast. In the 1940s, movie theaters in many cities, particularly in the south, refused to show films with predominately black performers. I know that 1943 is a little past the Harlem Renaissance time period, but the actors and actresses in this movie were part of the Harlem Scene. As normal we will have free popcorn and sell drinks.
*Blues and Jazz for Lunch – During our 4 lunches we hope to have one of our assistant principals and friends play the music of the 20s. If this falls through I have CDs we will play during lunch one day (it scares me when I have to depend on other people).
* Sweet Potato Pone Tasting – If you research foods of the Harlem Renaissance, you will find that it focused on Southern Soul Food. This is because of the great northern migration of Black Americans to the cities. We wanted to do a tasting, but we live in the South so most Southern Soul Foods are foods our students eat on a regular basis. One that I found that we don’t seem to eat in North Carolina (but they did in New Orleans) was Sweet Potato Pone. This is something between a Sweet Potato cake and a sweet potato pudding. We are going to be the baker of this recipe, which Lucy found on the Internt
*A Rent Party – Our visions of a Rent Party. This will be during lunches so we can not sell food (state law). Instead, we will sell turns on the Video Game called “Donkey Konga” (you also could use Guitar Hero or Rock Band) If I am now talking a foreign language to you, ask the students-- they would love to fill you in on all the new games. I have Donkey Konga set up as a 4 player game and students will pay 10 cent per player per game. We will talk about what a real Rent Party was like in the 20’s and 30’s .
*Lindy Hop and Charleston-During lunches one day, I have asked the Dance Club to do a demonstration of the Charleston and the Theatre Class to do a demonstration of the Lindy Hop. I have,You Tube Video to show on the Smart board if these demonstrations fizzle out.

There you have it, one busy month-- to be so short.