Sheri on the Classroom:

a theater,

dance studio,

a closed door private space,

a garden,

an offering and opportunity,

a place for tensions,

burning,

eruptions,

cooling,

change.

Speaking of the classroom we have been going to school in various pedagogical sessions and in the hallways.  SolHot rocked some embodied scholarship when Chamaura and Dominique danced their scholarship to Erykah Badu’s Window Seat and discussed the moves they loved, why they loved them, and how collective dance choreography is incorporated into the work they do with young black girls in Urbana-Champaign, IL.

CF Chanel did an amazing popular education workshop not only discussing anti-racist pedagogy, but also facilitating an interactive case study model for sharing best practices and suggestions for the Inside/Out course she is currently teaching.  She simultaneously taught us how to facilitate a discussion with purpose and reflect on how we create/work in/use classroom space.

Girl Studies is on the rise.  Get ready ya’ll cause some powerful work is happening in girl studies through art n activism, body acceptance work, and health/healing.  Tamara Michelle Beauboeuf gave a phenomenal presentation on how  the daughters of Black Women see the contradictions in what we say and how we live.  They see that we are doing the most, as CF Whitney says, when what we say we need is a nap.  She brought the voices of black girls to the fore because she says they offer guidance for their mothers, and in their own words they said we see the real you and this mask is not what we want for ourselves.  It was PoWerFULL.  I’m coming home rejuvenated and retooled and I have already started thinking about the role we will be playing in NWSA 2011.

Peace Always,

Sheri