I had a truly inspiring experience this week with a group of third through eighth grade students at the Marcus Garvey Elementary and Middle School in Los Angeles. I visited the school for Caribbean American Heritage Month and engaged about 50 students in a Career Path Exploration. It was a fitting conversation with which to celebrate an Afro-Caribbean Hero who called for people in the African Diaspora to rise as a people – rise up from the effects of enslavement, rise up from fear, rise up from oppression, and injustice – and make our future reflect the interrupted (disrupted) glories of African heritage.
For several years, CARICON – the Caribbean Literary Conference, has taken place during the first weekend in June as a kick-off for several events celebrating Caribbean cultural and artistic contributions to Los Angeles. This year the conference organizers faced circumstances that pre-vented them from staging some of the events planned; however – the visit to Marcus Garvey School was an excellent reflection of CARICON’s Mission and Goals.
The focus of my visit was to share my experiences as a first generation American of Caribbean descent, and to invite the students to “walk with me” through the pathways that have shaped my life as a student, an educator and now, an author. The hour-long presentation was interactive, and I was impressed with Marcus Garvey students’ involvement in my stories, in student-to-student exchanges, in questioning me about my experiences and expressing their thoughts about the responsibilities of a student. We explored the work of a teacher, the work of an author in getting books written and published and reasons for different career choices in a person’s life.
The message I hope I delivered is that, as students, they should be gathering all the tools – basic skills for life, study habits, knowledge of the world around them, understanding of their own abilities, interests and strengths – that will allow them to obtain what they need to live successfully and to make valuable contributions to their families, communities and the world.
We had a great day!
