Greetings, everyone,
I’m just checking in here to say thank you so much for your wonderful support and enthusiasm for the project. Not only have you read my words and investigated links you have also generously shared the newsletter with others. I mean, really shared. Between May of this year and right now, subscriptions for Bending The Arc have exploded.
Look!
That’s wild!
With so many new subscribers, I want to take a moment to say thanks for showing up and showing an interest in topics that are near and dear to my heart as well as in those that may still feel distant because I have so much yet to learn. I’m an educator who’s into social justice which means that I care about you, us, humanity, the earth, the present, the maybe future and how we got here. Maybe my greatest lesson so far in this 3 year old project has been asking myself: What about our lives isn’t a social justice issue?
While I began sharing resources designed to supplement classroom instruction, my own interests and the variety of readings, podcasts and videos that crossed my path compelled me to widen my lens to include whatever I found relevant. Or cool. Or important, regardless of its suitability for students. I write for people who educate and who also lead full and interesting lives in our complicated world. I write for folks who have questions like mine, whose curiosity draws them into new contexts; who might be ready to stir up some “good trouble.” All this to say, educator or not, if any of this speaks to you, you are in the right place and I am honoured to have you.
This post is out of rhythm. Tomorrow is my first day of school with students and I’m very excited to meet them all. I normally post near the beginning of each month. To celebrate this bouquet of newness (new school year, new subscribers, new students…), I want to put a couple of things on your radar to think about, use or otherwise spend time with.
Facing History and Pear Deck put together some wonderful community building resources for classrooms or other kinds of gathering spaces. These interactive slide decks can be adapted to suit your context and offer thoughtful activities which allow group members to explore identity and diversity in healthy ways.
The Visiting Room Project is a documentary film project which includes about 100 interviews with men incarcerated in Louisiana’s Angola prison on life sentences without parole. There are nearly 30 excerpts from these interviews that are about 8-10 minutes in length. I’ve watched nearly all of these and plan to watch the longer interviews over time. I invite you to listen to a few excerpts at a time. Be present. Be changed.
I’m not much of a moviegoer but I did go see Jordan Peele’s Nope this past weekend and cannot stop thinking about it. If you’ve seen it already, please consider this beautiful analysis offered by Scottish media scholar, Francesca Sobande. If you haven’t seen Nope yet, then read this afterwards!
See what I mean? What a mix! Which is how I think life happens anyway, so choose what calls to you and skip the rest. I’m really so pleased that you’re here. I look forward to filling your cup in a variety of ways if possible, and in doing so also replenish my own.
Enjoy the final bits of August and I’ll see you in September.
All the best,
Sherri