"What is Left to Do?": Shaw at Garnett-Patterson

The end of the school year is always a time of great change and possibility. For students there is the inevitable relief of making it through the school year accompanied by what awaits them on the other side of summer. Kristian Whipple, coordinator of New Community for Children ArtSpace and lead instructor for A.B.L.E's "Black, Brown, and White" project captures the end of the year mood in a small photo exhibition he organized with the group of students from Shaw@Garnett-Patterson a middle school here in Washington, D.C.

Brother Malcolm

Last week was the birthday of Malcolm Little/Malcolm X/El-Hajj Malek El-Shabazz. In commemoration of his birth the students in ABLE watched Spike Lee's film which aim to capture the mood and milieu that produced what the historian, Robin Kelly, has called the 'race' rebel.
As a response to our week long conversation some students wrote (non)poems to reflect their thoughts about what "Brother" Malcolm means to them in 2009.

MUSLIM

NO NONE SENSE CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST

KILLED BY OWN PEOPLE

FRIENDS WITH MLK

DIFFERENT METHODS

CAPTURING

CIVIL RIGHTS FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS

Naeem Wynn

African American stood, believed, father, criticize many people, jailed taught civil rights activist. Dionni Philips

Malcolm X.........

Think great,
Muslim
public speaker

Think ......Nation Islam

Think rough start....LIFE

Being passed.....foster home
foster home

See man who stood for what believed

Didnt let anyone change that.

ALEXIS WILDER

"This is Me and Some of My Favorite Things"

I am Alexander Jones and I’m 13. I enjoy playing video games, watching movies, and hanging out with my friends. I got a private school, named St. Augustine Catholic School. I live on 14th and Girard Street in the northwest area of the district. My favorite places in the city are: the movie theater in Gallery Place, Meridian Park, Rock Creek Park, and my house. My favorite book is the comic “Watchmen”. My favorite foods are pizza, tacos, and burritos. My favorite movies are Scarface, Terminator (the first), Watchmen, and the Dark Knight. My favorite icon would be Bob Marley, Jimmy Hendrix, and Rorschach.
My family migrated from their country to the United States of America. My grandmother on my mother side migrated from El Salvador. My grandmother on my father side migrated from the Dominican Republic. I would like to live in California. For the fact they have the only governor to win a Oscar, there’s plenty of sun and not any sun. Ten years from now I would like to see the city a little different. First I would like to see flying cars and little less stupid presidents in the future.

Confident

The Reason Why I Choose This Person To Be In My Portrait,because She Is My Role Model.
She Can Get On My Nerves A lot Of Times.
It Is Really Hard To Make Her Laugh.
She Can Be Very Stingy At Times.
I Love Her So Much. I Don't Know What I Would Do With Out Her.
She Is Always Serious,She Cannot Take A Joke.
She Is Very Smart, She Carry Herself Proper And As A Women
She Speaks Her Mind,She Is Not Afraid Of Living Life.
She Can Be Very Mean At Times.
She Only Wants The Best For Me.
She Always Supports me In Anything I Want To Do.
She Makes Sure Puts Clothes On My Back, Even When I s Low On Money.
She Is Everything I Could Have As A Mother.
I Couldn't Ask For More.
I Love My Mom Davida Michals.




Dionni. 13

"Looking for 'Brown' in a 'Chocolate' Town: Mount Pleasant

The students in "Black, Brown, and White," went out yesterday to encounter some 'Brown' in this so-called "Chocolate town." They were led by my co-teacher and expert photographer, Kristian Whipple. The A.B.L.E. students walked through the neighborhood of Mount Pleasant in northwest Washington, D.C. where in 1991 'riot' occurred when a police shot of a young Latino man at the end of a Cinco de Mayo celebration.

The purpose of the trip was to give the students a chance to see if the people and places they encountered fit their idea of what a 'Latino' space looked like. Although few students had visited Mount Pleasant before, their impressions reflect the challenges adolescents must navigate as they attempt to move beyond the boundaries of individual experiences.

I felt that the Mount Pleasant area is full of diversity. The dominant minority in the area is mainly Hispanic. The are also is this apartment that look like it was filled with homeless people and gangbangers. The streets were littered with homeowners as well as cars. The community looked like it was also full of local bussisness from auto-repair shops to shoe repair shops.

A. Jones.

round Mt. Pleasant, there were alot of grocery stores and corner stores, there were a couple of cafes, and there was constuction. The people from the neighborhood was posted up chilling outside enjoying the good day. The cars around there were very diverse, saying that the economic income is also diverse. I also seen this bike that look like it was from the 90's.

A.B.L.E Unknown

Mount Pleasant gave me a number of reactions including some suprising and not suprising ones. When we first saw the street it looked like there would not be that much of a cultural change throughout. At first the dominant race throughout the neighborhood was hispanic people. But if one observed more than meets the eye they would see that there were actually a lot of things hinting at the fact there was a wealthy part of the community that lived more towards the spot we ended. Although it seemed to be less culturally diverse than the first consisting of white and some black people. On the other hand there was the community lacking wealth which consisted mostly of hispanic and very few asians. My overall impression was that Washington D.C. is a very diverse place whether it be based on ones wealth or there race.

J.C.

my reflection on the trip to mt.pleasent is that there is nothing pleasent about it.

everything is dirty ghetto lokking and its not a pleasent site.

there was a lot of spanish people up there and they were looking at us like we were crazy.

A. Johnson

Today at Mt. Pleasant I saw things that I normally don't see around my neighborhood. Even though some people were acting mean I still enjoyed myself. I saw a different side of DC that I normally don't,

A.B.L.E. Unknown

today in Mt. Pleasant i saw things that i dont usually see around my neighborhood. i saw a lot of Hispanics and a little bit of white people but mostly hispanics. I really enjoyed the exsperience. it was a lot big abandon buildings and markets.there were a lot of spanish market that sold things such as clothes and things in CVS.

"The Meaning of Freedom"

The Meaning of Freedom
Curated by Kheilah Short (age 12)

Freedom is letting people do what they want to do. It is not forcing them to do what they don’t want to do. Freedom is the right to say what you want, and do what you want, and be what you want.

Slaves were forced to be slaves and couldn’t do what they wanted to do. They weren’t treated like they were supposed to be-- with respect, with kindness, and fairness. They had to do work and care for other people and they had to care for themselves too.
Now we’re free. We can care for ourselves. We can be who we want to be, say what we want to say, and do what we want to do as long as we make the right decisions.

In the summer and fall of 2008, some of us from ABLE took some pictures in Cincinnati and Washington, DC. The purpose was to teach them about our history and how hard it was for slaves. They learned more than they thought they would. They are very grateful because people took time out of their lives to set slaves free. Your life would be so hard if you had to work for other people for the rest of your life.

I hope that through these photos, you will learn more about slaves and how they used to live, and how you should be grateful for what you have now, like not wanting more expensive things. I want you to know that we teens actually care about our history.
I chose these photos because I think they represent freedom and unity. I got the quotes from other pictures that students took. How I matched them to the photos is because the pictures seem to represent what the quotes mean.