‘Black Stories Matter’ at Kingston High School on Monday
KINGSTON, N.Y. » About a dozen Kingston High students will confront racism and bias in Black Stories Matter in the school’s auditorium Monday at 6:30 p.m.
The presentations will be the culmination of an eight to 10-week intensive writing workshop with the Kingston-based TMI Project, which specializes in storytelling dealing with topics that generally considered difficult to talk about, said Amy Kapes, a school social worker.
In a press release, TMI, which stands for “too much information,” describes its mission as “to empower people and bring about social change through true storytelling.”
“It’s a good empowerment project for students, particularly people of color,” Kapes said. “We’re taking steps to do better as a district.
“We’ve done some things, but there are lot more to do.”
It follows up on a similar adult program by TMI that was presented as an assembly to all students in February and March, she added.
Kapes said district officials were in talks with TMI since the end of last year and the program ended up being funded through a My Brother Keeper Grant.
Junior Jocelyn Childs, said the project, which she worked on after school and at home, helped her to realize the truth about what she’s been through in her life.
And she offered a hint of what it will contain.
“It’s how I dealt with the oppression African American students have to face,” Childs said. “People don’t understand the problems we face.”
Childs believes it’s important students get out and share their message.
“In 2018, there are a lot of issues,” Childs said. “Students are the future of the world.”
As for her own future, Childs said it’s “still up in the air” but she didn’t rule out majoring in AfricanAmerican studies in college.
Mya Cotton, who hopes to study adolescent education and become a history teacher, said teachers and history both play an important role in students’ lives.
“Teachers have a lot of power. Students look up to them,” Childs said. “I feel history is important, it allows us to learn from our mistakes from our past.”
Looking ahead to her future, she hopes to become part of Teach for America and teach in a low-income school district.
“The organization works in lower income cities and supports more diversity in schools,” Cotton said. “Representation matters,”
Cotton said the project has allowed her to see herself as who she is and not worry about stereotypes of what is beautiful.
She added that acknowledging one another’s differences can be liberating.
Kapes added that the Kingston City School District is working on being more representative when it comes to faculty.
“Maybe Mya will come back and teach here,” Kapes said.
And that initiative extends to course offerings, which will include an African-American literature course for the first time, Kapes added.
Ashley St. Hubert, a 10th grader, said Kapes asked her if she wanted to take part and she signed right up.
St. Hubert said that she’s discovered a lot through compiling her story.
“I wasn’t very aware of the stuff I experienced through my story, all the stuff that kind-of wasn’t right,” St. Hubert said. “People should pay attention to what they say to other people, and how it can impact their lives.”
She added that things have only been made by worse by social media, which categorizes everybody.
But St. Hubert thinks positivity can help.
“People need to acknowl-
edge positive things in life instead of focusing on negatives,” St. Hubert said.
St. Hubert said in the future, she hopes to be a forensic pathologist.
Shawaine Davis, a 10th grader, said she also signed up when she approached about taking part in the project. Davis said she couldn’t see how some other students were talking about how they were uncomfortable about the TMI assembly. Cotton agreed. “It wasn’t uncomfortable. It’s accepting reality,” Cotton said.
Looking ahead to the future, Davis said she hopes to study criminal psychology and criminal profiles.
Davis believes more diversity in the criminal justice system could help prevent the killings of unarmed black men by police officers.
“I won’t be scared around a person of another skin color,” Davis said. “I have no reason to be.”
As for if Kingston High School racially divided, Childs said some people hang out with friends of different races, while others stay in their comfort zone.
Cotton said in her mind, the main divide is between kids with wealthier parents and kids from more low-income backgrounds, regardless of race.
Kingston High Principal Kirk Reinhardt said he’s seeking to be more responsive to the needs of different students.
“We need to be proactive instead of reactive to the needs of our students,” Reinhardt said.
He added that he wants to be more engaged with what matters to students.
When asked if he felt high school students were becoming more engaged with national issues such as gun violence after the Parkland High School mass shooting in Florida, Reinhardt said he’s focusing on what’s going on here in Kingston and ensuring students are successful here.
The “Black Stories Matter” production also includes Kingston students Zoey Rowles, Tyana Gaton, Sofia McDonald, Sadya Edwards, Damine Moore and Edward Hillje.
The Center for Creative Education’s dance group Energy will open the evening with a performance.