Hurricane Season Curriculum Updates 

 

 

 Beloved Comrades!

 

We are excited to write with updates on the Hurricane Season Curriculum! We have been hard at work over the last 4 years working with a team of brilliant educators to develop 70 lesson plans that form a year-long course using art to examine unnatural disasters and empower solutions to some of the most pressing issues of our time. The Hurricane Season Curriculum employs poetry, theater of the oppressed exercises, video collages, hip hop, visual art, dialogue, research, internal investigation, and project-based learning to help learners analyze systems of oppression and resistance, and uses a popular education model to build new leadership essential for fundamental social change. Read on 

 


Core developers: Alixa Garcia, Naima Peniman, Samara Gaev, Dr. Angelique Nixon, Beatrice Anderson, Priscilla Vaz, Adam Gottlieb
Consultants: Juan Martinez, Elizabeth Simpson, Ora Wise, Micia Mosely

We have piloted the curriculum in 3  
diverse learning environments, through:
  • Flip the Table - A youth food justice coalition of high school students from the NYC area, representing 12 organizations involved with effecting social change, food justice and sovereignty.
  • Susquehanna University- A semester course instituted, designed, and taught by Dr. Angelique Nixon for first year college students. Between 2012 and 2014 Dr. Nixon taught 10 classes of 19 students each within the university's writing program. The course objectives included developing students' writing, research, and thinking skills focusing on issues of social and environmental justice using an expanded version of the H.S. Curriculum.
  • Global Citizenship Experience- a pioneering High School in Chicago that offers a rigorous educational platform for aspiring global innovators, guiding students to fall in love with learning, discover their purpose, think for themselves, care about others, and connect with the world through their academic subjects.

 

 

from Hurricane Season Curriculum Pilot Learners
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"The most valuable takeaway from this course was my new-found awareness of unnatural disasters. It inspired new ways for me to participate in collective efforts of social and environmental justice, because I was able to identify them in my own community. I was inspired to make a change."


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"It was an inspiring process to learn through multimedia and artistic elements -- the beauty, especially behind the poetry, touched me and transmitted information clearly."


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"As a pretty typical teenager, I came into this class not very aware of what was going on in the world around me. I'm proud to say that I've learned so much more about what is happening close to home, and thousands of miles away."  

 

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"I became a more aware person, both of myself, my generation, and society. I realized that the issues [social, economic, and environmental] I have been hearing about, and was slightly aware, of are much more pressing than I originally thought. I now realize that these issues are my responsibility and that I need to make my voice heard more now than ever."

 

We can't wait 

 

for the HS Curriculum to be a transformational teaching tool in learning environments nationwide! In the meantime there are ways that you can support in getting this project to the next stage!

    

1) Pilot Program-


If there are any educators who are interesting in running a pilot course this fall, we are looking for 1-2 educational partners to test-drive the lesson plans in different environments. Please note the curriculum is designed for 11th and 12th grade high school, or incoming college students and is a semester long course. Evaluation is a critical aspect of a pilot program, so that we can integrate teacher and learner feedback into the final product.

 

2) Grant Support-

 
We are seeking foundational support to be able to launch the HS curriculum nationwide. Its development has been an all-volunteer effort since 2010 and we now need funding to publish the curriculum, and in order to provide free and low-cost access to teachers and institutions that cannot afford to purchase it. If you have any ideas of grants or funding sources that might want to see this project off the ground, or if you have interest in joining our team to help with grant writing and budgeting please let us know!


3) Individual Donations-

We are currently working with a talented team of filmmakers here in NYC to translate the poetry from Hurricane Season into exquisite cinematic videos that will accompany the curriculum. With the aesthetic appeal of a music video, this series will be a captivating way to introduce the poetic script of Hurricane Season to classrooms, and be a way to share the work with mass online audiences. We are accepting donations in order to cover these immediate production costs, as well as to raise funds to complete and publish the curriculum. Thank you for supporting!


4) Publishing & Distribution-

 

We are planning to release the curriculum through an online portal and hard copy media (booklet and DVD, or USB drive with contents). If anyone has experience or connections that would be helpful in the formatting and mass-production of the curriculum, we would greatly appreciate your suggestions! Also if you are connected to teacher networks or conferences for liberatory education, we'd love to get connected!  

 

 

Thanks so much for having our backs! We are beyond excited to share this teaching tool that we have been dedicatedly crafting with great care, love, and intention. And we couldn't do it without the support and solidarity of so many allies and believers!!


With deep appreciation and devotion,

Alixa & Naima