Featured photo: Karen Utsey, Peckham Career Academy
Governor Gretchen Whitmer has proclaimed May 8–12 as Teacher Appreciation Week. So, the Courier is highlighting the E and E (extra and essential) things teachers do.
BLACK DANDELION: CONVERGENT VOICE. BDCV is an international, intergenerational, futuristic platform that utilizes “applied poetry” as an integrative tool. The platform is being used by teachers. The platform amplifies literacy capacity, improves skill-based learning and heightens critical thinking, emotional intelligence and cognitive expansion across disparate disciplines of science and art.
BDCV derives from the pedagogy of Poet Laureate Brown, PSL / POETRY AS A SECOND LANGUAGE: THE SEMAJIAN METHOD.
In this article, during Teacher Appreciation Week, teachers share their experiences with BLACK DANDELION: CONVERGENT VOICE (BDCV) as part of the extra and essential work they do.
Several teachers in our area and even abroad took part in a BLACK DANDELION: CONVERGENT VOICE (BDCV) workshop at the Flint Public Library this year on a Saturday!
“Often if a teacher is not a science teacher, they MUST address issues of the environment, particularly in Flint due to the Water Crisis, illegal dumping and plant exhaust and asphalt factory,” said Brown.
She pointed out addressing girls’ and women’s empowerment, using literacy to impact the entire curriculum as BDCV does, teaching African American history in a trauma-free manner, the teaching of emotional intelligence and trauma adjacent aide and giving hope through teaching active citizenry are some of the things the amazing teachers below are doing!
Here are some of their comments about the international, intergenerational, futuristic platform being utilized for some of their E & E.
Karen Utsey, Peckham Career Academy
“Black Dandelion means a great deal to our students here at Peckham Career Academy. When the poem was introduced to our students, it was exactly at the same time when our entire student body and staff lost one of our bright lights. We lost a student to gun violence. Willie Smith was the student that we lost, and he is our Black Dandelion. The poem is about a 4-year-old little girl and her experiences during the civil rights movement and how dandelions are mowed down and how that correlates to the people that were lost to violence during the civil rights movement. And it transcends into what we experience here collectively as a family at Peckham Career Academy. So our students use that, use their sadness. It was channeled through their artwork, their expressions of love and admiration and sadness as a result of what they experienced. They used all that to create again, they created artwork. And it was therapeutic, and we are grateful for it. So that is what Black Dandelion meant to us. Again, it was therapeutic and it was a labor of love for all of us.”
Davina Whitaker, Holmes STEM Academy
“I just want to say how impressed that I was with the Black Dandelion presentation. I felt like my students were really engaged when Ms. Brown presented the poem to them. We were able to talk about what metaphors are and being able to understand how the dandelions in the poem were a metaphor for African Americans. And then as a follow up with my class, what we did was we talked about how we’ve had some African Americans in our present day who have been mowed down, people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. And it kind of brought it real world to them because they could relate to those incidents that have happened in their current time compared to the young lady who was seeing African Americans being treated unfairly during the poem. So I was just really happy that we were able to be a part of this project and that the students were able to experience this poem.”
Amevi Ahocou, founder/director of Ecole Konoura-Togo West Africa
“Good evening,
Black Dandelion. What a project! We love it here at the Konoura. Thank you, Mrs. Semaj Brown so much for including us in your project. What an honor. We have studied Black Dandelion here in Konoura; we enjoyed this project. We looked at it from so many different perspectives.
The staff, we discussed how you cannot kill Black Dandelion. That Dandelion is so strong, so strong, it cannot be killed, generation after generation, it will keep reproducing. We talked about how the seeds fall from the black dandelion to reproduce. We decided to take that approach, introducing it to our children in the form of science. The wind was between the seasons here. Our season is now for the black seed. This is the season between, um uh between the rainy season and the dry season. It is bee season! Therefore, we decided to explore bees and flowers.
As you will see in the video, the Dandelion is the flower the bees are feeding off from so the bees might go and reproduce the honey. This was our introduction to our students. All aspects of science we covered. The children came up with their own skit. Everything that you see in the video. The children did it themselves. They planned how they would dress. Did you see the yellow book bag? I love the book bag. That’s the seeds flying all over from the dandelions.
You cannot kill Dandelions you cannot kill, especially Black Dandelion, cannot be killed. It can only be reproduced. Our children loved it. I love it myself. I love what the children came up with; and, it was a perfect match to incorporate what is going on in their natural lives, bee season! I love those children. Thank you again, for inviting us and including us in your project. Thank you so much.”
Carrie Mattern , Carman-Ainsworth High School, English Language Arts
“Semaj Brown continues to create programs for students and adults alike, for educators and writers, and for everyday artists who are deeply moved by words. She serves the future of Flint, as well as those overseas and in different states working through her Black Dandelion programming. I know my students loved her Afrofuturism take on the poem, as they too, studied it earlier this year. Semaj is impactful, creative, inspiring and such a beacon of creativity for our state.”
Mary Kennedy-Jacob, Grand Blanc West Middle School Black History, BH365, English Language Arts
How did find out about Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice BDCV?
I walk my dog regularly in my southside neighborhood in Flint. One of the good things to come out of COVID was I met so many wonderful neighbors. Mrs. Janet Cameron, a retired, English teacher is one of the kind souls I connected with during COVID. Being an ELA teacher myself, she always inquires about my classroom and students. Further, she knew that I was teaching the first Black History class K-8 in Grand Blanc Schools. In the fall, she introduced me to your Black Dandelion Convergent Voice program. And provided me with all of your resources. She is the sweetest of people and her desire to keep teaching/informing folk is a character trait I hope to carry beyond my classroom.
What were the memorable points of engagement from the students?
My students like myself were unaware that there was first female Black poet laureate in Flint. So it felt great to share this history-making moment with them. We have a segment in the class called Little Known Black History Facts and it is empowering to share a local and recent history as well as the past. After we engaged in reading and breaking down the poem, I offered a choice to participate in the convergent voice part. We took several days to allow kids to find an authentic voice to share. A memorable moment that I recall was when another teacher reached out saying Miracle shared her poem with her. She was so moved by the writing she emailed me to express her awe of Miracle’s thought-provoking and moving writing.
- What were your thoughts about the poem, and how a singular poem generates lessons across the curriculum?
The poem resonated with me. According to the text, the protagonist is a year older than me, so my first thought was how I lived part of this history and although I was three at the time of MLK’s assassination I now can see how some of my early years were informed by this time period although I did not make all these connections until I was older, more informed and through texts like the Black Dandelion poem. Second, in addition to my own learning, I find this type of text is a great way to connect with American history. In our Black History 365 class, we have had much learning on the joys, struggles, accomplishments, growth and setbacks regarding Black history in the United States. I think my students are able to connect to poetry on another level and it offers a less intimidating way to share history.
How did BDCV enhance the historic happening of being the first teacher to teach the first Black History class in the Grand Blanc school system?
This lesson blended well with the topics we were already learning. Although I had the information for BDCV in the fall, I waited until we hit this specific time frame in history to engage in this project. It was helpful to have the students have prior knowledge before as well the poem was able to reinforce our learning. Further, having our student work showcased on a bigger scale ( The Flint Courier) also informs our administrators as well as parents about our learning. Last, just like our class is making history in Grand Blanc our BDCV experience is highlighting/documenting our journey in a positive way.
Please write freely about the process, and possibilities you might imagine.
I would definitely continue to use the Black Dandelion poem in the future. In fact, perhaps next year I would use it in all of my ELA classes. And if you continue to host workshops at FPL I would encourage my writers to join me. I was moved by your panel of speakers at my first workshop. I have many creative writers that would benefit from that type of one-to-one exposure. Now that we have connected I can see all the possibilities for publication of my student’s work to having important guest speakers such as yourself come in and speak to my students. Your historical journey fits right in line with what I want all of my students to understand and that is that history is alive and we are all making it together.
Richard Thompson-Principal, Greater Heights Academy
1- How did find out about Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice BDCV?
I found out about the amazing opportunity to work with Mrs. Samaj Brown and the Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice BDCV through Flint City Council Ladel Lewis, who is an advocate for our school Greater Heights Academy. With this introduction, Mrs. Brown and I connected on a deep level of purpose and mission and implemented a program with our 6th-grade scholars here at our school.
2- What were the memorable points of engagement from the students?
Memorable points of engagement from our scholars were plethora. One of the highlights was the journey our scholars went on from studying the “Black Dandelion” to connect it with their own lives, challenge, and hopes, and then creating a poem to exemplify these thoughts.
3- What were your thoughts about the poem, and how a singular poem generates lessons across the curriculum?
My thoughts about the Black Dandelion are that is a masterpiece of timeless advocacy, introspection, challenge, brilliance and empowerment of all races, creeds, and identifications. This gift of poetry then invites, empowers and encourages everyone to speak their voice and use this platform for self-expression and justice.
4- How did BDCV enhance the historic happening of being the first teacher to teach the first Black History class in the Grand Blanc school system?
The BDCV enhanced the historic happening of the first teacher to teach the first Black History in the Grand Blanc school system by first and foremost identifying this most important event as an ethos in history and an opportunity to educate our youth in more than the streamlined curriculum that may not respect all aspects of history and voices.
5- Please write freely about the process and possibilities you might imagine.
The possibilities of the BDCV in our school Greater Heights Academy here in inner-city Flint Michigan bring hope and empowerment of having our scholars identify and advocate for themselves and those in their families. The implementation of the BDCV is a worthy and needed cause not just for our scholars, yet all scholars in every school in America and the world. It is a poem of HOPE and TRUTH that literally gives “A VOICE” through literacy.
In the words of Martin Luther King
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
It is an honor to partner with Mrs. Samaj Brown in the BDCV for the trajectory of scholar formation and education. (Virtus et Scientia – Character and Knowledge)
Below are works of art from the the phenomenal students of the truly remarkable teachers!
High School Student, Crystal Santillan diagrams Black Dandelion as an Afrofuturistic Analysis from the Classroom of Carrie Mattern, Carmen-Ainsworth High School
BLACK DANDELION: CONVERGENT VOICE™ | © Health Collectors, LLC
