While waiting for the Bus
Author Archives: Lystria Hurley
Friends
Mother Addie and Mother Lydia
Mother Addie was rushing and Mother Lydia was ushering. When they saw each other they genuinely embraced.
Can I take a picture of you two? I asked.
And they posed.
When I heard about the homegoing of Mother Lydia I thought of many things.
Her smile.
Her kind words after church.
Her spirit of giving.
Her relationship with my mother.
Her singing, “This Joy that I have, the world didn’t give it to me”
Her getting happy and jumping up and down in service.
And the last time I took a photo of her.
Seneca Village
The fifth grade read Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl by Tonya Bolden.
It is a wonderful biography on the life of a young person who grows up in colonial America. She is living in New York and even though is Black comes from a family that is hard working and not enslaved.
Maritcha Lyons’ Grandfather Marshall owned property in Seneca Village. Seneca Village was a large Black successful town with a school, three churches, and up and mobile people living there. The village was shredded apart before the villagers eyes by the city officials who took the space to build Central Park.
My class created a mini Seneca Village out of tubes.
My class also created their own auto-biographies as a book report and presented them in class. The most successful part was seeing them share their stories with each other after school. They were honestly interested in each other and were asking questions that they were not able to ask in class.
I wish You More
After my school experienced an unexpected tragedy, I made it my goal to spend more time talking to my students about things outside of the busy curriculum. Everyday I would stop and say, “it’s time to talk” and they would know. It’s time for a real life conversation.
Most days the conversation is real quick, like, how was your day?
Other times, the conversation would last the entire class period.
One of my favorite books I always use in moments like these is I Wish you More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.
After reading the book, the students created their own images and what they wished more for their classmates. Here are some of their images:
Getting the Mattress Through the Gate
Calle Arturo Schomburg
While visiting Puerto Rico, I came across Schomburg street.
This year the center in Harlem is celebrating 100 years.
A Different Perspective
I don’t know who this painting is by. It’s very old and I’ve been looking for the artist for awhile.
My principal drew Me
One Way Graffiti All the Way
You must be logged in to post a comment.