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Category Archives: Children
An Artist Mother
When you are no longer grieving a loved one, it becomes your job to celebrate the life that has gone away from you. You are joyful about it because joy must be paramount to your life.
Most of all, death has a lesser sting when you celebrate it and I mean, celebrate. Celebrating the death of a love one feels good.
It’s not like celebrating one’s birthday or an holiday because it has a life of its own.
This is what happens every December. The month my dear Mother passed away- and the month she was born.
This time I celebrated her by doing what I was supposed to do- I went to class.
My professor sent the class a message on Canvas: today we will have a Special Guest. I thought,
I was planning on attending another event and skipping class altogether. However, in the past, the special guests proved to be indeed special.
I met a curator and a comedian who both lauded the class with stories of how they got their foot in the door and their careers running.
This guest, Canvas said, was the artist who published the comic strip, Being An Artist and Mother, named Lauren Weinstein.
I looked at her art and was moved. It was work we had already seen in the halls of Columbia.
Let me go see art and listen to an artist who highlights motherhood in her work. I thought while leaving my home.
After sharing that she dressed up to see us- to which we rubbernecked to scan her outfit- she pulled up her art on the screen.
When I became a mother, my art processing changed. I saw stories that needed to be told.
Motherhood opened up a new world to me of cartooning…
I love what I do and I love how I do it.
She showed us how she used her IPad and the significance of ProCreate and shared with us a graphic novel she was working on for 10 years.
Afterwards she asked us for our feedback about her work which I found most humbling considering her success.
I raised my hand and asked about the Black character and this led to a honest conversation about race and how to paint stories without being offensive to people or killing the authenticity of the story.
My friend, Paige, asked her what were some subjects she would stay away from when creating art which got the ‘that’s a good question’ comment from all over the room. This changed the conversation into a discussion about family and our duty to try and show family in good standing at all times. I listened to Professor Blake and Weinstein share how they protect their children from being exploited in their line of work. I thought:
Funny, that’s how mothers are. They have a strong sense of protection over their children. And even in the physical absence of a mother, I can still sense it. That protection itself becomes a part of your nature after a while.
Their rules to life itself begins to protect you.
My professor, Emily Blake, eventually started her lecture. She asked us to take out our projects we were working on.
Weinstein, who stayed for class, traveled to and fro and giving feedback on students’ work and ideas. Quite naturally after showing my work to my friends, we sat there giggling and speaking about anything from art to naming a baby.
Nah, babies need names not adjectives! I laughed. Can you imagine a baby named Resistance? I asked.
I actually like that name! That’s cool. Then we can shorten it to Res.
It was at the very end of class, when Lauren Weinstein made her way to our corner. She inquired about our work and even though everyone was packing up to go home, she sat next to me and asked me about my project.
My two friends who said they would wait for me left when they realized like me- this artist was truly interested in what I was thinking and doing.
I showed her my work and she inquired about the time period and gave me the idea to research the Liberator newspapers.
Look at the layout and read the ads or essays to see how your work should be laid down.
This was particularly useful for me as a writer and artist because it was the format that I had trouble with.
While looking at the images she laughed, I am from Boston and I know exactly where this is!
Her questions about the timeline made me think of how the work would be seen.
You’re integrating your students into the project…Your main focus is to show Black culture in Boston at the time and how schools got integrated.
She pulled out one of my student’s pieces from the pile and commented on it, making me change my mind of how I was planning to grade and present it:
I love this- this is like a map that this kid drew that gives you a sense …like this is the south…this is a plantation the student drew. I love this map.
Originally I thought, I’ll limit the pictures of plantations because enslavement in the north looked different from the south – or did it really look different? – but she highlighted that it was something about the kid’s thinking process and it shows through the map. The kid sees a plantation. This made me think of my over all goal which is to show how the scholars grasp this lesson on race and enslavement in the north during the early 17th Century.
Just like an artist, she left me with sound advice, keep the kids authentic voice in your project each step. You can even reread that childhood book- ( I can’t read it because I can’t remember it- I only remember the art. No matter how hard I try to remember the title or author….) for inspiration.
Just like a mother, she took time with me and listened to my ideas.
Of course I appreciated it but like all children there is always a part we forget. I can’t remember that book. Only the cat and maps!
I arrived home thinking of my Mom and spent the night searching the internet for the Liberator and the cat map book. Or was it a dog?!
My Hands
I sat in the hallway getting ready for the next class when a student walked up to me (I’ll keep her name to myself)!
Ms. Hurley, she said full of laughter, you don’t want to see my hand!
Her hand was bawled up into a tiny fist.
Humm, I said, putting my pen and books on the floor. Now I want to see it!
Her eyes darted between her classroom and the bathroom letting me know her teacher told her to wash her hands. The fact that she thought the situation was funny made me even more intrigued.
Nooooo!!! She wailed.
Please?
Nooo! You don’t want to see it!
I really do want to see it now! Please? I promise to keep hush -hush about it. I whispered. Then she opened her hand, which was full of love.
I absolutely love it. It’s a hand worth seeing!
She laughed and skipped to the bathroom to wash her lovely hands off.
Welcoming Mrs. Lesa Cline-Ransome
The most fulfilling day of the school year -this year- was welcoming children’s author and historian, Mrs. Lesa Cline- Ransome into our school on June 10th.
Last year the fourth graders read Finding Langston, a middle grade novel by Mrs. Lesa Cline- Ransome. They learned about the Harlem Renaissance and how it actually didn’t only exist in Harlem but in other Black cities like Chicago. They learned of writers like Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks. With Finding Langston alone, they spoke of many civil right issues, such as the housing issues that many Blacks faced then (a lot of them were able to relate to being homeless or not having a place to call your own). They also spoke of the right to a decent education and clean food. When speaking of rights, I exposed them to the 10 point system by the Black Panther Party and asked them if the rights that were asked for by the Party in the 70’s different from the rights we were asking for today. They also expanded their reading and writing skills. As their teacher I witnessed their level of comprehension increase significantly!
Below are mini paper colleges they did after studying the book’s cover. We spoke about different art mediums artist use. (By the way, I created my own reading packet which I will soon load on Teachers Pay Teachers).
Finding Langston‘s main plot is of a little boy who exists during the Great Migration. His family travels north for better opportunity- from a loving home in the south. The fourth graders learned that the Great Migration spanned well into their grandparent’s and parent’s generation. Their eyes grew wide when they realized how much this book was so closely related to the past yet to their present.
After we read the book, there was a celebration!
The theme of the party was the Chicago Renaissance. Each student came in as a character from that era. I was the librarian who welcomed prominent writers in to the library built for Blacks. All day my students called me Ms. Vivian (after Vivian Harsh).
The following are the realistic characters my students dressed up as. From the left: Mrs. George Cleveland Hall (Dr. George Cleveland Hall’s wife), Lorraine Hansberry, Ms. Augusta Savage, Ms. Elizabeth Catlett (this character was so popular that this year they all mention an interested in visiting the Elizabeth Catlett show at the Brooklyn Museum…one of them went with me on a random Saturday outside of school), Ms. Katherine Mary Dunham (this character was the one the girls fought over- because who doesn’t want to be a dancer?!), Ms. Margaret Walker, Me (as Ms. Vivian Harsh) , Ms. Gwendolyn Brooks, the little boy in the hat was Mr. Langston Hughes, and the little boy at the far end was Mr. Useni E. Perkins (poet of Hey Black Child). The day of the party they came in full character… so full that I had to remind them that I was Vivian Harsh- with an emphasis on harsh. In high spirits, they traveled to classes and asked students and teachers to guess who they were after putting on short skits. My principal confessed that she didn’t know all of them. Her face lit up when the little girl said yes, you’re correct, I am Katherine Mary Dunham.
The following year when I had them for fifth grade, I started the year with the book’s sequel, Leaving Lymon. With this book, they now spoke about family relationships, detention centers, food lines, and factories in America. They completed a food and race relations project for their work to be shown in a gallery in New York (will share the show soon). They learned about Blacks living in Milwaukee who faced harsh working conditions.
In Leaving Lymon, the reader meets Langston’s bully, Lymon, and finds out why he is a bully. This book teaches compassion for both the victim and the bully. Fifth grade used the lessons during the school year. They had disagreements and once there was even a fight but the core lessons of humanity and self respect was taught and even in very tough times apologies were made and friendships rekindled.
Right here, I want to mention the beauty of these two novels and how apropos it was for them to read it at the appointed time. During the school year, we as a community experienced a death and it was so unexpected. However, my class was already talking about social- emotional skills and self respect. I want to say it was because of the readings they were greatly comforted.
In February of 2024, some of my students joined the program (that I run outside of school) Soap Recipe, on a Black History Celebration trip to Philadelphia, PA. There, they met Mrs. Lesa Cline- Ransome at the African American Children’s book fair. And, oh, what a meeting! For a teacher whose joy it is to find ways for children to connect the past to the present and realize how valuable their history is- I felt loved when my students found Mrs. Lesa Cline- Ransome (on their own) in a gigantic overcrowded gymnasium. They recited Langston Hughes’ One Way Ticket to her between smiles and shrieks. Everyone there witnessed how learning, reading, and writing have the power to transform a human. Everyone was touched at how my students laureled Mrs. Cline-Ransome and in turn honored their educated selves.
One day I was at my computer reading my emails and saw that Mrs. Cline- Ransome was going to attend a book event with the Center for Black Literature in Brooklyn. I told my now fifth graders I was going to be absent because I was going to an event to meet Mrs. Cline-Ransome. I then asked them what they thought about inviting her to the school.
Will she really come?
I don’t know. But is it that hard to write a letter and ask?
With this question, they stopped to do what they did best- argue- about writing the author.
If she doesn’t come it will be a waste of time.
But if she does come, it won’t.
Ms. Hurley, is she your friend?
Of course She’s Ms. Hurley’s friend! She’s going to meet her!
I did what I did best- I quietly waited until they were done arguing, then told them to start writing. I was surprised by the content of their letters. They didn’t even need two days to write her. They put forth their best penmanship and diction. I didn’t have to tell them to use their raggedy dictionaries that they vowed to keep neat in September but by May were a mess. Each writer got up and got their dictionaries.
When I arrived in Brooklyn, I gave her the letters at the end of her workshop and she gave me 12 signed bookmarks for my students.
The author never forgot that moment in Philly, and said so when she responded to their new request to come and visit their school. She returned their sheer passion and joy with an excited yes! Even though she was in Europe when she decided, yes, she’ll come- she emailed me her interest in meeting my students.
Before she came, the students went into preparation mode with tenacious energy. Needless to say, it was challenging. It was nearing the end of the school year and there were so many trips, events, and parties happening. In the beginning of the preparation, they argued and fought over who would do what until some of them wished they never wrote her. That wish turned into another argument (that I got involved with). But as time got close, the dedicated fifth graders (with some help from the nearby fourth graders) worked on mini skits, Bottle projects, and a huge classroom banner while their schoolmates read books by the author, wrote papers and drew images to honor her arrival.
When she came, my students were walking to the sanctuary. I double checked my email and saw that she was outside. I told the students and they rushed to the front of the building! All twelve of them were surprised that she actually came.
There are very few moments when I can say they stopped talking this year, and this was one of the them. When they saw her step out of the car they all got quiet.
That’s really her! I heard one student whisper.
They did not even run to open the door! They stood on stairs, gawking. Some were pointing while others stood with their hands over their mouths.
I told two students to go down and let her in- to which when they did like robots. Then, they continued to stand there and gape. She broke the silence by saying- Ahhh, …can I take a picture of all of you?! I, of course couldn’t stop smiling.
That morning, I ordered over one hundred dollars worth of KFC for the class as a surprise. After the two hour talk and book signing, they returned to a classroom that smelled of KFC. They ate with the author and put on their shows, read their poetry, shared their art and brought up their favorite topic – Ms. Hurley doesn’t know how to spell Tick- Tock correctly.
To add to all the excitement of the day, Mrs. Lesa Cline-Ransome’s husband, James Ransome, came and spent some time with us at the very end! What can get better than that?!
By her departure, they were back to themselves, doing what 11 and 12 year olds do best- show off (this is after arguing of course).
Before I end this post, I want to mention one question I heard one of my students asked her during her lecture. She wanted to know why Mrs. Cline-Ransome includes the father (as a character) in all her books. My student struggled to ask the question because she asked the question from a very vulnerable place. While reading the books and talking about relationships with my students, I didn’t realize that because most of them were in house-holds without their fathers, reading her books gave them a sort of insight into a world in which the father existed everyday- and this world, they learned, was a very possible world.
Thank You, Mrs. Lesa Cline-Ransome
Michelle by Sherald
Amy Sherald and the Boys
Amy Sherald & All the Girls
Anna Belle
Anthropomorphic Characters
While reading A Wrinkle in Time, we meet all sorts of interesting characters from history and literature.
Along the way we meet the White Rabbit a fictional and anthropomorphic character in Lewis Carrol’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
When I explained the term anthropomorphic character to my students I understood that the characters are animals with human characteristics, however, they stumped me with the question- are monsters anthropomorphic?
Some sites say they are and others say they aren’t. I am not sure.
I think they should be. So I gave my students credit for animals and monsters.
Pricilla and Grandma
A student of mine all grown up. She studies medicine at Lehman College.
It was a joy to see her still spending time with her grandma who was very present in her life as a child.
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