Bringing to Life Absent Narratives of the Civil Rights Era - Competitive Award
The Equity Alliance MN will bring to life absent narratives of Latino, Hmong, Native, Asian, African American, and women of the Civil Rights Era in a collaboration among youth, social studies teachers, Full Circle Theater (FCT), and St. Paul Neighborhood Network. The narratives, researched by youth, will be transformed by FCT into a six person play that will be presented, video recorded, and distributed with accompanying curriculum written by social studies teachers for teachers across the Equity Alliance MN and the state.
$300,000 the first year is for a competitive grants program to provide grants to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Minnesota.Of this amount, $50,000 in the first year is for a grant to the city of St. Paul to plan and design a garden to commemorate unrepresented cultural gardens in Phalen Park in the city of St. Paul and $150,000 in the first year is for a grant to Ramsey County to develop and install activity facilities in Ramsey County parks for culturally relevant games that are reflective of the current demographics in Ramsey County.The Minnesota Humanities Center shall operate a competitive grants program to provide grants for programs, including but not limited to: music, film, television, radio, recreation, or the design and use of public spaces that preserves and honors the cultural heritage of Minnesota. Grants made under this paragraph must not be used for travel costs inside or outside of the state.
In a final evaluative survey:Youth and teachers report learning at least six absent narrative stories of the Civil Rights Era and Secret War.Youth and mentor teachers report that youth led the research process, presented their findings, and participated in discussions.Youth, mentor teachers, and playwrights report that youth worked collaboratively.Other measurable outcomes are:Three lessons for each racial or cultural group listed above will be written by teachers. Teachers will review and rate one another’s lessons for usefulness, pertinence to required curriculum, and documentation of sources.EMID will document distribution of curriculum with video to member districts.SPNN will provide a listing of airing times of Absent Narratives of the Civil Rights Era.Youth, teachers, and artists will reflect on the integration of arts with history.The new curriculum, play, and process will be presented to teachers during the summer of 2016.
*Youth, teachers, and artists integrated the arts with history by creating, "Untold Stories from the Secret War and the Civil Rights Movement," which was a live performance that was recorded by Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN). *The live performance was performed in front of 275 at Stepping Stones Theater. SPNN has produced DVDs and a YouTube link for "Untold Stories from the Secret War and the Civil Rights Movement." *Youth researched untold stories of women, Latin American, African American, Asian American, Native American, and the Secret War and presented these to playwrights and teachers. *Three lessons for each racial or cultural group were written by licensed social studies teachers. *Equity Alliance MN has distributed the curriculum to member districts; Forest Lake Area Schools, Inver Grove Heights Community Schools, Perpich Center/Crosswinds School, Roseville Area Schools, South St. Paul Schools, Spring Lake Park Schools, Stillwater Area Public Schools, West St. Paul/Mendota Heights/Eagan Schools, White Bear Lake Area Schools and made the curriculum available on our website. *The new curriculum, play, and process will be presented to and shared with teachers during the fall of 2016. In April 2016, the curriculum was presented at the National Service-Learning Conference. In August 2016 the curriculum will be presented to Saint Paul Public Schools U.S. History Teachers.