Information and Inspiration
Be Encouraged Workshop
An interactive, multi-media motivational experience that encourages people to identify their personal power and clarify their personal goals as the first steps in making a positive impact in the world. Structured around the acclaimed spoken word poem Be Encouraged, the presentation engages participants in writing and reflection on their personal life stories and historical examples of success. 2-4 hours.
An interactive, multi-media motivational experience that encourages people to identify their personal power and clarify their personal goals as the first steps in making a positive impact in the world. Structured around the acclaimed spoken word poem Be Encouraged, the presentation engages participants in writing and reflection on their personal life stories and historical examples of success. 2-4 hours.
Curriculum Development
Kanye Was Right, and So Wrong: A Framework for Teaching Enslavement in History and English Courses
When Kanye West famously described slavery as a choice, he was dead wrong. But the enslaved did have agency and utilized agency to affect their lived experience of enslavement. Despite enslavement, Black people showed resilience, resisted, and rose up to push America to live up to its ideal of itself and, in doing so, definitively shaped the concept of American identity and the concrete experience of American life. This popular education workshop helps teachers, parents, and activists conceptualize a framework for teaching enslavement to support empowerment. By framing slavery through the lens of how African-Americans showed resiliency, waged resistance, and rose up out of oppression, this session offers lessons to any community seeking to understand the power of the human will to overcome oppression.
When Kanye West famously described slavery as a choice, he was dead wrong. But the enslaved did have agency and utilized agency to affect their lived experience of enslavement. Despite enslavement, Black people showed resilience, resisted, and rose up to push America to live up to its ideal of itself and, in doing so, definitively shaped the concept of American identity and the concrete experience of American life. This popular education workshop helps teachers, parents, and activists conceptualize a framework for teaching enslavement to support empowerment. By framing slavery through the lens of how African-Americans showed resiliency, waged resistance, and rose up out of oppression, this session offers lessons to any community seeking to understand the power of the human will to overcome oppression.
Leadership Development
Blowout Consciousness: Lessons in Cultural Organizing from New Orleans
This is the story of Blowout Consciousness, a series of cultural events engaging the indigenous New Orleans culture of brass band competitions to attract community members to civic engagement events. This guide features a tool-kit and step by step process of how to organize events like this in your community.
Get it now on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Blowout-Consciousness-How-Cultural-Organizing/dp/1727862821/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540341863&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cultural+organizing+of+blowout+consciousness
This is the story of Blowout Consciousness, a series of cultural events engaging the indigenous New Orleans culture of brass band competitions to attract community members to civic engagement events. This guide features a tool-kit and step by step process of how to organize events like this in your community.
Get it now on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Blowout-Consciousness-How-Cultural-Organizing/dp/1727862821/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540341863&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cultural+organizing+of+blowout+consciousness
Community Organizing
The Parent-Teacher-Community Model: Using the Network Model to Engage School Stakeholders
A school is only as good as the adults who lead it. This practical guide to building a strong, active, and engaged organization of school stakeholders is based upon innovative and widely accepted organizational principals. Learn how to build a sustainable school leadership organization from the ground up.
A school is only as good as the adults who lead it. This practical guide to building a strong, active, and engaged organization of school stakeholders is based upon innovative and widely accepted organizational principals. Learn how to build a sustainable school leadership organization from the ground up.
parent_teacher_community_council__ptcc__101117.pdf | |
File Size: | 246 kb |
File Type: |
Workshops and Presentations
Be Encouraged: Moving from Individual to Collective Agency - For grades 6th-12th, this performance presentation contrasts and compares the stories of Rosa Parks and James Blake (the bus driver who told her to give up her seat), and introduces students to how individual agency can lead to collective agency, movement building and lasting change. Features live performance, video, audio, and interactive activities.
Most recent feedback from 'Be Encouraged':
The Magical Realism of Race - For grades 9th-12th, this workshop explores some basic elements of the literary genre of Magical Realism in order to encourage and empower critical thinking around race. Features images, audio, and interactive activities.
Eisenhower's Anthem: A New National Anthem? -- For ages 14 to adult, this interactive presentation introduces Eisenhower's warning about the danger of the Military Industrial Complex and investigates The Star Spangled Banner and Lift Every Voice and Sing (two poems that became songs and unofficial American anthems) as raw material for the construction of personal/community/national anthems focused on unity in progress. Features images, audio, and interactive activities.
How to Change the World: Shared Values, Shared Commitments - For ages 14 to adult, this workshop encourages groups to explore what values they have in common and what commitments they can share to make change in their immediate community, as well as tie that change to world-wide progress. Features video, audio, and interactive activities.
Why Language? -- For grades 9th-12th, this workshop explores the nature of language as "humanity's first and most enduring technology" in order to introduce students to the concept of dialectics as way to use language to have constructive dialogue. Features images, audio, and interactive activities.
The Minecraft of Poetry - For grades 3-6, this workshop explores the basic elements of poetry and introduces some forms of poetry using the analogy of Minecraft and beautiful natural images to spark creativity and confidence in early writers. Features images and interactive activity.
Most recent feedback from 'Be Encouraged':
- "Mike Molina's presentation on Rosa Parks captured the attention of a room of 270 Upper School students. He spoke in a way that allowed everyone from the most culturally aware to the student who was at the very beginning of discovery a way in. At the end of the discussion, students and adults alike buzzed with thoughts about how they might use their own individual and collective agency to enact change. " - Felicia Wilks, Garrison Forest School for Girls
- "Michael Molina's presentation was masterful with our 7th grade life skills class. It was ripe with mixed media, potent messages about equity and the value of agency. His delivery was rich with inventive energy and examples to consider. He is a dynamo that connects with his audience." - Dave Tracey, Counselor, Park School of Baltimore
The Magical Realism of Race - For grades 9th-12th, this workshop explores some basic elements of the literary genre of Magical Realism in order to encourage and empower critical thinking around race. Features images, audio, and interactive activities.
Eisenhower's Anthem: A New National Anthem? -- For ages 14 to adult, this interactive presentation introduces Eisenhower's warning about the danger of the Military Industrial Complex and investigates The Star Spangled Banner and Lift Every Voice and Sing (two poems that became songs and unofficial American anthems) as raw material for the construction of personal/community/national anthems focused on unity in progress. Features images, audio, and interactive activities.
How to Change the World: Shared Values, Shared Commitments - For ages 14 to adult, this workshop encourages groups to explore what values they have in common and what commitments they can share to make change in their immediate community, as well as tie that change to world-wide progress. Features video, audio, and interactive activities.
Why Language? -- For grades 9th-12th, this workshop explores the nature of language as "humanity's first and most enduring technology" in order to introduce students to the concept of dialectics as way to use language to have constructive dialogue. Features images, audio, and interactive activities.
The Minecraft of Poetry - For grades 3-6, this workshop explores the basic elements of poetry and introduces some forms of poetry using the analogy of Minecraft and beautiful natural images to spark creativity and confidence in early writers. Features images and interactive activity.