On May 2, Board member Michelle Fine and editor Stan Karp co-hosted a 40th Anniversary Rethinking Schools House Party in Montclair, NJ.
The event was also co-sponsored by MAPSO Freedom School, an anti-racist education-activist group based in South Orange and Maplewood, NJ. MAPSO FS was also marking its 10th anniversary.
The two groups have partnered before and several MAPSO FS members have been Prentiss-Charney Fellows, a program of the Zinn Education Project which supports the activist efforts of working teachers. (ZEP is co-facilitated by RS and Teaching for Change.) Other MAPSO FS members have been part of RS book projects, including The New Teacher Book and Teacher Unions and Social Justice.
The May 2 event was a big success. About 60 people attended and over $5,000 was raised for the RS 40th anniversary fund drive. Spirits and energy were high as the diverse group of teachers, parents and community activists renewed old ties and made new ones.
TJ Whitaker, a high school teacher who is a founder and key organizer for MAPSO FS, spoke to the gathering, which served as something of a reunion for longtime MAPSO teachers and activists. May 2 was also TJ’s birthday which added to the celebratory feel.
RS Executive Director Cierra Kaler-Jones also came from her home in Virginia to speak. “It was lovely to reconnect with Prentiss-Charney Fellows and past participants in RS writing workshops,” Cierra said. “It was also exciting to meet so many local educators, teacher educators, historians, journalists, local Palestinian groups, and others who have been using RS materials and are deeply connected to struggles for education justice in NJ and the country.”
Others in attendance included Alyssa Bowen, a researcher who wrote for RS about the Model Gary Convention, an annual student-run event based on the famous National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana in 1972. Scholar and community activist Charles Payne, who Cierra interviewed for the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle series in 2020, was also there. There was also great support from teacher education programs at nearby Montclair State University who sent staff and students to the event.
“The Montclair House Party was the first of what we hope will be a series of successful events during this anniversary year,” said Stan Karp. “Building community and strengthening ties with local activist groups and teacher education programs can only strengthen RS as it looks ahead to the next 40 years.
Check out some photos from the Montclair, NJ House Party!
