‘Read-In’ Celebrates Black Voices

A group of seventh and eighth graders from Celentano Museum Academy were originally planning to spend their Saturday afternoon with friends at the mall. Instead, they spent it together at the Stetson Library. Credit the change of plans to President Barack Obama — not to mention Malcolm X, Phyllis Wheatley, and a range of other influential African-Americans.

The students joined members of the local community Saturday to read together the words that make up the fabric of African-American history. About 40 attendees, who ranged in age from 9 to 74, selected from a variety of important historical works to read aloud, leading to discussions about how America has changed.

“The experience of reading aloud the words that have molded society entails an implicit sharing of ownership: those words, with all of their political and social importance, become the reader’s, almost as much as they were the original speaker’s,” said Matt Presser, who teaches language arts at Celentano and planned the event. ​“I think that’s what’s most powerful about a read-in. Speaking in front of an audience, individuals recreate moments of historical significance and begin to think about the effect those words have had on society.”

Organizers sought to represent a wide range of history in their selection of 50 great black leaders, speakers, and writers. In the end, attendees heard the voices of such greats as Olaudah Equiano, whose autobiography, first published in 1789, depicted the horrors of slavery; poets such as Maya Angelou, Claude McKay, and Paul Laurence Dunbar; and musical artists including Michael Jackson, Jay‑Z and Nas. Even local poet Prudent Bute, 41, got involved, sharing one of his own original pieces, a tribute to his godson.

“In pursuit of revealing to our students and various community stakeholders the brilliance, complexity, richness, struggle, and history of African Americans, from the founding of the nation to the present, Matt and I surveyed volumes of Black literature and political tracks,” explained Redell Armstrong, a teacher at James Hillhouse High School and an organizer of the read-in. ​“Hoping to construct cultural and historical bridges between the participants’ lives and the words they read and to resuscitate the diverse messages, pleas, protests, prophetic warnings, and strategies to reaffirm the humanity and contributions of African-Americans from the annals of the past, we identified the works
of 50 notable black Americans.”

Those readings were spread out on tables at the library for readers to select from and take home. Still, some attendees, like Yale senior Marcus Strong, 21, read works that were personally significant – in his case, an excerpt from James Baldwin’s ​“The Fire Next Time.”

The event was one of hundreds of programs across the country during the month of February sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English. This year, more than one million participants are expected to attend the NCTE’s events, which have been held annually for more than 20 years.

“What was most powerful for me was seeing a transformation inside the student readers,” Presser said. ​“When they began reading, they were nervous, but when they looked around to see how rapt their audience was, their nerves disappeared. Before long, we had a line of readers eager to read again, which was certainly a tribute to the powerful nature of the words they were hearing and listening to.”

Three hours after the event began, a diverse audience had come in and out of the library conference room, including members of Yale’s Black Men’s Union, local teachers, and others. Rhea Brown, 36, was using the computers in the library when she heard the powerful words being spoken. She performed a powerful reading of Angelou’s ​“Still I Rise.”

“After the scores of students and community members read the selected literary pieces and poetry aloud,” Armstrong said, ​“the public space was filled with voices from the past and present that echoed the continual need to draw from history to construct a new future.”