Hundreds Rally To Boost Reading

New Haven students showed off their TikTok dance chops Tuesday — before stocking up on books as part of a citywide campaign to boost reading chops.

The moves were on display at a ​“Rally for Reading Across New Haven’ attended by more than 200 students at the Wexler-Grant School and organized by the school district’s Office of Youth, Family & Community Engagement.

The rally served to kick an NHPS initiative in collaboration with New Haven Free Public Library, New Haven Reads, and Read to Grow.

The campaign is set to last through the end of the school year. The goal is to encourage ​“a sense of urgency” about reading, especially in light of learning losses experienced during the pandemic. Follow-up events will be organized at individual schools as well as at libraries. Student readers will be enlisted as ​“influencers” at their home schools. And kids will be sent home with ​“personal libraries.

Students from John S. Martinez Magnet School, Co-op High School, Wilbur Cross, Lincoln-Bassett Community School, Hillhouse High School, Beecher School, and Davis Street School, began filtering into the auditorium around 9:45 a.m. for the 10 a.m. event.

Spirits were high in the auditorium as students took their seats, holding rally signs with popular quotes about the importance of reading, and red hearts that read ​“I Love Reading” in different languages.

DJ NBeatz energized the crowd with popular hip-hop songs from the last decade: ​“Juju on That Beat (TZ Anthem)” by Zay Hilfigerrr & Zayion McCall, ​“Savage Remix” by Megan Thee Stallion featuring Beyoncé, ​“Rolex” by Ayo & Teo.

Students did the Whip, the Nae-Nae, Renegade, the backpack kid dance, and dabbed in concordance with the popular movement sequences that accompanied the DJ’s set. (If these phrases are foreign to you, think the ​“Chicken Dance,” ​“Macarena,” or ​“Soulja Boy, but 2022 and much, much cooler.)

Itinerant School Community Care Coordinator José Camacho introduced Gemma Joseph Lumpkin — the NHPS chief of youth, family and community engagement — who initiated a back-and-forth chant with the audience, shouting the name of Superintendent Iline Tracey. 

Then Tracey finally took the stage, the students erupted with cheers and applause, and the DJ played airhorn sounds.

“Reading is such a fundamental skill for all of us to have. Without that, we have a problem. Without that, we cannot access our other subject areas,” Tracey said. She shared — to many surprised kid faces — that she wakes up at 2 a.m. every morning and starts her day reading.

Tracey encouraged all of the students at the rally to go back to their home schools and be ambassadors for the love of reading. She said to bring books on the playground and to start reading clubs with their friends. ​“Even with five minutes, it makes a difference,” she said.

The King Robinson School Band played ​“Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” by C+C Music Factory. And the Hillhouse cheerleaders performed a routine: ​“Give me an R! Give me an E! Give me an A! Give me a D! What does that spell?!”

Anthony Fiore and Mashai Roman, the student representatives on the Board of Education, addressed the crowd after the band performed. Fiore encouraged the students to read despite all of the distractions in the world, and said that he also has to remind himself to get back to the books. Adriana Vinan gave an impassioned promotion of reading in Spanish to the crowd.

Representatives from Game Point, a livestream show on 2vstream that covers local high school sports, riled up the crowd by evoking pop culture, like the game Fortnite, and reminded students that the creators achieved their success through reading. Twins Jeffery and Jordan Davis shared that they were unenthused with reading as kids, until tutors at New Haven Reads helped them develop a love for books, encouraging other students to pursue the same route.

The initial plan for the end of the rally was to march down the street to the Stetson Branch Library at the Q House for a tour and ​“reading hunt.” The morning drizzles precluded that portion of the event from happening. Instead, the band led a march out of the auditorium and around a circle in the gymnasium. When students completed the loop and exited the auditorium, teachers and employees from the event’s partner organizations passed out books and bookmarks.

New Haven Reads Education Director Hayley Herrington said that her organization gave away all 250 book they donated. Executive Director Kirsten Levinsohn was pleased to see that her former tutees, the Davis twins, were back at the public schools to promote New Haven Reads.

“How many can I take?!” asked one younger student. Another was seen sneaking back around to covertly snag a second book. Enthusiasm was palpable as kids read the back covers of their books and shared the new plot lines with their friends while making their way to the buses to return to their home schools.