The upper school’s February assembly on Monday honored African American History Month. The event was titled, “BLACKNESS is Not a Monolith.” Social worker Hope Foster spoke about the idea of celebrating Black History and not defining or limiting the perspective or stories of black people. Ms. Lee-Bey took a chance to talk about greetings and ways to check in with peers. She spoke about linguistic diversity. She talked about various dialectics and African and Southern and Caribbean ways of speaking. Ninth graders Ana Lu Galaretta, Raimon Nelson, Pilar Gomez won merits for persistence, engagement, and resilience. Sophomores Julia Nixon, Loye Hawkins, Carys Nelson earned honors for tenacity, positive attitudes, and effort. Juniors earned merits for their community service, engagement, and commitment including Kayla Schifferle, Elizabeth Campbell, and Assata Bates. Seniors Christian Souverain, Juliette Warga, Rubi Vela, Teachers also honored their teachers. Carys Nelson honored Mr. Edwards-Stuart for his work in Chemistry. Junior Michela Irving honored her AP Human Geography, Sophomore Jazz band member Brian Guzman gave an award to music teacher Mr. Evans. The Jazz band video showed students performing and being conducted by arts department chair Ms. VerCammen. Junior D’Andre Pearson spoke about art and his ability to express himself through various mediums including the fine arts. Mr. Torrence closed with a description of the history of African American History month and reflections about his own identity and inspirations.
