Last updated: July 22, 2019
Lesson Plan
Lesson 7 - BECOMING A CULTURAL INVESTOR
- Grade Level:
- High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 90 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 9-10.SL.4, 9-10.SL.5, 9-10.SL.6, 11-12.SL.4, 11-12.SL.5, 11-12.SL.6
- Thinking Skills:
- Creating: Bring together parts (elements, compounds) of knowledge to form a whole and build relationships for NEW situations.
Essential Question
How can an individual bring about positive change?
What is the responsibility of the individual in society?
Objective
Understand the concept of “cultural investor.”
Discover how Jerome Smith acted as a cultural investor to aid in the enrichment of social life in New Orleans.
Discover how they as residents of their own communities can engage in civic participation by becoming cultural investors.
Devise a plan for acting as a cultural investor in their own community.
Background
In this unit, students will move beyond the days of the classic Civil Rights Movement and into contemporary times. Reading Jerome Smith’s chapter in Talk That Music Talk, they will learn how Civil Rights and music were combined together in a youth organization in New Orleans called Tambourine and Fan. Using the concept of a “cultural investment,” students will then create a presentation about their own community. The lesson also encourages the class to create their own social justice event or “moving classroom.”
Jerome Smith is a life-long resident of New Orleans and a cultural investor in his community. Using the organizing techniques he learned in the Civil Rights Movement, he co-founded Tambourine and Fan, a youth organization that created events that brought young people together to create cultural experiences that enriched the life of the city. In Talk That Music Talk, he explains, “I wanted to create an organization out of children’s play and Civil Rights—use their fun time for social awareness and historical linkages, especially to the music. I wanted the organization to electrify their senses—electrify their spirits.”
Since the 1970s, Tambourine and Fan has run after school programs and summer camps in the downtown neighborhoods of New Orleans. One of the strong messages that came out of Tambourine and Fan was the importance of self-documentation—to get to know one’s own history and how it is connected to global struggles, and be able to tell these stories as a form of empowerment. For many years, they organized a parade, or “moving classroom,” called Super Sunday which honored important experiences in African American history, ranging from dance circles in Congo Square, where enslaved Africans met on Sundays before emancipation, to the stories of fallen civil rights leaders around the South. Tambourine and Fan mentored young musicians in the traditions of New Orleans street performances like brass bands and social aid and pleasure clubs. They also invited Mardi Gras Indian tribes, (who create elaborate beaded suits in honor of Native Americans who helped runaway slaves) and the Northside Skull and Bone Gang (who dress as skeletons on Carnival day to send social messages to their community to embrace the fullness of life and honor ancestors) to join the procession. This cross-generational parade helped young people to make connections to a long tradition of resistance and art in the city.
Preparation
MATERIALS NEEDED
- Jerome Smith’s chapter in Talk That Music Talk
- Pen and paper for free-writing
- Handout on Cultural Investment
- Optional audio-visual equipment for presentations
- Materials for creative projects can be procured by students or, if doing a classroom project, provided by the school.
Materials
Handout for Students that includes questions to answer while preparing their projects
Download HANDOUT: Becoming a Cultural Investor
Gives possible answers to the HANDOUT: Becoming a Cultural Investor
Download KEY: Becoming a Cultural Investor
ENRICHMENT: PROJECT EXAMPLE
Lesson Hook/Preview
Students are preparing a project of their choice that is meant to reflect the needs of their communities that they identify in their lives,
Procedure
- If students have not read Jerome Smith’s chapter in Talk That Music Talk, they can take turns reading out loud to each other to cultivate a culture of storytelling and active listening. Going around the room, each student can read one paragraph. If they have already read the chapter, begin the lesson by reviewing Bruce Barnes’ introduction to the chapter and the first section, “Where You Hear Music”.
- Ask students to “free-write” on the topic, “How do people come together in your community?” for ten minutes.
- Ask students to read their responses and facilitate a conversation about similarities and differences between Jerome’s generation and their own.
- Pass out the handout, “Becoming a Cultural Investor.” Students can complete it as a brainstorming session during class, or it can be given to them as a more in-depth homework assignment. You will notice that it instructs students to use separate sheets for each question. Use your judgment on this instruction.
- If time permits, students can share their ideas with the class.
- Afterwards, they will be given a week or more to work on a presentation about an important cultural practice in their community.
- As part of their presentation, they should explain The idea is for students to plan an event, though they may not be able to actually carry out the plan. The planning itself is meant to be a mind opening experience that can inspire them to move onto real action in the future.
- Why is it important, and how it brings people together.
- Do participants consider it to be a form of “social justice?”
- Are there possibilities for connecting it to social concerns like Jerome Smith and Rudy Lombard did with Tambourine and Fan?
- If so, what issue would they like to address?
- If the format of the course allows for a more in depth project, the class would then work on organizing an event at an important place in the community or create a “moving classroom,” which could take their presentations on cultural practices and social justice into the streets.
- Depending on how much time is available, either option is an excellent way to learn about the art of community organizing.
- For instance:
- Students can work together to develop a social justice theme they want to highlight.
- If they decide to concentrate on a place or an event, students can create a program open to the public.
- If they decide to create a “moving classroom,” students can read other chapters in Talk That Music Talk, particularly the Black Men of Labor section, to learn more about how parades are put together in New Orleans. They can then consider what would represent their own communities the best.
- Students can invite people who are involved in cultural practices in their community if they would like to participate.
- Students can organize the school band or other students in the class/school to provide music for the parade.
- Students can work in small groups to create the “regalia” for the parade. Matching clothes, fans, banners, sashes, and signs are all ways people show togetherness in a parade.
- Students can work with the school administration to create a route for their moving classroom, and to secure necessary paperwork to have a fieldtrip.
- Students can create a “route sheet” and develop other forms of advertisement in local and social media for their event. They can help promote it in the school and around their community.
- Students can organize themselves into different parts of the parade to decide who is going to be responsible for the different components that go into a successful parade.
- Students can document the event and share it as another way to raise awareness about their social justice issue(s).
- After the event is over, ask students to reflect on what they learned by doing another free-write. They can share these reflections with the entire class. What was successful? What would they do differently the next time.
- Students can also write thank-you cards to the people who helped support their event.
Vocabulary
- CIVIC PARTICIPATION: Working within the community to further its advancement.
- CULTURAL INVESTOR: Someone who contributes to their community and hopes that their efforts, whether they are financial contributions or the giving of time and other resources, will help the community grow in positive ways.
- CULTURAL INVESTMENT: Working to recognize and cultivate important cultural practices in the community.
- SOCIAL JUSTICE: Pursuit of the right of individuals and groups to be afforded the same opportunities and privileges in a society regardless of their background
- STREET CULTURE: Forms of art and expression that spring from home communities rather than professional or academic areas, and are presented in the public sphere.
Assessment Materials
The Project Itself can be used as an assessment.
If you decide to do this, it would be best to design a rubric based on your student’s academic levels.
Supports for Struggling Learners
Some students might find this project intimidating. Such learners could be paired with others. The teacher can also identify specific talents of such students and encourage them to prepare a project using such talents, such as music, drawing, etc.
The group reading as presented in step 1 of the lesson should assist students with reading difficulties. To make such readers more comfortable, assign them a short paragraph ahead of time and alolow them to become familiar with it before reading. You could also photocopy that page and highlight the paragraph you with them to read.
Enrichment Activities
See final handout HEY LA BAS! for an example of a community project and discussion.