Speed Cinema Screenings: Raparations: Film and Music to Teach African American History 12/15/19 1 pm

Kentucky Elementary Teacher of the Year NyRee Clayton-Taylor, a creative writing teacher at Wheatley Elementary School in Louisville, has worked with young students to expand their passion for learning through extensive workshops and travel to create striking short videos incorporating their research.  This spring the students were interested in the topic of reparations for slavery and their investigation of the topic incorporated writing lyrics and traveling to Alabama over the summer to film a video at sites like the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Their research also took them to The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice both in Montgomery. This resulted in the production of the short video Raparations by The Real Young Prodigys which has had nearly 25,000 views on YouTube since it went live in late September.

Clayton-Taylor will share her experiences encouraging her students to explore pressing issues through song and video and how this process can help provide a culturally competent experience for students who may not see their histories reflected in their classrooms.  

Program length 60 minutes. Recommended for 8+. 

Cinema + Followed by a post-screening discussion with NyRee Clayton Taylor, co-producer Antonio Taylor, and The Real Young Prodigys. 

Followed by optional tours of the exhibitions Ebony G. Patterson . . . while the dew is still on the roses . . .  and Loose Nuts: Bert Hurley’s West End Story.