The D-E Community Honors Black History Month

The D-E Community Honors Black History Month

February is Black History Month, and D-E celebrated with a series of events—from Upper School (US) Assembly performances—to a BHM Exhibit in Hajjar Auditorium for Lower School and Middle School (LS/MS) students. The exhibit featured 15 different sections that highlighted Black contributions in the arts, entrepreneurship, architecture, and more. In the Lower School, students participated in activities including drawing their favorite Black heroes throughout history. In addition, during the MS Assembly this morning, students listened intently to portions of “A Ballerina’s Tale,” a documentary on Misty Copeland’s historic achievement as the first Black principal dancer of a major ballet company. “We celebrate all the people who worked incredibly hard to achieve success when the odds are against them,” explained DEIB Assistant Director Simone Henry Agblonon. “The takeaway is to get to know people as individuals.” Fourth grader Camryn T. ’33, who attentively walked around the LS/MS exhibit, said she loved seeing the poster boards featuring Black people represented in so many different categories. She exclaimed, “Black people can change the world!”

Write Night Featurette

Despite a pandemic, one of the core traditions of the English department, Write Night, was held over Zoom this past April 2021. Founded by former English chair, Fred Daly, Write Night has been a special community gathering for students and faculty to share original writing and poetry twice a year since 2012. The spring Write Night is hosted in April in honor of National Poetry Month. Especially in these unprecedented times, Write Night is a reminder of poetry’s power to reflect on the past, imagine new futures, and hold space for the present.