By It Takes A Village Family Of Schools
Village Leadership Academy (VLA), Chicago’s very own premier K-8 independent social justice school, is excited to announce the BET television debut of Change the Name, a short documentary highlighting their students’ work to change the name of Stephen Douglas Park in Chicago’s North Lawndale community to Anna and Frederick Douglass Park.
The “Change the Name” campaign, which began more than four years ago as one project of the VLA social justice GrassRoots Campaign curriculum, garnered much attention as VLA students refused to back down from the Chicago Park District’s silent dismissal of their proposals to change the name of the park, which celebrated a slave-owning family in a historically Black neighborhood.
View this post on Instagram
GrassRoots Campaigns (GRC), which are a central component of curriculum at VLA, are immersive civic engagement projects that promote critical problem-solving skills whereby students and teachers work collaboratively to create and develop an action plan that provides solutions to an identified societal issue directly impacting their community. VLA students acquire deep, interdisciplinary learning and essential leadership development skills as they work to enact direct, prolonged change within their communities.
The award-winning documentarian, Cai Thomas, became connected with VLA through their interest in social justice, youth activism, and education. Thomas is a NeXt Doc and Sisters in Cinema Fellow interested in telling verité stories about Black youth and elders at the intersection of location, self-determination, and identity.
Students leading the Change the Name campaign/Tribeca Film Festival
Change the Name will be aired on BET as part of the Queen Collective Shorts collection in this year’s Tribeca Film Festival as a part of their Juneteenth programming. Those interested in viewing the documentary can tune into BET at 8 p.m. CST on Saturday, June 19, or purchase for viewing through the Tribeca Film Festival website June 18 – 23.
Village Leadership Academy, founded in 2007, is an independent kindergarten through eighth-grade social justice elementary school located in the South Loop. Those interested in supporting their work, learning more about the school, enrollment, or the GrassRoots Campaigns curriculum, can visit VLAcademy.org.
–
Comments welcome.
Posted on June 16, 2021