Siena Blog

The theme of Black History Month 2024 is African Americans and the Arts.  Since the musical arts have been so culturally fundamental in Black American history, Siena is celebrating this rich musical tradition by highlighting the important work our community has done in generating shared playlists.

Music in Black Culture

As Steven Lewis wrote in Musical Crossroads: African American Influence on American Music,

The music of African Americans is one of the most poetic and inescapable examples of the importance of the African American experience to the cultural heritage of all Americans, regardless of race or origin. [...] Over the centuries, African American musicians have drawn on the ancestral connection to Africa as a source of pride and inspiration.

Recognizing this widespread historical importance of Black music, some Siena students created a playlist of songs meaningful to them in a weekly multicultural affinity group. For high school senior Ash, “We’re happy to talk about something as important to us as music in the group. The playlist is a fun new thing Siena did this year for Black History Month, and it’d  be great to see it happen during other heritage months.” 

Inspired by this group of students, Siena teachers and staff members collaborated on their own Black music playlist, recommending a mix of over 70 songs from the 20th and 21st centuries. Here are just a few songs from this diverse community playlist:

• Billie Holiday — Strange Fruit
• Black Eyed Peas — Pump It
• India.Arie — I Am Not My Hair
• Jon Batiste — Freedom 
• Nina Simone — Feeling Good
• Sam Cooke — A Change is Gonna Come
• Scott Joplin — Maple Leaf Rag 
• A Tribe Called Quest — Excursions

“We wanted to share our version back with the students about music that matters to us,” history teacher Warren Phenegar added. “We also shared why these songs are important to us, ranging from historical importance to specific personal or emotional reasons.” Both Ash and a classmate shared that they learned about many new songs from the teacher playlist and are seeing this as an ongoing learning experience.

See the Siena Faculty BHM Playlist on Spotify. (Note: some songs have an “E” rating for explicit content.)
 

Black Music Book and Podcast Recommendations

Those looking for recent books can try Kelefah Sanneh’s Major Labels and Questlove’s Music Is History to get started. For additional Black music book recommendations, see 15 Books About the Impact of Black Music on Pop Culture (Teen Vogue), Books for Black Music Appreciation Month (Penguin Random House), and Popular Black Music Books (Goodreads).

For Black music podcasts, see All Music Is Black Music (National Museum of African American History and Culture), Black Music Matters, Questlove Supreme, and Black Girl Songbook, among many others.

See also this very rich and useful piece on African American Music from Smithsonian Music, which includes some featured playlists, learning modules, and videos.

Siena Resources 

See this Black History Month 2024 blog post about Black writers with dyslexia LeDerick Horne and Marcia Brissett-Bailey. Our blog has other heritage month spotlights related to innovative dyslexia education, including Native American book recommendations, Mexican writer and activist Victor Villaseñor, Chicano artist Ignacio Gomez, WNBA stars A’Ja Wilson and Jewell Loyd, NFL star Rashan Gary, and others.

Learn more about Siena’s commitments and ongoing initiatives for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. 

Siena’s mission-focused innovative dyslexia education is designed for students in grades 3-12 with language-based learning differences on campuses in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Oakton, Virginia.

The theme of Black History Month 2024 is African Americans and the Arts. The arts in all their forms have always been instrumental to Black culture. Since art has been one of our core values from the beginning, Siena is highlighting a pair of contemporary Black writers with dyslexia, as well as sharing some reading and other resources to commemorate this important month.

Writer and Poet LeDerick Horne

Poet, speaker, and advocate LeDerick Horne grew up in New Jersey and received an early dyslexia diagnosis (3rd grade). This laid the foundation for his decades of writing, speaking, and advocacy work on behalf of the LD community and Black identity.

Here are some key points in Horne’s career thus far:

• Horne did foundational work on the governing board of Eye to Eye, a nonprofit mentoring program for LD students. He’s on the advisory board for The National Resources for Access, Independence, Self-Determination, and Employment (RAISE), and he’s a member of the governing board for the New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive Education.
• Horne’s many honors and associations include LDA, Eye to Eye, NAACP, The White House, and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as many presentations and media appearances.
• Horne coauthored Empowering Students with Hidden Disabilities: A Path to Pride and Success with Margo Izzo (2016), a guidebook collecting personal stories and strategies for teachers and families.
• He has also released two spoken word poetry collections, Black and Blue in 2011 and Rhyme, Reason, and Song in 2005 (both available on Apple Music). Horne has also been profiled on Poets List and in the short documentary Normal Isn’t Real, among many other platforms.

“What is funny—and ironic—for those of us who have learning disabilities is that the challenges that we were chastised for as children end up becoming these extremely valuable tools out here in the marketplace.” (LeDerick Horne)

Writer and Advocate Marcia Brissett-Bailey

Writer, speaker, and dedicated dyslexia and neurodiversity advocate Marcia Brissett-Bailey grew up in London and received her dyslexia diagnosis at age 16. “I no longer felt stupid” upon hearing about her learning difference, she has shared.

Here are some key points in Brissett-Bailey’s career thus far: 

• She is currently Further Education Partnerships Lead at Diversity and Ability, leading their support and guidance for young people under 18, as well as their parents and caregivers, schools, and colleges.
• She edited Black, Brilliant and Dyslexic: Neurodivergent Heroes Tell their Stories (2023), a collection of first-person pieces from the Black dyslexic community from an international, intersectional perspective. In her words, “My book takes us on a journey to challenge structural racism and years of trauma on people who are marginalized by different forms of oppression and may only come forward when they feel safe to be their whole selves.”
• Brissett-Bailey edited a special issue of Contact magazine in October 2021 that highlights the important work of the British Dyslexia Association Cultural Perspective Committee. 
• Among other places, Brissett-Bailey has been profiled in Forbes, Business Forums International, and British Dyslexia Association, as well as the Move Beyond Words podcast.

“Dyslexia is daily…but I wouldn’t be authentically me without dyslexia as it’s giving me so many advantages…in seeing the world through a creative lens. My high-level thinking, seeing the bigger picture visually, hyper-focus on my interests, seeing patterns others do not see and conceptual thinking.” (Marcia Brissett-Bailey)

Resources for African American Arts and Culture

See Arts Resources from the Smithsonian for a wealth of local events, spotlights, podcast recommendations, museum exhibits, and more commemorating Black History Month.

The Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Anacostia has a series of events commemorating Black History Month and the 206th anniversary of Douglass’s birth. Those interested in books by Frederick Douglass can read his three autobiographies (Narrative of the Life, My Bondage and My Freedom, and Life and Times), as well as selected speeches and his only novel, The Heroic Slave.

In addition to the Douglass Historic Site, the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site and Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site in DC are also offering weekly programs and special events this month.

Lastly, some recent fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books by Black authors to look up include:

• Dr. Mariel Bruqué, Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma 
• Common, And Then We Rise: A Guide to Loving and Taking Care of Self 
• Kia Corthron, Moon and the Mars 
• Brianna Craft, Everything That Rises: A Climate Change Memoir 
• Melania Luisa Marte, Plantains and Our Becoming
• Ayana Mathis, The Unsettled
• Ijeoma Oluo, Be a Revolution
• Clint Smith, Above Ground 
• Jesmyn Ward, Let Us Descend 

Fans of the recent Color Purple film can go back and read Alice Walker’s 1982 novel, as well as her foundational works In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens (1982) and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992).

Siena Resources

The Siena School blog has other heritage month spotlights related to innovative dyslexia education, including Native American book recommendations, Mexican writer and activist Victor Villaseñor, Chicano artist Ignacio Gomez, WNBA stars A’Ja Wilson and Jewell Loyd, NFL star Rashan Gary, and others. Learn more about Siena’s commitments and ongoing initiatives for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.

The Siena School proudly serves students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences in grades 3-12 on campuses in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Oakton, Virginia. 

“I teamed up with Made By Dyslexia to advocate for those who think differently.” —Rashan Gary 

Black History Month 2023

To commemorate Black History Month 2023 and the importance of strong advocacy and raising awareness of what dyslexia is, Siena is honoring Green Bay Packers linebacker Rashan Gary for his dedicated dyslexia advocacy.

Gary was born in northern New Jersey in 1997 and attended college at the University of Michigan from 2016 to 2018. He was diagnosed with dyslexia in middle school, sharing in 2021 that “it’s not going to affect me because it’s my superpower. So that’s why I challenge anybody with dyslexia to keep pushing forward and keep chipping away.”

Gary regularly uses his platform as a professional athlete to be the kind of role model he didn’t have growing up. He’s strongly dedicated to “raising awareness about dyslexia and advocating for educator awareness and the critical screening resources are important to me,” as he shared in a recent Instagram post.
 

Rashan Gary’s Dyslexia Advocacy

Since 2020, Gary has used the NFL’s My Cause My Cleats program to raise awareness for Made By Dyslexia. As the NFL shared in this press release, “Players combine forces with artists and cleat manufacturers each year to create these custom-designed cleats that showcase their causes in a way that resonates personally to the player, their fans and the cause.” 

My Cause My Cleats enables players to support causes important to them through one-of-a-kind, hand-painted cleats to wear in a regular season game on a particular week. The cleats are later auctioned off for charity.

Laura Haas, who designed Gary’s cleats for 2022, shared that her own neurodivergent thinking is “kind of my superpower,” and she wanted to highlight “joy and individuality” in her design. (See here for the Instagram post.) Gary’s cleats from 2020 and 2021 likewise highlighted how his dyslexia is a strength for him, as well as how the dyslexic brain might see and process information.

• Watch the NFL’s 2022 ad featuring Rashan Gary here.
• See here for a photo gallery of Gary’s 2022 cleats.
• See here for Gary’s video from 2021 about his cleats.

Additional Links and Resources

Gary has been a visible public figure since he was a nationally recognized high school football player. He understands how important it is to use his platform to advocate for dyslexia awareness and support. Gary has also worked with the Michigan Dyslexia Institute to talk about his journey and inspire others to see superpowers, creativity, and perseverance within themselves.

Other NFL players with dyslexia have raised awareness through My Cause My Cleats, such as Spencer Drango of the Cleveland Browns, Lawrence Guy of the New England Patriots, and Max Scharping of the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Siena School blog has other heritage month spotlights related to innovative dyslexia education, including writer and activist Victor Villaseñor, poet Amanda Gorman, figure skater Meryl Davis, film director Ann Hu, and astrophysicist Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock. See also this 2021 blog post on dyslexia awareness and advocacy at Siena.

Learn more about Siena’s commitments and ongoing initiatives for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.

The Siena School proudly serves students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences in grades 3-12 on campuses in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Oakton, Virginia. 

“Be the BEST version of you that you can be. No one will ever do it better. We have dyslexia, and we can accomplish ANYTHING we put our minds to.” —Rashan Gary

Photo by Patrick Semansky, Getty Images

We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true,
that even as we grieved, we grew,
that even as we hurt, we hoped,
that even as we tired, we tried,
that we'll forever be tied together, victorious.

—"The Hill We Climb" (2021)

So writes poet and activist Amanda Gorman in her Inaugural Poem, “The Hill We Climb.” When she recited this powerful poem at President Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021, Gorman became the youngest poet (age 22) to read at a Presidential Inauguration in American history. 

As part of Black History Month this year, Siena is honoring writer, activist, speaker, and the nation's first-ever youth poet laureate, Amanda Gorman. Now at age 23, Gorman has had a prolific year since the Inauguration, publishing an illustrated book for children (Change Sings) in September 2021 and a collection of poems (Call Us What We Carry) in December 2021, in addition to other work. 

“ Now more than ever, the United States needs an inaugural poem,” Gorman said after Inauguration Day. “Poetry is typically the touchstone that we go back to when we have to remind ourselves of the history that we stand on, and the future that we stand for.”

Since being diagnosed with speech and auditory learning differences when she was young, Gorman has used poetry (particularly reciting it) as means of both self-expression and adapting to her speech difference. She graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in Sociology and has made many media appearances as a writer and speaker, as well as winning a Genius Award from OZY Media in 2017 when she was still in college and being honored as the first-ever youth poet laureate from Urban Word.

Gorman has always written poetry with a strong sense of social justice and an equally strong awareness of diversity and identity. Her work resonates with Siena students and faculty: in 2021, 8th grade English students discussed her work in class after Inauguration Day, and an elementary student is currently researching Gorman for a project and presentation for Black History Month.

Read more on her website, and watch Gorman read “The Hill We Climb” on Inauguration Day here. 

Learn about Siena’s commitments and ongoing initiatives for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. And, see Siena’s blog for related material, including a spotlight on astrophysicist Maggie Aderin-Pocock and an overview of Siena’s Black History Month activities from last year. 

We the people are brave enough to love this country’s creed

We the people love this country enough to question its misdeeds

We the people question enough to build upon this foundation

We the people erect an improved hilltop of a nation

 

Indivisible by where we come from, or who we are born

We the people are those who let freedom ring

So that no matter how we love, talk, pray, or mourn

This America too is ours to build and ours to sing.

 

—“We the People” (2017)