Havana wore her medallion to bed on Friday night. Her class placed 1st of 11 schools in the regional round of Oakland's public school Martin Luther King Oratorical Festival. A competition to celebrate choral-speaking that has been held annually in Oakland for 33 years. The closest way to describe it may be as spoken word.
Ms Hurrell's Maxwell Park 3rd grade Elementary classes have won the District finals for five years in a row. And now Havana's class has made the finals after their regional win.
It is a very Oakland event. It's held at a Gospel church in deep East Oakland. It is no coincidence that her teacher, Ms Hurrell, is a veteran school teacher and African American. The majority of students in the class are also African American. The competition in a way, is a celebration of a culture that is under attack, even moreso than in the past. Oakland is going through big demographic changes flowing from gentrification and recent years of population flight to cities where fake mortgages attracted Oaklanders. Oakland in many ways is no longer an African American city.
If Havana's class does win the finals then this will be the last time Maxwell Park Elementary will do so. The school District leadership are closing 5 elementary schools, four of which are schools where the majority of students are African American. Their business plan, however it is carefully packaged, does not include the preservation of Oakland's unique culture.
Money with its heavy leaden feet crushes everything in its path, making everything grey and colorless in its wake. But in young people there is the greatest hopes of hopes.
We video-ed Havana the night before the Fest. We will video her whole class at the finals.
CLICK BELOW FOR THE YOUTUBE LINK to see it.
