District 13 Dance Programs
Broadway for Arts Education was selected by the superintendent of the District 13 school district in Brooklyn to work with students from PS 3, PS 54, and PS 44 for 10 weeks to curate a dance performance for their Anti-Racist Town Hall event on June 13. The town hall is a community event that culminates the year's district-wide conversation elevating restorative approaches, student voice, along side leaders in the work of equity and racial justice. Led by dance teachers Tiffany Rae and Erica Kimble, nearly 60 elementary schools put together a piece celebrating the origins and evolution of hip-hop music and dance. See below for more information from District 13 on the initiative:
“In District 13, we are building an anti-racist, anti-oppressive school district so that our students, families, and colleagues can thrive. This statement is our public commitment to using restorative justice practices in every school in our district. Restorative justice practices build strong relationships in schools, create places where everyone belongs, and hold us all accountable to each other - we cannot be held accountable to a community that we have not been part of. They are essential to anti-racist and anti-oppressive schools because approaches like punishment and exclusion are used disproportionately against Black and Brown students, and often lead to excluding boys, neglecting girls and LGBTQ+ students. While restorative justice practices are often mistakenly labeled as “permissive”, they actually hold community members accountable to healing and repairing harm, rather than punishing or excluding students. Restorative justice practices hold students and adults accountable when we have harmed our community.
We commit to:
● holding ourselves and each other accountable for trying out new ways of being in community together
● supporting students to build deep, meaningful relationships with their peers and with all adults in their school
● developing the mindsets and skills that help us heal and repair
● dedicating time each day to building strong relationships.
● investing equitable resources to developing restorative practices in our schools. That means providing opportunities for students, families, educators, and staff to experience and learn about restorative justice practices, and making these practices part of our district-wide strategic goals.
● building on the anti-racist work we have been doing for several years in District 13, including social-emotional learning in schools, monthly Anti-Racist Town Halls, and Beyond Diversity and Courageous Conversations practitioner training. We will continue this work with community-based partnerships to deepen our learning.
We recognize that creating a restorative justice practice culture is an ongoing process of unlearning and learning, so we must celebrate and share our highlights across the district. There are many meaningful restorative practices that our District 13 schools have already adopted and more that we can adopt, such as community circles, culturally affirming social-emotional learning practices, and slowing down to practice empathy. We know that it takes a lot of support to make important cultural changes in school communities. District 13 is committed to providing resources and learning opportunities to our district community to support us all in this on-going process of unlearning old ways and adopting new ways.
Today on June 13th, we mark an important step on the journey to ‘I feel seen in D13!’”
