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BLACK LIVES MATTER Philadelphia made a good bit of news this week because its invitation for its April 15 strategy meeting stated, "Please note that BLM Philly is a Black only space." They followed up by tweeting out, "If you identify as a person of the African Diaspora. You can attend our meetings and become a member. If not you can support us in other ways."

The conservative website The Daily Caller headlined, "Black Lives Matter Philly Bans White People from Its Meetings." Breitbart detailed the same issue and talked about how many people on Twitter said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would never sanction such a policy. BLM Philly countered on Twitter: "He made that choice and we have made ours. White people can support us but they cannot attend our meetings."

These columns only scratched the surface.

Writing in the Daily News, Jenice Armstrong wrote a brilliant piece that featured Asa Khalif, leader of Black Lives Matter Pennsylvania, and his 80-year-old grandmother, who is white. Khalif conceded that his grandmom would be welcome but that the overall banning of whites policy is not new. Khalif said, "It's a space particularly for black people to heal, cry, to vent, to organize, to be empowered, to be uplifted."

I know Asa and, even though I think this policy is misguided, I think he and his colleagues can certainly pursue it. I don't, however, think they can legally pursue it in taxpayer-funded spaces. Nashville Public Library officials agree with me. They rejected the request of the Nashville chapter of Black Lives Matter to meet in a library because library policy specifies that all meetings at their facilities must be open to the public and news meetings.

My first thought when I heard about all this was this meeting in this discriminatory form can't happen in a taxpayer-funded site. The meeting is supposed to be held at the Mastery Charter School-Shoemaker Campus in West Philly. I contacted Scott Gordon, who runs all the Mastery Charter schools. I'm a big fan of what Scott has accomplished for kids in his schools, and I would be surprised if he sanctioned this meeting.

I was right. Scott was unaware of this meeting. He checked into it and then he emailed me: "Thanks for bringing the matter to my attention. We are following up to ensure all organizations using our facilities abide by our policy. Below is a statement regarding the policy."

The statement said: "Mastery charter schools are public schools. As such, community groups may reserve space for meetings and events in our facilities. Events must follow our facility use policy, which does not allow any organization using our facilities to bar participation by any members of the public based on race, religion, or gender."

My instinct was to say that BLM Philly is out of step with where Americans are and what is settled policy. Isn't it curious that Philadelphia City Councilwoman Helen Gym and other major critics of charter schools are silent on this? Do they believe in some BLM Philly loophole that allows them to discriminate?

In fact, the Black Lives Matter coalition has clearly been an opponent of charter schools. In fact, Lance Izumi, senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute, writing at Philly.com says BLM "talks about an international education privatization." He further says this echoes the National Education Association tweeting, "Privatization is a global threat to public education." He talks about an NEA resolution that supports BLM. He also says Herm Rivera, one of the authors of the BLM document opposing charter schools, is executive director of the Philadelphia Student Union, which has received funding from the American Federation of Teachers.

I guess BLM Philly, which I feel blocks opportunity for minority students by trying to block charter schools, sees this charter school as an opportune spot for them. I hope people of good will see through this and oppose their use of a taxpayer-funded facility. I have faith in Gordon and people who honor King's memory and wisdom.

Teacher-turned-talk show host Dom Giordano is heard 9 a.m. to noon weekdays on WPHT (1210-AM). Contact him at http://www.domgiordano.com

@DomShow1210

Published: April 13, 2017 12:49 PM EDT

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Black Lives Matter is not inclusive - Philly.com - Philly.com

The weekly feature of whats happening on Washington stages.

Ragtime at Fords Theatre, A Raisin in the Sun and Smart People at Arena Stage, Mosaic Theater Company of DCs South Africa: Then & Now repertory of Blood Knot and A Human Being Died That Night, Pike St. at Woolly Mammoth the citys surging with personable social justice themes, especially if you toss in Parade at Keegan Theatre and Forum Theatres topically titled Nasty Women rep of Dry Land and What Every Girl Should Know.

Also note the double dose of Lisa Kron: Well continues at 1st Stage in Tysons, and her musical Fun Home (with composer Jeanine Tesori) arrives Tuesday at the National Theatre.

Already looking ahead? Keep up with the latest, most comprehensive guide to D.C. theaters 2017-18 season here, with notes from Post critics. More than 100 shows are already announced.

Want DC Theater Friday delivered to your email inbox Thursday evening? Subscribe here.

MORE:

Peter Marks on the making of Broadways War Paint

Baltimore notes: The Center Stage re-opening & Everymans Los Otros

PREVIEWING

Fun Home. The national tour of the 2015 Tony-winner for Best Musical, based on the coming-of-age graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. April 18-May 13 at the National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Tickets $48-$98. Call 202-628-6161 or visit thenationaldc.org.

[Peter Marks talks Fun Home with Jeanine Tesori]

[Michael Cavna talks with Alison Bechdel as Fun Home wins 5 Tonys]

Henry V. From DCs We Happy Few, a 90-minute take on Shakespeares history play with a cast of eight. Through April 29 at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. Tickets $15. Visit wehappyfewdc .

In the Heights. The Spanish language premiere of Lin-Manuel Mirandas 2008 Tony-winning hip-hop musical, foreshadowing his Hamilton success. Through May 29 at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW. Tickets $60. Call 202-234-7174 or visit galatheatre.org.

The Late Wedding. Christopher Chens play, based on the writings of Italo Calvino. April 14-May 7 at the Hub Theatre, 9431 Silver King Court, Fairfax. Call 703-674-3177 or visit thehubtheatre.org.

The Magic Play. A rolling premiere by Colossal playwright Andrew Hinderaker, about a magician (played by actual magician Brett Schneider) facing personal crisis. Through May 7 at the Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Rd., Olney. Tickets $20-$70. Call 301-924-3400 or visit olneytheatre.org.

Or. A comedy by Liz Duffy Adams dealing with Restoration playwright/spy Aphra Behn. Aaron Posner directs a cast of three: Holly Twyford and Gregory Linington (recently potent in Martha and George in Fords Theatres Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), with Erin Weaver. Through May 7 at Round House Theatre, 4545 East-West Hwy., Bethesda. Tickets $30-$60. Call 240-644-1100 or visit roundhousetheatre.org.

Smart People. Stick Fly playwright Lydia Diamonds comic drama on science and prejudice. April 14-May 21 at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. NW. Tickets $40-$101, Subject to change. Call 202-488-3300 or visit arenastage.org.

[Playwrights Diamond and Lawton on Lorraine Hansberry]

CONTINUING

The Blood Knot. Mosaic typically leans hard (and thoughtfully) into new works on contested issues, but this one has a deeper pedigree. Its an acclaimed 1961 work by South Africas great anti-apartheid playwright Athol Fugard. And its directed by Joy Zinoman, the retired founding artistic director of the Studio Theatre. Blood Knot deals with half brothers Morris, who is light enough to pass as white, and Zachariah, who is dark-skinned . . . Cannily winds itself up to epic heights thanks to the earthy, ferocious performances by Tom Story and Nathan Hinton. (Nelson Pressley) P art of Mosaics South Africa: Then and Now rep with Pumla Gobodo-Madikizelas A Human Being Died That Night. Through April 30 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE., Tickets $20-$60. Call 202-399-7993 or visit mosaictheater.org.

[Nelson Pressley reviews Blood Knot]

Boeing Boeing. The 1960s farce, recently seen at Rep Stage and the now-defunct No Rules Theatre, about a playboy juggling international stewardesses. Through April 30 at Next Stop Theatre Company, 269 Sunset Park Drive, Herndon. Tickets $35-$55. Call 866-811-4111 or visit nextstoptheatre.org.

Brighton Beach Memoirs. The seasons second revival of one of Neil Simons 1980s autobiographical trilogy, following Broadway Bound at 1st Stage. Susan Romes portrait of the harried, controlling Kate is an invaluable anchoring force in director Matt Torneys production. Few of the other actors embed their characters quite as deeply and seamlessly in the world of Neil Simons semi-autobiographical play, about a cash-strapped household in 1937 Brooklyn. Still, its a pleasant production, well stocked with funny, absorbing moments and boasting a couple of notably persuasive turns by young actors. (Celia Wren) Through May 7 at Theater J, 1529 16th St. NW. Tickets $15-$57. Call 202-777-3210 or visit theaterj.org.

[Celia Wren reviews Brighton Beach Memoirs]

.d0t: A Rotoplastic Ballet. A 45 minute multimedia fable of robots and the last human, from the puppeteers at Pointless Theatre. A trippy mash-up of hip-hop, sci-fi and the designs of the Italian artist of futurism, Fortunato Depero . . . Executed by eight unseen puppeteers, expertly manipulating dozens of figures and objects on sticks in a toy puppet theater four separate perspectives deep, .D0t explores a time in the future when humanity has been reduced to a single survivor, Navi (Navid Azeez). On this day, something goes awry: robot Dee Zero Tee develops a glitch of some sort, and one rebellious machine threatens to shatter the harmony of a perfectly ordered world. (Peter Marks) Through May 6 at Flashpoint, 916 G St. NW. Tickets $30. Call 202-315-1305 or visit pointlesstheatre.com.

[Peter Marks on Pointless and .d0t]

A Human Being Died That Night. You want to try acting a whole show with your feet chained to the floor? Chris Genebach accomplishes it with flair as South Africas notorious Eugene de Kock, the apartheid-era Death Squad officer widely known as Prime Evil. The white de Kock wisecracks about a Hannibal Lecter vibe as he sits on the other side of a prison cell interrogation table from a black woman, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, but the 80-minute A Human Being Died That Night is anything but a psycho-thriller. Its an unflinching face-to-face dialogue about how people and countries become utterly unglued. (Nelson Pressley) Part of Mosaics South Africa: Then and Now rep with Athol Fugards The Blood Knot. Through April 30 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE., Tickets $20-$60. Call 202-399-7993 or visit mosaictheater.org.

[Nelson Pressley reviews A Human being Died That Night]

[Geoffrey Himes talks to the Human Being actors]

A King and No King. Brave Spirits Theatres revival of a 1611 tragicomedy by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher chronicles the scandalous love between Arbaces, king of Iberia (Brendan Edward Kennedy), and his sister Princess Panthea (Kathryn Zoerb). As if the siblings romance werent complicated enough, the moody Arbaces has promised Panthea to his recently vanquished enemy, Tigranes, king of Armenia (Gary DuBreuil), who is loath to give up his own sweetheart, Spaconia (Alison Talvacchio). On a stark, runway-style stage, dressed in modern-meets-Renaissance garb (the aesthetic for both productions), the actors conjure up the scenes of scheming, recrimination and braggadocio that hurtle into a happy ending. (Celia Wren) Part of Brave Spirits Incest Rep with Tis Pity Shes a Whore. Through April 23 at the Lab at Convergence, 1819 N. Quaker Lane, Alexandria. Tickets $20, or see both shows for $30. Call 240-516-8745 or visit bravespiritstheatre.com.

[Celia Wren on A King and No King and Tis Pity Shes a Whore]

King Lear. Lean & Hungry Theatre typically produces audio versions of plays, and the radio technique hampers the fully staged venture in a small black box at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. The show never achieves its own visual language, despite fog, low lights, modern costumes and the persistent musical underscoring that is jarringly generic: it makes Shakespeare sound like a soap opera. That heaps a lot of pressure on the actors, and very few performers really come through in this sizable tragedy. Bill Grimmette is a promising but uncertain Lear, but Jessica Lefkow and Duyen Washington are expert as Kent and Goneril. Far too much of the rest of this is underimagined cartoon villiany. (Nelson Pressley) Through April 23 at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets $20. Call 202-399-7993 or visit leanandhungrytheater.com.

Midwestern Gothic. A brand new musical thriller set in a small town, with music by Josh Schmidt (composer of The Adding Machine) and book by the busy librettist Royce Vavrek. It isnt quite Fargo, the Musical, but Midwestern Gothic attempts to dance right up to the edge of Coen brothers territory, with maybe a quick two-step and a hop over to the land of David Lynch . . . What were to make of the manipulative Stina who ropes into her odd, malevolent schemes a local boob is never brought entertainingly to light. An audience begins to lose hope, and interest, well before the bloodiest business has a chance to start. (Peter Marks) Through April 30 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Tickets $40-$100. Call 703-820-9771 or visit sigtheatre.org.

[Peter Marks reviews Midwestern Gothic]

[Geoffrey Himes talks with the Midwestern Gothic songwriters]

No Sisters. Aaron Posner (Stupid F-ing Bird, Life Sucks) continues his string of free-spirited Chekhov adaptations. Its a clever, cerebral theater game that playwright-director Posner constructs especially since simultaneously, in another theater downstairs, a production of the actual Three Sisters is going on. This requires those seven actors (and an eighth), to commute between the two shows, repeatedly entering in No Sisters after points at which they exit from Three Sisters. You got that? The complicated logistics make it reverential fun: six television monitors are perched on the No Sisters stage so that we can see Three Sisters unfolding and they can tell when its their cues. (Peter Marks) Through April 23 at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. Tickets $20-$80. Call 202-332-3300 or visit studiotheatre.org.

[Peter Marks on Three Sisters/No Sisters]

Pike Street. Anyone who saw Suns breathtakingly smart and entertaining No Child . . . in which she played teacher and students in a harried New York public school wont be surprised and will be equally rewarded by another 90 minutes in this artists graceful company. The setting this time is Pike Street on Manhattans Lower East Side, where Puerto Rican immigrants are bracing for a storm that puts you in mind of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 . . . As Sun pursues each highly idiosyncratic character, she keeps you off balance about where the family has been and where the story is going. It turns out to be a resonant, highly timely American malting pot tale. (Nelson Pressley) Through April 23 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D St. NW. Tickets $20-$93. Call 202-393-3939 or visit woollymammoth.net

[Nelson Pressley reviews Pike St.]

Ragtime. Make them hear you, goes the climactic chorus in the musical Ragtime, and the new production at Fords Theatre stirringly delivers on the kaleidoscopic shows cries for justice. The setting is 1906, but the issues ring true throughout the 1998 musicals crusading score . . . As its cast of two dozen swarms up and down a three-story set layered with class implications, Peter Flynns production utilizes the full volume of the large Fords stage. Fords keeps displaying a knack for putting local actors into the right big roles, and as a composed, powerful Coalhouse, McAllister emerges as the soul of the show. (Nelson Pressley) Through May 20 at Fords Theatre, 511 10th St. NW. Tickets $18-$71. Call 202-347-4833 or visit fords.org.

[Nelson Pressley reviews Ragtime]

A Raisin in the Sun. The weather vane of Arena Stages aggressively entertaining A Raisin in the Sun is Lizan Mitchell, the force-of-nature actress playing the 1959 plays righteous, loving grandmother, Lena Younger. When director Tazewell Thompson wants this show to be funny, the impish Mitchell nails a punchline. When he wants it to be grand, Mitchell rises majestically and gives the performance the force and depth of Greek tragedy. Quibble with its florid excesses if you like, but theres no mistaking that this Raisin bizarrely, the first in the companys nearly 70-year-history is a crowd-pleaser . . . Watching it, you might realize that theres been a lot of August Wilson the past few decades where at least a little Lorraine Hansberry should have been. (Nelson Pressley) Through May 7 at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. SW. Tickets $40-$111, subject to change. Call 202-488-3300 or visit arenastage.org

[Nelson Pressley on A Raisin in the Sun]

[Playwrights Diamond & Lawton on Lorraine Hansberry]

Three Sisters. Anton Chekhovs play directed by Jackson Gay, sharing a cast and running simultaneously with Aaron Posners new No Sisters. Not only drags, its also a bit of a lightweight drag. Our encounter with the passive, aristocratic sisters and their stultifying existences has to live in an air of compelling distress. Its hard to say what is off about them, Ansa the maid, played expertly by Nancy Robinette, rightly observes in No Sisters. Which means that if the ennui and melancholy of Olga (Bridget Flanery), Masha (Caroline Hewitt) and Irina (Emilie Krause) are not leavened by some bittersweet sense of complexity and mystery, there is nothing much to savor. (Peter Marks) Through April 23 at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. Tickets $20-$80. Call 202-332-3300 or visit studiotheatre.org.

[Peter Marks on Three Sisters/No Sisters]

Tis Pity Shes a Whore. John Fords 17th century tragedy of jealousy, part of Brave Spirits Theatres Incest Rep with A King and No King. Director Charlene V. Smith (Brave Spirits artistic director) nicely hones the comedy in a subplot about a ninny named Bergetto, who in this production is seen sucking on a series of lollipops. The drollery serves to emphasize the intensity of the broader play, which centers on a secret love affair between siblings Giovanni and Annabella . . . The acting in the productions can be creaky, and the fights often look fake, but its mostly fun to watch these 400-year-old soap operas rip along. (Celia Wren) Through April 23 at the Lab at Convergence, 1819 N. Quaker Lane, Alexandria. Tickets $20, or see both shows for $30. Call 240-516-8745 or visit bravespiritstheatre.com

[Celia Wren on A King and No King and Tis Pity Shes a Whore]

Well. From Lisa Kron (Fun Home, starting Tuesday at the National Theatre), an autobiographical play dealing with her mother. Director Michael Blooms beautifully paced production has a warm, funny anchor in Audrey Bertauxs now-poised, now-rattled Lisa. Elizabeth Pierottis affably batty Ann generates hilarious and touching moments. Thats particularly true when Ann unintentionally sabotages her daughters memory-play plans, luring the ensemble away from their assigned roles as figures from the past. (Celia Wren) Through April 23 at 1st Stage, 1524 Spring Hill Rd., McLean. Tickets $15-$30. Call 703-854-1856 or visit 1ststagetysons.org.

[Celia Wren reviews Well and Suffrage Plays]

CLOSING

Back to Methuselah. From the Shavian specialists at the Washington Stage Guild, the final third of George Bernard Shaws epic-length futuristic saga, following Part 1 in 2014 and Part 2 in 2015. If this now feels like inside baseball for hardcore followers of George Bernard Shaw, that was always to be expected. The five-part play split into thirds by the Stage Guild about dumb humankind trying to grow up is unnervingly long and unapologetically intellectual . . . A generally static yet smartly acted show, directed by Bill Largess with a keen ear for the thrust of Shavian arguments. (Nelson Pressley) Through April 16 at the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, 900 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Tickets $25-$60. Call 202-347-9620 or visit stageguild.org

[Nelson Pressley on Back to Methuselah]

[Years in the doing: Wrangling Shaws Methuselah]

Chicago. Brandy Norwood plays Roxie opposite Terra C. MacLeods Velma in the Broadway hits first ever run at the Kennedy Center. If youve seen the show half a dozen times, this iteration will fall in the middle of the pack . . . What Brandy Norwood brings is her smoky, singular, Grammy-winning voice. Youd take her sultry, dead-accurate crooning over plastic Broadway belting any day; thats the asset. She moves better than youd expect during her long fantasia about fame, the slow-vamping Roxie, and she can be funny (as long as she keeps her speaking energy up), unleashing a deliriously skillful string of notes as a witty, lusty response to one of the muscled chorus boys sidling her way. The dance-driven ironic happy ending? Not her strong point. (Nelson Pressley) Through April 16 in the Kennedy Centers Opera House. Tickets $49-$149. Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org

[Nelson Pressley on Chicago now and forever]

[Q&A with Brandy Norwood, stepping into Chicagos DC stop]

[Roxie and Velma through the decades]

Dry Land. A drama about two teen girls one of them with an unwanted pregnancy by young writer Ruby Rae Spiegel; part of Forum Theatres Nasty Women Rep with What Every Girl Should Know. A heartbreaking and often funny play, artfully directed by Amber Paige McGinnis . . . Though it barely strays from its main locker-room setting, the play offers vivid glimpses of the society that has left Amy and Ester feeling uncertain, vulnerable, rushed and judged, but neither hopeless nor helpless. (Celia Wren) Through April 15 at the Silver Spring Black Box Theater, 8641 Colesville Rd. Tickets $18-$38. Call (301) 588-8279 or visit forum-theatre.org.

[Celia Wren reviews Forum Theatres Nasty Women rep]

Parade. Fascinating to see this Jason Robert Brown-Alfred Uhry musical fleeting on Broadway in 1998-99, and staged by Fords Theatre in 2011 open at the same time as Fords lavish Ragtime. The heavy thematic lift of Parade, about the 1913 anti-Semitic lynching of Leo Frank in Georgia, is less durable than the comparably serious, comparably epic Ragtime (so many righteous anthems!): the crime is outrageous, but the red-faced mob is brutish and the racist railroading is rote. The songs labor to rouse indignation, but the effort doesnt pay and Keegans earnest low-budget staging, featuring little more than broad swatches of bland light, lacks style. Nice to hear a nearly 10 peiece orchestra playing the robust score, though, and the two leads Michael Innocenti as a flinty Frank and Eleanor J. Todd as his wife are terrific. (Nelson Pressley) April 15 at Keegan Theater, 1742 Church Street NW. Tickets $45-$55. Call 202-265-3767 or visit keegantheatre.com.

[Nelson Pressley on Parade]

What Every Girl Should Know. Part of Forum Theatres Nasty Women Rep with Dry Land. Arresting and appealingly idiosyncratic. Set in 1914 and directed by Jenna Duncan, the play chronicles the friendship of four girls at a reformatory school in New York. Joan (Lida Maria Benson), Anne (Menendez), Lucy (Rich) and Theresa (Whitworth) have rich fantasy lives; they are also fascinated by the idea of Margaret Sanger, the crusader for womens right to birth control. (Sanger founded what became Planned Parenthood.) The fact that Sangers work is at odds with the law only increases her appeal in the eyes of the four friends, who have good reason to be rebellious. (Celia Wren) Through April 15 at the Silver Spring Black Box Theater, 8641 Colesville Rd. Tickets $18-$38. Call (301) 588-8279 or visit forum-theatre.org.

[Celia Wren reviews Forums Nasty Women rep]

TYA (Theater for Young Audiences

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp. For all ages. Through May 21 at Adventure Theatre MTC, 7300 MacArthur Blvd (Glen Echo Park), Glen Echo. Tickets $19.50. Call 301-634-2270 or visit adventuretheatre-mtc.org.

[Jane Horwitz on spring TYA shows]

[Jane Horwitz on theater for the very young]

ETC.

The Capitol Steps. The longtime political satirists, tearing laughs from the headlines. Fridays and Saturdays in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center Amphitheater, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Tickets $40.50. Call 202-397-7328 or visit http://www.capsteps.com.

[Peter Marks on the Kennedy Centers international directors series]

Shear Madness. The indestructible interactive comedy whodunit, at 12,000-plus performances. Ongoing in the Kennedy Centers Theater Lab. Tickets $50-$54. Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.

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DC Theater Friday: Black Lives Matter - Washington Post

The Black Lives Matter sign in front of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis was reported stolen on Wednesday.

Lt. Ryan Frashure, Anne Arundel County police spokesman, said officers were called to the church on Dubois Road at 10:11 a.m.

Officials with the church told police they last saw the sign at 5 p.m. Tuesday. The thieves cut wire ties that had held it in place before stealing it.

Frashure said police have not identified a suspect and are actively investigating the theft.

The sign was hung at the church in August 2015 next to the entrance to show solidarity with the national movement that campaigns against violence and perceived systemic racism toward African-Americans.

It has been stolen several times, most recently in October, Frashure said.

Three churches in the Annapolis area which all put up signs supporting the movement have all seen their signs either stolen or defaced over the past year and a half.

St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Annapolis eventually changed their sign to read "Dismantle Racism" after it was defaced a number of times.

Read this article:
Black Lives Matter sign stolen from Annapolis church, again ... - CapitalGazette.com

The student says it requires a narrow and negative take on America. The professor says its aimed at inspiring racial harmony.

At issue is arecent assignment handed out in an English course at George Mason University.

Earlier this semester, students were instructed to take an image from a graphic novel about a slave rebellion leader that connects to a key issue in todays culture where African Americans still face discrimination, inequality, prejudice, and worse: police brutality and death and write an essay about it.

Do you see a connection between what happens in the novel to todays Black Lives Matter movement, asked the essay prompt, assigned in English 302: Advanced Composition for Social Sciences.

The assignment angered one conservative student, who provided a copy of it to The College Fix, and said it would make her write an essay that goes against her political views. She said the thesispaints America in a negative context and prompts students to write papers arguingthatthe America of today continues to grapple withstruggles common in pre-Civil Wartimes.

Yes, slavery isnt our proudest moment as Americans but we have come a far way since then and this prompt implies that we havent at all improved, said the student, whoasked to remain anonymous, as she is still enrolled in the course and does not want her grade impacted by speaking to the media.

Nothing really good was said about America in our discussions about writing this essay and I hated being forced to listen in, the student told The Fix.

But Peggy Scolaro, the courses professor, said she hasnt had any complaints over the seven years shes assigned the essay and added its the first time in her 21 years of teaching that a student has complained about an assignment in one of her courses.

She said the assignment aims for students to understand the harm of racial prejudice and inspire them toward racial harmony.

The 4- to 5-page essay, worth 20 percent of each students overall grade, stems from the courses reading of Nat Turner, a graphic novel about the 19th century slave rebellion leader written by author Kyle Baker.

Students are instructed to select at least one specific image from the novel and tie it to a current issue in the racial problems still affecting African Americans and all of us today.

Its not enough to simply identify these two points of history, the assignment states. Rather, your essay should go on to address the question: How can we come together, have a national dialogue, reach some level of understanding from each side of the issue, and ultimately try to heal our nation of the poison that is racism? Is racial reconciliation possible?

Scolaro started teaching the graphic novel in 2010, and she explained the original essay prompt simply asked students to argue for or against the effectiveness of the text, whether Baker is able to effectively convey the historical, sociological, and psychological weight of slavery through the comic book medium.

She considered dropping the assignment in 2014 after shooting death of Michael Brown and the ensuing riots in Ferguson, Missouri, wanting to back away from and not add to the escalating racial tensions.

However, students urged her to continue the assignment.

To my surprise, students in unison cried out, protesting that I should continue because of my obvious passion for social justice and racial equality, that students needed to discuss these issues. Many students emailed me after that class to reaffirm their support, Scolaro said.

She revised the assignment in 2015, asking students if the novels illustrations of racial discrimination be tied to racial discrimination in the present day. The historical-to-current connection was initially optional in 2015.

Scolaro said the papers have always been among the most interesting and rewarding essays of the semester. She said she hopes it inspires students tolive in harmony with their fellow Americans who have been treated as less than human for centuries, understanding their feelings and the harm that racial prejudice has caused to all of us. This is the purpose behind my assignment.

But the student who reached out to the The Fixsaid she feels the assignment instructs students to write in one political direction.

My initial reaction to this assignment was, Oh man, I guess Im going to have to write an essay against my own political views to go along with what my professor and peers are saying to get that A,she said.

MORE:Students instructed to write essay on 9/11 from terrorists perspective

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About the Author

Nathan Rubbelke is a staff reporter for The College Fix with a specialty on investigative and enterprise reporting. He has also held editorial positions at The Commercial Review daily newspaper in Portland, Indiana, as well as atThe Washington Examiner, Red Alert Politics and St. Louis Public Radio.Rubbelke graduated from Saint Louis University, where he majored in political science and sociology.

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Pro-Black Lives Matter assignment prompts concern at George Mason University - The College Fix

Before he leapt into everyone's Twitter feeds by snatching a Confederate flag from protesters, local Black Lives Matter organizer Muhiyidin d'Baha had long been one of the Charleston area's most vocal activists. With so many people hoping to get started in mobilizing others behind a cause, City Paper reached out to d'Baha for advice on how to effectively organize and address local problems.

Tip No. 1: The first one I think is most helpful is don't prescribe unless you can describe. It's really learning about how to describe the impact of a policy decision or the impact of a situation from a first-person perspective. If you can't do it from a first-person perspective then don't prescribe a solution because you could be actually exacerbating the problem and that might have unintended consequences in the future.

Building on Needs: The second part would be to build out of our needs, out of our real self needs. Centering folks on how a particular policy decision actually impacts them or people they know and then building solutions out of a felt need, so it's grounded and real and it's organic and natural and not conceptual and abstract. That's really important because it gives us longevity to our work. We do a lot less talking and a lot more acting when it's a real, felt need that we have or people that we know have.

Organizing: Organizing friend networks and leveraging social media connections is super important. It's hard to overestimate how important it is in this age of organizing. If folks can literally identify 10 friends that they can bring to action or to protest or to a city council meeting and if we can have 100 people that can organize 10 of their friends and those 10 friends can come out, then we have a reliable base of 1,000 people in town that can show up to support.

Awareness: What we're trying to move from is an awareness-raising element because we've already developed that. That's really important for folks to understand. While they might be activated because of other people who have already organized and raised their awareness, we don't need more people to raise awareness. We need more people to start working on actually developing solutions and organizing our presence within spaces where decisions are made. We need a little less demonstration that's built around awareness raising and much more strategic organizing that's actually influencing the halls of the power and influencing the discourses, the public discourse in particular.

Natives: Another element, especially down here, is that we want to have organizing that centers natives, that centers people that have lived in Charleston. One of the things that I'm experiencing and I'm really disturbed by right now is just how many people who aren't from here are shaping the public discourse and are shaping the public policy. There are conversations that people that have lived here haven't been able to have, even between each other yet. The segregated schools, for instance, that existed way before there was a real estate boom in Charleston and way before gentrification really picked up at the pace it is now. So there's still a conversation that the native community has to have to resolve and to create a solid foundation so we don't replicate some of the sourness that might be in the soil.

Centering Voices: The centering of women's voices is absolutely critical. Down here, men dominate the religious space. Men dominate the political space and the activist space so much of the time that what are identified as "community leaders" are men, so we're really trying to be intentional about uplifting especially women of color and especially trans and queer women of color to really offer their voice. Anybody who's organizing has to be conscious of not replicating the same kind of patriarchy and the marginalization of women's voices that's been going.

Neighborhoods: At a neighborhood base level is where organizing happens. Where you live and the neighborhood association and what's happening in your geographic location, in your neighborhood school, those are the spaces that we need a lot more organizing happening. It's not helpful to have a bunch of people coming from a bunch of different places coming together and one person being recognized as the leader of this amorphous, nebulous group that really doesn't have any long-lasting and sustainable ties to each other because they don't live near each other. I guess the moral of the story there is to do neighborhood-based organizing and don't do such so much issue-based organizing.

Communicate: I think community communication across front lines is super critical. Developing it so the community calendar just focuses on social action in community organizing is absolutely necessary, and we need as many people's help as possible to uplift some of the tools we have. Charleston GOOD (an online grassroots incubator and media outlet) actually has a community-building calendar embedded into it that we utilize a lot.

Collaboration: The recommendation is that instead of everybody organizing their own events for their own specific issues, we look at a weekend and we look at a Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. We figure out a location where we can all go, and we all take one or two hours for our specific issue and we spend a day together listening to each other, organizing each other, leveraging and sharing resources, so folks don't keep on replicating the same kind of dynamics where the people that have the most money or access to the most money are able to get heard the most. If we create platforms that are collaborative, then we can eliminate some of those dynamics.

Resource sharing is absolutely important. I think the culture of resource sharing is what we want to develop. Why it's so hard for us to mobilize together as a community is because we're in individual silos. For the new organizers that are coming in, please join an organization but also push your organization to be in communication with as many other organizations that are operating within the space.

Online vs. Reality: What we're doing is we're exploring a new way of communicating and a new way of organizing in which we organize virtually. We want to express in physical reality then we want to bring that expression back into virtual reality to reflect on and to have that generate some more energy so we can express it in physical reality. There is a dance there that we're learning how to do so we don't get caught up in the social media world because in the social media world we can have 3,500 people that are coming to an event and we can have 100,000 people that have watched a video. But when it comes to a city council meeting to actually push the work forward, it's hard getting people to come out.

Final Tip: Make sure that you're paying young people, especially high schoolers, to do your canvassing and to do your social media engagement. I can't emphasize that enough. Make sure you pay young people to do community engagement because they'll do it so much better than any of us.

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Advice on organizing from Black Lives Matter Charleston's Muhiyidin d'Baha - Charleston City Paper