Submitted by: Jane Belton

On Wednesday 2/16, the English Department held a half-day retreat at the Brooklyn Museum, facilitated by Museum Educator, Bix Archer.

The goals for the retreat were to reflect on racial blind spots: 

1. How does our positionality impact the ways in which we experience a text?
2.  How might we set up texts and experiences for students to examine their own positionality and racial blind spots?
3. How can we set up texts and experiences to prevent experiences where our blind spots (and/or student blind spots) do harm to students. 

We started the morning examining the poem “Declaration” by Tracy K. Smith. The discussion prompts included open-ended questions like, “What comes up for you when you read this?” which allowed us to first consider the individual contexts we bring to the piece based on our own experiences and positionality, and then to hear the other contexts and interpretations that colleagues bring to the text.

From 10-11:30 am,  Bix led us through an inquiry-based workshop reflecting on several pieces of art. First, we spent time discussing Blossom, by Sanford Biggers. We explored open-ended questions like, “What do you notice?” and “What do you feel?”, sharing our responses and observations together.  The museum educator then shared some further context on the art piece, which then allowed us to re-examine “Blossom,” and refine, reshape, and develop our initial ideas. 

Next, we spent independent time in The Slipstream exhibit, reflecting on pieces of our choosing. Bix provided us with a zine to collect our responses, which we shared with a partner. Prompts included:

• Find a piece that resonates with you. Pair a song with this work
• What parts of your identity or experience does it connect with?
• Find a piece you would pair with Blossom. How would the pairing change how you look at the work?
• Find an artwork you would pair with the poem “Declaration”
• Find a work you would like to display in your home
• Find a world you would like to display in your classroom. How would you contextualize it for students?

When we returned to the conference room at 11:30, we pivoted toward our own classroom practices and units. The central questions were:

1. How might this work translate into concrete classroom practices? 
2. How might we set up texts and experiences for students to examine their own positionality and racial blind spots?
3. When and how do we provide context / frame the texts we teach?