We invite you to add stories or anecdotes about a departed family member, public figure, or literary character to our group Día de Muertos altar. What is a Día de Muertos Oferenda? Traditionally the ofrenda is presented in one’s home in order to commemorate the souls of loved ones in the family who have died. We want you to commemorate […]












When you stay with family or friends, it’s not the same as being in your own place. There are rules you didn’t make but you have to follow them or you can’t stay there, and after a while most people don’t really expect you to stay for a long time Sometimes getting help is as hard as trying to do […]


A lot of Black people changed their names to African names they had chosen, since their enslaved ancestors almost definitely didn’t get to choose their names. However, Dee’s Mother knows all the names of her ancestors back through the Civil War, which is not something everyone can say. Dee’s name actually does have history behind it. Print this page. Author […]


This was the early 70s, when many Black Americans were beginning to reconnect to the idea of Africa and their connection to it. Many could not know exactly where in Africa their ancestors had come from, so they adapted spiritual practices, like Islam and animism, learned phrases from African languages and wore African clothing and traditional hairstyles. Dee came home […]

You’ll get an in-depth view of the voice, plot, characters, and other literary elements of a story by looking at it through different eyes. We invite you to… Retell a story through different eyes by changing WHO tells the story, WHAT parts of the story get retold, and HOW the story is told. Remix and retell a story in your […]






















That means “Forward always” in Spanish; the speaker referring to the next Representative as “the gentleman from….excuse me, the gentlewoman from…” reminds us that we have to be flexible, we have to be willing to adapt and change. There have been female Representatives for 105 years, but some people’s world view and language still haven’t caught up. Print this page. […]























































The Trail of Tears was a series of forced relocations of approximately 60,000 Native Americans between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. Members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations (including thousands of their black slaves) were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to areas to the west of the […]













I said in my Quicklist that I like riding the subway, which I mostly do. I’m a native New Yorker and have almost always depended on the subway. However, my current job isn’t on any subway line, so I drive to and from work. I wish I didn’t have to, because parking and traffic are both nightmares and add a […]