As a Lanier High School graduate, I am proud (and aware) of the importance of my school's heritage as one of the most historic black public schools in the area—and know well how important support of the arts is to students such as myself. My life was changed because of experiences I received there in projects outside the regular curriculum—work that was funded by grants from local arts organizations such as the Jackson Arts Alliance (now called the Jackson Arts Council).
As a student at Lanier, I became aware of the school's rich history, like the student walk-out during the Civil Rights Movement and the large number of alumni that are successful. I also met civil rights activist Dr. Robert P. Moses there. I was never a math whiz, but Dr. Moses and his Algebra Project made the subject easy and showed us how to apply math to everyday life.
Then I was elated to learn that poet Jolivette Anderson and teacher Anne Johnson had created an artistic off-spin to the Algebra Project. The My Mississippi Eyes Migration Project is a literature counterpart to the Algebra Project. Its goal is to study the migration of African-American people from the South to the North after the Civil War ended and Jim Crow segregation began.
In past years, the participants retraced the trail of millions of African-American people who fled in search of work and prosperity. Before I became a member, groups traveled through the Mississippi Delta to Chicago and New York. The students were exposed to people who housed migrants, they visited museums, and they toured college campuses. Our group was always especially grateful to the Arts Alliance (Council), for we received much of our funding from them. Once I became a member of the project, we experienced our first budget cut, and we began to host fund-raisers to replace the funds we'd lost.
The organization met every other day for an entire class period. We did in-depth research about African-American history, usually the parts omitted from history books. Mrs. Johnson, our teacher/adviser, always encouraged us to think critically, ask questions and express ourselves through art.
"She never allowed us to make comments about subjects unless we had done our research. I later realized that through research, we gained a better understanding about vague information that we learned throughout school," says Daphne McDowell, former My Mississippi Eyes participant.
The project was very influential in my life. I learned history that my regular history classes never taught me. I learned how to express myself through art. And as we did research and uncovered information, Mrs. Johnson challenged us to apply the information to our everyday lives.
As a group, we decided that we wanted to be more involved in the political process of our school, community, country and world. We joined forces with the Student Government Association and began to organize voter-registration drives. We were able to travel to South Carolina to participate in a forum held by the Center of Community Change during the presidential primary season. We also traveled to New Orleans in conjunction with another youth group.
Everything about the project was fulfilling. We learned, we traveled, and we helped our community. We worked hard to uncover the truth about our ancestors and our heritage. We obtained critical reading, writing and thinking skills that we will be able to use forever.
At the close of my junior year, we realized that the Arts Alliance (Council) wasn't receiving as much funding as before. We were saddened as seniors to see such a bleak future for the project. We even looked into establishing the project as a nonprofit organization.
The Arts Alliance (Council) was pivotal in our high school careers. It gave us networking skills (it's how I met Donna Ladd). Looking back, I see how much I gained. Looking forward, I see how much the students are going to miss.
Some may think that funding for the arts isn't important. I must disagree. Had it not been for the Arts Alliance (Council) grants, we would have missed out on great opportunities. I was outraged when I found out that the city cut another $30,000 from the Arts Council this fiscal year. It's hard to sit back and watch projects like My Mississippi Eyes dwindle away, knowing the difference it made it my life. For once, I would love to see this city come together to support the nurturing of our kids. Without full funding of the Arts Council, which gives grants to so many small-but-significant projects throughout the community, we lose the opportunity for young people to venture into areas beyond academics and sports.
Those who criticize young people's performance contradict themselves by allowing such vital programs to be cut from communities and schools. These are the programs that allow an escape from reality for some, and a safe haven for others. These are the programs that nurture the minds of young people in a way that will never happen in a classroom. These are the programs that produce great artists and writers. These are the programs that make a difference in the lives of young people almost 100 percent of the time.
We are killing ourselves if we allow arts funding to be taken away.
JFP intern Melishia Grayson was the student body president of Lanier High School and is now a freshman studying journalism at Jackson State. She will sit on a panel about the importance of arts to Jackson's economic development Tuesday, June 13, at St. Andrew's Cathedral downtown. All are welcome.
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