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Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE)
203 N. Wabash, Suite 1720, Chicago, Illinois 60601-2417
312/870-6140 • fax 312/870-6147 •

THE GREAT MIGRATION PROJECT

The Great Migration Project got its start when CAPE's executive director, Arnold Aprill, visited the work of singer Zahra Baker with classroom teacher Bette Hinton at Banneker Elementary School in the spring of 1994. As part of their work in the CAPE network, they taught a class of 3rd grade students about the Great Migration through song. Students learned about the coded meanings of the traditional songs of Southern sharecroppers, and traced their families' connections to the South. Parents worked with Ms. Baker and Ms. Hinton to tell their families' histories, and to compose original songs to sing to their children about that history. The students also had their own stories to tell – of Southern relatives and of visits to the South. In the years that followed, as teachers and artists sat in teachers' lounges sharing stories over coffee about family in Mississippi, and students shared stories on playgrounds about Southern cousins and aunts and uncles and grandmas, it became increasingly apparent that this personal connection between Black Chicago and the Black South, this lived experience of one of the watershed events in American history, needed many more opportunities for expression in Chicago public school classrooms. CAPE responded to this need by creating the Great Migration Project, through a series of activities for participating teachers and artists.

Summer Institute in Mississippi for Teachers and Artists from Mississippi and Chicago In the summer of 2001, a group of CAPE teachers and artists traveled to the Mississippi Delta to join a group of teachers and artists who were integrating the arts into their teaching through the Whole Schools Institute, a program of the Mississippi Arts Commission. For one amazing, intense week, teachers and artists from Chicago and from throughout Mississippi explored the Delta, met with civil rights activists, danced in juke joints, made a pilgrimage to the river, learned from scholars and each other, told stories of personal migrations, and laid the groundwork for exchanges between each other and the students. To view a short video interview with a participant, shot by British video artist Vivi Lachs, click on the link below. A separate browser window will open. Just close that window when done watching the clip to return to this window. MOV of Summer Institute in Mississippi interview • 1 min. 8 sec., 1.6 MB • download

CAPE Coursework
The Great Migration: From Reconstruction to Black Metropolis
In a special state-accredited course for teachers and artists, historians and educators Adrian Capehart and Dr. Charles Branham presented historical information, and teaching artists Bernard Williams (visual arts), Tsehaye Hebert (movement and performance), Reginald Lawrence (playwriting), and Dwayne Sanders and Kris Sieloff (video) guided the participants through a series of challenging and exciting artistic responses to this history. The participants were awe-struck by the range of rich information presented about Reconstruction, about the formation of Black Chicago, and about the many different waves of migration and the variety of social movements that catalyzed Black Americans moving North and West, and in some cases, moving back South in a "return migration". Some teachers focused on understanding their own family histories. Some focused on tracking down meaningful resources for teachers to use in teaching about the Great Migration. Others began experimenting with their students on arts integrated approaches to teaching the Great Migration.
 

photo: Mary Peasley CAPE Classroom Work Teachers who had taken CAPE's Great Migration course began collaborating with visiting artist partners, arts teachers in their schools, and their students to engage a variety of art forms to explore the Great Migration. These activities included conducting interviews, writing poetry, studying blues history, writing songs, collecting personal artifacts from family migration histories, making clay sculptures, re-enacting paintings, reading fiction and non-fiction, and taking photographs.   Mississippi-Chicago Exchange Building on the relationships established at the summer institute, teachers and artists from Mississippi and Chicago stayed in touch, and visited each other. This culminated in students from Jackson, Mississippi's Lanier High School coming to Chicago and meeting with students at North Side College Preparatory High School and at the Academy of Communications and Technology Charter School to engage in spirited discussions of the history that connects them. The Chicago artists, educators, and community members that were witnesses to this lively exchange included musician Fernando Jones, painter Bernard Williams, playwright and performance artist Tsehaye Hebert, musician and educator Cedric Hampton, video artist and educator Dwayne Sanders, CAPE executive director Arnold Aprill, spoken word artist Kevin Coval, journalist Curtis Lawrence, and Chicago legend Gerri Oliver of the famed Palm Tavern were all moved and impressed by the initiative, insight, and emerging leadership demonstrated by these remarkable young people from Mississippi and Chicago. The beginning of thoughtful new dialogue between young people from the two regions was experienced as a fitting sequel to the history that has separated them.

© 2004-2009 Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE)
203 N. Wabash, Suite 1720, Chicago, Illinois 60601-2417
312/870-6140 • fax 312/870-6147 • • www.capeweb.org
 
If you have come to this page from a search engine, here is a link to CAPE's Home page.