Equity at Sidwell Friends still has a long way to go, but the School will never stop working toward it.

The phrase “thoughts and prayers” has so saturated public discourse that it has been divested of all meaning and is virtually unusable. “Words and thoughts may create a sense of solace for some, but they are fleeting,” says Natalie Randolph ’98, the director of the Equity, Justice, and Community (EJC) program at Sidwell Friends. “Real work is needed. We have to work together to move past the starting point and into sustainable, effective action.” It’s a message Ibram X. Kendi, the author of How to Be an Antiracist, echoed in several live events with the Sidwell Friends community: “Racial inequity is a problem of bad policy, not bad people”. As Randolph puts it: “This is a time for deliberate and strategic action.”

The School’s forthcoming EJC Strategic Action Plan does just that, outlining the concrete steps Sidwell Friends has taken and is taking to address issues of equity and justice. The plan focuses first and foremost on the students, including by bringing student government and student affinity-group leaders (from the Black Student Union to the Gay-Straight Alliance), into administrative discussions. Those discussions also include the Black Alumni Association, Parents of Black Students, Parents of Asian Students, Parents of Latinx Students, and many others who want to increase equity-related programming. Students are also at the heart of the School’s Center for Ethical Leadership, which helps students advance social justice through service as a means to make meaningful change. The center will also be launching a leadership conference.

Part of the EJC Strategic Action Plan calls for Randolph to gather quantitative and qualitative data, in part from surveys and focus groups, to assess the School’s climate and to better understand the experiences of the community. Randolph invited faculty and staff to participate in “listening sessions.”

That broad invitation, in turn, led to a large and committed team devoted to equity work. “I am grateful to be collaborating with nearly 45 dedicated people,” Randolph says,“including our divisional EJC coordinators, student leaders, principals, teachers, and staff.” Head of School Bryan Garman is among them. “This kind of work,” he says, “restores hope and deepens understanding.”

Next, the School is emphasizing the importance of having a faculty that is as diverse as the student body. Courtney Peterson, the School’s culture officer and chief of human resources, says that diversity projects are now strategic business imperatives. “Organizations are governed by policies, practices, and traditions,” Peterson recently told Forbes magazine, where she is a member of the Forbes Human Resources Council, an invitation-only expert panel. “Interrogate these things. Ask the hard questions about who is advantaged and who is not. Changing hearts and minds can be a goal, but sustained accountability for behaviors is how you shift culture.” As an example of the School’s initiative in this area, Peterson points to a new pipeline for Howard University student-teachers to train and work at Sidwell Friends.

Just as important as recruiting diverse faculty is ensuring teachers are creating anti-racist classrooms and multicultural curricula. Several professional development programs are already taking on that challenge through the School’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL): So far, teachers have already attended two sessions of mandatory professional development focused on equitable teaching practices and anti-racist solutions—and more sessions are planned for next semester. Mandatory professional development will occur every year with equity-themed workshops built into the academic calendar. The EJC program will also offer in-house training for all affinity-group leaders. Faculty and staff have also been attending or leading “SEED” workshops at Sidwell Friends for three years. The National SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) Project asks teachers to acknowledge and respond to systems of power, oppression, and privilege. The intensive series meets every month throughout the academic year, and it is now required for first- and second-year teachers at Sidwell Friends—the idea being that one day all teachers will be SEED-trained. “You can’t have the CTL without EJC,” says Randolph, “Instructional practice leads to better equity.”

The Sidwell Friends curriculum strives to be multicultural, from its language offerings to cultural studies to a stream of events that celebrate Spanish and Latinx heritage, the Lunar New Year, international fashion, and Diwali, to name just a few, and the School still has much work to do. Part of the strategic-planning process will be to consistently review curricula to improve diversity of perspective and representation. Meanwhile, teachers are also dismantling traditional Western-focused educational norms. They are teaching through a vast spectrum of perspectives, whether it is using underrepresented primary sources to teach history, reconceiving reading lists for a globalized world, or learning about the disproportionate effect of climate change on minority populations.

“One of the most extraordinary things about our teachers is that they have always kept their eye
on creating a more just and equitable learning environment for all students,” says Adele Paynter, the Lower School principal, who finds inspiration from the work of Ibram X. Kendi and Zaretta Hammond, the author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. “We continue to examine our teaching practices, curriculum, and policies with the end goal of allowing each of our children to share their Light and fulfill their full human potential.” Now teachers will have even more help in that mission. Sidwell Friends has introduced two new endowed academic chairs: the Señora Guillermina Medrano de Supervía Endowed Chair for Spanish and Latin American Studies, and the African and African American Studies Chair.

Helping the School complete and implement the EJC Strategic Action Plan is Dax-Devlon Ross ’93, a social-impact consultant, attorney, and award-winning investigative journalist. Among other efforts, like identifying and dismantling systemic biases, Ross is also providing the School with an invaluable outside perspective to both detect potential blind spots and provide accountability. That is particularly salient in light of a number of alumni and students who have shared concerns and personal stories about a gap between the School’s principles and their experiences on the ground. In a letter from the Sidwell Friends Board of Trustees, members acknowledged that the School had more to do to fulfill its obligations to equity and inclusion, and they committed to “identifying and addressing all forms of racism and prejudice in our community, particularly anti-Black racism.” Ross wants to help Sidwell Friends follow through on that commitment. He has already led trainings for employees as well as the administrative team, and he will also be working with Randolph on an experience for Board members.

Most important, though, are the students. The first goal of the EJC Strategic Action Plan is to put students at the center of all equity work. “Given that the empowerment of young voices is central to the national dialogue,” says Randolph, “we are deeply committed to working more closely with our students.” One way the School has started on that path is through its new Student-First Framework, a living document outlining a number of reflective questions that employees can use to interrogate their own practices for equity and whether or not students, of any identity or experience, are at the center of their actions or decision-making processes.

Below, you will find a selection of stories that highlight the School’s equity work. It is by no means an exhaustive account, but hopefully it offers a window into the community’s dedication to inclusivity. As Randolph says, “It’s going to take a combination of urgency and endurance.”

To learn more, offer suggestions or advice, or simply connect with the EJC program, go to sidwell.edu/equity.

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PLANNING FOR EQUITY

Natalie Randolph '98 has a lot on tap. Here’s a snapshot of the EJC Strategic Action Plan.

Key Broad Goals and Actions

GOAL NO. 1: Create and maintain a student-centered approach to all EJC work, increase student EJC programming and co- curricular experiences, and increase student collaboration in institutional planning.

A few things the School is currently doing:

• Establishing EJC clubs at the Middle and Upper Schools.

• Working with student leadership groups to determine key student concerns and generate ideas for improvement.

• Implementing a Student-First Framework—an inquiry tool that allows all employees to interrogate their practice for equity and focus on student experiences and outcomes.

A few things the School is planning:

• Start the research and planning process to launch age- appropriate affinity spaces in the Lower School.
• Restart curricular review processes for STEM and humanities. • Establish regular communication protocols among student leadership, senior administration, and the Board of Trustees.

GOAL NO. 2: Create an evaluative culture in which the School regularly and critically evaluates institutional, divisional, and departmental policies, procedures, systems, structures, and curricula to identify those that may be harmful, inequitable, or indirectly cause inequities, as well as create strategies and plans to revise, dismantle, and/or replace them.

• Restart the growth and evaluation procedure review process.

• Collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data in all institutional areas.

• Create and implement clearer protocols to address equity complaints and concerns.

GOAL NO. 3: Broaden EJC practice to bring more community members into the work and keep them engaged. Let the concepts of voices, inquiry, empathy, and action guide all EJC work.

A few things the School is currently doing:

• Creating data-collection systems for key programs, such as the Student Support Team and Service Learning Programs.

• Reviewing hiring, onboarding, and retention programs and processes.

• Providing mandatory and optional equity professional development opportunities for faculty and staff.

A few things the School is currently doing:

• Soliciting employee volunteers to assist with equity action steps and initiatives.
• Creating affinity spaces and book clubs for employees.
• Continuing the SEED program.

A few things the School is planning:

• Incorporate differentiated professional development opportunities for employees, and co-curricular opportunities for students, to meet community members where they are.
• Begin the professional development component of the Howard University partnership.
• Host more community conversations with prominent alumni and equity professionals.

Key Issues Already Identified via Conversations with Stakeholders

• Recruit and retain faculty and staff who represent the diversity of the student body.
• Further infuse diversity into the curricula and create a better representation of diverse perspectives
• Revise and enhance protocols to address equity complaints and concerns.
• Create and maintain a culture that continually strives to be equitable and anti-racist.

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CITIZENS, UNITED

An alliance between Howard University and Sidwell Friends will focus on teachers, curricula, dialogue, law, religion, and democracy.

The future of racial justice and equity in this nation rests on working with some
of the top young minds so they can grow into the solution-oriented critical thinkers of tomorrow,” said Howard University President Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick (P ’24) at an event to formalize a partnership with Sidwell Friends. Working together, the two schools plan to transform discussions about race, justice, equity, and education among teachers and youth leaders. Building on a collaboration that began in 2018, Frederick and Sidwell Friends Head of School Bryan Garman officially signed the agreement in August. The partnership involves multiple projects spanning Howard’s Professional Schools of Education, Law, and Divinity, and its Departments of African Studies and Afro-American Studies. The agreement focuses on training opportunities for future teachers, culturally responsive curricula, interfaith dialogue, the law, and a national conversation on diversity and democracy. This isn’t the first partnership between the two schools: In the 1970s, Howard worked with Sidwell Friends to address the needs of Black students.

“Working with a Quaker school that strives to educate for a more just society and to act on moral imperatives continues to be very meaningful for the university,” Frederick says. Garman echoes that enthusiasm. “We hope to deepen the conversation about racial justice in our communities and to inspire tomorrow’s leaders,” Garman says. “It is an honor to have a relationship with one of the most important academic institutions in our nation, one dedicated to the idea that education should free minds and promote a just society.”

Partnering with the Howard School of Education

In 2018, Dawn Williams, the dean of the Howard School of Education, and Courtney Peterson, the Sidwell Friends culture officer and chief of human resources, began collaborating on the School of Education’s Teacher Education Advisory Council, which consults on issues and trends in education.
The council also provides Howard students who are training as teachers with professional opportunities
at Sidwell Friends. The new partnership will focus on expanding this arrangement and offering more classroom opportunities for on-the-job training, career coaching, interview training, and skill building.

“It’s exciting,” Peterson says. “By working with Howard, we are building a way to expand our talent base and find gifted and talented professionals of color.” This year, the Lower School has welcomed three student teachers from Howard. “As we look ahead, we hope these relationships not only help inspire and grow the next generation of teachers,” says Lower School principal Adele Paynter, “but also provide Sidwell Friends with a long-term pipeline of diverse, talented teachers.”

Howard faculty will also work with Sidwell Friends teachers to host seminars and curriculum-development training. In 2019, this work began with Howard’s Associate Professor of Educational Leadership Kmt Shockley, who led several Sidwell Friends teachers as they decolonized the classroom. Using a Sidwell Friends Strategic Plan grant, Shockley and Sidwell Friends teachers examined traditional historic narratives from myriad cultural perspectives.

Now, the Lower School is working with Howard faculty members Kimberly E. Freeman, Katina January- Vance, and A. Wade Boykin to develop more plans for inclusive teaching. According to Min Kim, the assistant head of school for academic affairs at Sidwell Friends, the partnership with Howard University will “provide teachers with access to professors engaged in the latest research and best practices in culturally responsive teaching as well as all of the major academic fields that inform our School’s curriculum.”

Partnering with Howard's Departments of African Studies and Afro-American Studies and Howard Law School’s Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center

Howard University and the Sidwell Friends Center for Ethical Leadership will create a summer conference on race, democracy, and education for prekindergarten through 12th grade teachers and students. The conference will be a collaboration among the Howard Departments of African Studies and Afro-American Studies; Sidwell Friends’ Director of Equity, Justice, and Community Natalie Randolph’98; and Sidwell Friends’ future African and African American Studies chair.

Eventually, Howard undergraduates and graduate students will serve as mentors to Sidwell Friends Upper School students in order to connect young leaders. In addition to the conference, Sidwell Friends will collaborate with Howard Law School’s Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center to co-sponsor a summer institute on racial equity and the law that will include active education through moot court.

Partnering with the Howard School of Divinity

Next, the Sidwell Friends Center for Ethical Leadership will join the Howard School of Divinity to promote interfaith dialogue and conflict resolution among young people throughout Washington, DC. Inspired by the work of Eboo Patel, the Sidwell Friends 2019 Peace Speaker, both communities will build shared programs, interfaith service projects, and a forum to promote cultural understanding. “This is a necessary journey,” Randolph says. “Building communities of respect is inherently fundamental to our Quaker values. Given the societal movements and inequities of today, this world could benefit from youth leadership that values the humanity of everyone.”

Engaged Citizens

Both Howard University and Sidwell Friends School are historic DC institutions with long-established histories of academic excellence. Founded in 1867, 16 years before Sidwell Friends, Howard remains one of the nation's top-ranked private research universities and a preeminent historically Black university. Both institutions consider education a shared responsibility that prepares students to become active and engaged citizens for the benefit of the greater good. Howard University Provost Anthony Wutoh says that he looks forward to continuing to build on the relationship with Sidwell Friends. “In the context of the significant societal upheaval we are experiencing,” he says, “our actions can serve as a testament to how elevated scholarship and dynamic dialogue can bring to life a better future for our children and this country.”

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AGAINST ERASURE

The School pursues a new endowed African and African American Studies Chair.

"Our history did not start with slavery, and our future did not die with Dr. Martin Luther King.” This is how DeDe Lea’s (P ’22, ’25) history lesson begins. And when Lea talks about African and African American history and culture, you begin to recognize the limitations of conventional narratives taught in most schools. She reminds you that the Moors ruled in the Iberian Peninsula for over 700 years—nearly three times as long as the United States has been a country. She rattles off the names of paradigm- shifting African American doctors, inventors, entrepreneurs, politicians, and philanthropists. She describes African kings and queens ruling over civilizations whose influence can still be felt around the world.

Lea also notes the danger of erasure, as she recounts the story of a young man who grew up in the Greenwood area of Tulsa—the affluent Black neighborhood once known as Black Wall Street—without ever learning of the sweeping racial violence that razed that community in 1921. In this and most African studies, Upper School principal Mamadou Guèye sees the “distorting lens of colonialism” at work. “The curriculum that is taught in so many institutions was not written by Africans or people
of African descent,” he says.“Before colonization, before enslavement, there was an Africa with deeply rooted traditions, languages, and cultures that are not being taught.” DeDe and Dallas Lea feel an urgency to address the problem of distorted and buried histories. “There’s a Zimbabwean proverb: ‘Until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter,’” DeDe Lea says. “Well, the lion has arrived.”

Along with Simone and Wayne A.I. Frederick (P ’24), the Leas proposed an endowed African and African American Studies Chair in 2018. “Our kids have often questioned why they didn’t learn more about the African American experience and history at School,” Simone Frederick explains, “so we felt it necessary to make it a reality for them and students that follow.” As it turns out, Head of School Bryan Garman had been considering such a position to achieve the School’s strategic goals of inspiring ethical leadership and welcoming a wider community. “The Leas and the Fredericks are generous, thoughtful people who appreciate the need to teach African and African American history and culture, who know that our understanding of the past shapes the present," Garman says. "They recognize that our students cannot be responsible, well-informed citizens without knowing this history and the impact it has had on society." 

Like the Señora Guillermina Medrano de Supervía Endowed Chair for Spanish and Latin American Studies, the African and African American Studies Chair is one of the strategic initiatives the School is expediting to “take clear and purposeful steps to build a compassionate and anti-racist community.” In addition to this endowed chair, the School has formed a complementary African and African American Studies Advisory Council populated by parents and alumni with expertise in this area.

Frederick notes that “this chair is especially significant in the current environment, where racial discourse is of paramount importance.” Garman agrees: “If we hope to unravel the threads of racism and racist violence built into the fundamental economic structures of this country, we need to help our students to recognize, in age-appropriate ways, how they became systematically entangled.”

In order to jumpstart these goals and generate momentum for the endowed chair, the Leas and the Fredericks provided foundational funding for the position. Now, they hope others in the Sidwell Friends community who care deeply about elevating African and African American voices will likewise commit to fully funding this position. “Members of the community have expressed a desire for something like this for some time,” says Frederick. “Now they can help us make it a reality by contributing to this endowed chair so that faculty, staff, and students can continue to be educated on this topic for years to come.”

“Endowing the African and African American Studies Chair underscores its centrality to our academic programs and affirms that every Sidwell Friends student needs to graduate with an understanding of these perspectives and histories,” Garman says. “Like the Leas and Fredericks, those contributing funds for these positions are making certain that our commitment to teaching these essential areas of study will have permanent financial support.”

Once fully funded, the chair will guide the School in developing decolonized curricula that will open windows onto unexplored cultures and transform all students into global citizens and leaders. And just as importantly, it will hold mirrors for African and African American students to see themselves reflected in historical narratives that have long denied voices, agency, and representation to people of African descent. “It’s important to the health of African and African American students at Sidwell Friends to know and understand their rich history and lineage,” Dallas Lea says, “and to recognize how much our cultures have contributed to the world.”

When Guèye considers the growth of the Chinese Studies Program over the past few decades, he imagines what a world-class African and African American Studies initiative will look like at Sidwell Friends. “There’s limitless potential for where this program can go,” Guèye says. “And it starts with the chair, who will help recruit a diverse faculty and train our teachers in decolonizing minds, decolonizing the curriculum, and demystifying the Eurocentric framework in research.” 

The Leas and the Fredericks can see how that influence will spread through the students and alumni who will benefit from this program. “Our hope is that all students will leave Sidwell Friends with a better appreciation of African and African American history,” DeDe Lea says. “When they’re in a room with people who aren’t as historically versed or culturally competent, Sidwell Friends students can say, ‘Let me tell you what actually happened.’”

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¡BUENOS NOTICIAS!

The Supervía Chair for Spanish and Latin American Studies is a go.

Thanks to more than 50 alumni and friends, the Señora Guillermina Medrano de Supervía Endowed Faculty Chair for Spanish and Latin American Studies has been fully funded. The chair is a permanent addition to the Upper School faculty, ensuring a gifted educator with expertise in Spanish and Latin American studies will always be part of Sidwell Friends. The new chair will be a resource for faculty developing courses and enrichment programs relating to Spanish and Latin American history, art, language, and culture. “This is an important step in decolonizing our curriculum,” Upper School principal Mamadou Guèye says, “which we need to do to include voices and histories that are often excluded.” Natalie Randolph ’98, the School’s EJC director, agrees. “One of the goals in the EJC Strategic Action Plan is to critically evaluate the curriculum and make sure we are incorporating multiple perspectives,” Randolph says. As a member of the all-School EJC team, the chair will advise Randolph’s team on a variety of issues, like recruiting Latinx faculty and students, creating cultural programming, and guiding student affinity groups. The School is also forming a Spanish and Latin American Studies Advisory Committee with volunteers from the Sidwell Friends community who have expertise in those fields. The committee will promote Spanish and Latin history and culture, create activities for Spanish and Latin alumni, and encourage admissions applications from the Spanish and Latin communities in the DC area.

To learn more about the chair, check out the full story at sidwell.edu/supervia-update.

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SHOCKS TO THE SYSTEMS

Ibram X. Kendi teaches Sidwell Friends the difference between “not racist” and “anti-racist.”

In June, Head of School Bryan Garman asked faculty, staff, alumni, and Upper School students—to read Ibram X. Kendi’s groundbreaking book How to Be an Antiracist. Then he had the School buy everyone a copy. Kendi’s work puts forth that it isn’t enough for people to be “not racist.” Instead, those pursuing racial justice and equality must be “anti-racist,” willing to dismantle racist systems and ideas wherever they’re found— including in oneself. He also explains the difference between “racism” (a system or a policy that leads to racial inequality) and “racist” (a person or an idea holding one group superior to another). Those working to achieve anti-racism should move away from the idea that “racist” is something someone is, and rather call out as racist specific actions that a person does.

To help Sidwell Friends create an anti-racist environment, Kendi held dialogues with different parts of the School. Kendi spoke with faculty and staff in a session moderated by Natalie Randolph ’98, the director of Equity, Justice, and Community. Then Middle and Upper School students held a student-led session with Kendi. Next, the Lower School hosted a parent dialogue about racism focused on Kendi’s book, and in each division, there were smaller discussion groups and book clubs. Middle School students, for example, read This Book Is Anti-Racist, Kendi’s book for younger learners. Finally, Randolph hosted an all-community event with alumni Dax-Devlon Ross ’93, an equity consultant, author, and educator; Christopher Brown ’86, an author and a professor of history at Columbia University; and Traci Cohen Dennis ’86, the director of undergraduate education at American University.

The group discussed Kendi’s work and its salience to Sidwell Friends and Quaker traditions of equity. With Sidwell Friends faculty and staff, Kendi explored education's role in an anti-racist community. “We’re either educating our children to be racist,” he said, “or we are educating them to be anti-racist.” Kendi encouraged the faculty and staff to keep working to advance anti- racism, both in the School and the world at large; not to do so is tantamount to complicity in racist policies. “It is a political choice to say and do nothing,” he said, “just as it’s a political choice to say and do something.”

When Kendi returned to the Sidwell Friends virtual campus again to speak to Middle and Upper School students,  Adeoluwa Fatukasi ’21, Atswei Laryea ’21, and Justin Peikin ’21 led the event. The students
prepared by reading How to Be an Antiracist and by watching Kendi’s previous interviews and appearances on YouTube. Kendi spoke to the students about the role of Black people in American culture and how they learn to perceive themselves. “It has long been the case that Black people are raised to appreciate Blackness, but then they’re simultaneously raised to appreciate and to value white American culture, to simultaneously be raised to want to be white,” he said. “For the better part of American history, Black people have been raised and trained to want to be Black and to want to be white—which is fundamentally in contradiction. That’s the dueling sort of consciousness that Black people have been forced to endure and even to overcome.”

The students asked Kendi about the value of intersectionality in an anti-racist world. “The way people experience racism in many ways is at the intersection of their identity,” he said. “You can’t
really understand what Black disabled people are experiencing if you don’t understand ableism and racism and how they intersect. You can’t really understand what Black women are facing if you don’t understand racism and sexism and their intersection.” Kendi also talked about how racism can strike groups at different historical moments—like Muslims after 9/11 or Asians in the wake of COVID-19.

“You can’t really grow up in the United States and not come across some form of information or individuals who are challenging you on a racist idea,” Kendi said. “The question is, when that challenge happens, do you attack back, or do you seek to understand more?”

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ALUMNI AND STUDENT VOICES

The Black Alumni Alliance takes off.

Lory Ivey Alexander ’97, a multimedia artist and lawyer in DC, has been a dynamic member of the Sidwell Friends community for years. She has spearheaded alumni programming, helped launch the Art Among Friends initiative, and been an energetic fundraiser. But it is only in the last two years that she has been able to help lead the Black Alumni Alliance (BAA)— the affinity group simply didn’t exist before then. In fact, Alexander, along with Nasser Muhammad ’05, Ericka Blount-Danois ’90, and Neville Waters ’75, founded the BAA with indispensable help from Director of Alumni Engagement Anna Wyeth. Now in its third year, the BAA creates opportunities for alumni who identify as Black and African American to enhance their relationship with Sidwell Friends. BAA members celebrate excellence, forge relationships, and deepen connections to Sidwell Friends students and faculty. Those student connections are particularly important to Alexander, who is now a BAA Advisory Council co-clerk. “I’m an advocate for a strong statement about the School’s mission,” she says. “I encounter young alumni who are super well-prepared academically but who weren’t necessarily comfortable in the School community.” That’s why Alexander is a proponent of the School’s Center for Ethical Leadership; she wants kids to learn to advocate for themselves and build up resiliency. Of course, there’s room for all kinds of passion projects—more Black alumni voices and insights are vital to creating a welcoming space that best serves the needs of the community. To learn more, go to sidwell.edu/baa.

A new outlet for student voices puts a premium on race and identity.

In 1969, Sidwell Friends students established the Black Student Union. Half a century later, in 2020, the School’s Black Student Union launched a new magazine: 1969. Several young Black voices from 1969 resonated with the School community. One belonged to Graciana Kabwe ’26. 

“Writing about my experiences as a Black female in American society does not separate me from those of different races and genders,” says Kabwe. “By understanding and observing each other’s experiences, we can unite and love each other more. I am confident that within our differences, we can find similarities and accept each other openly and lovingly. We are all human. We can express our views of the world through our art. We tell others the thoughts that we are too afraid to speak. Art gives even the weakest and the most vulnerable individuals a voice in this world. I want my art to break through silence.” To see the whole issue of 1969, go to bit.ly/SFS1969.