We at GCP were so excited to see poetry included in the opening ceremonies of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, we just had to make this the subject of this week's Thoughtful Thursday. Oprah Winfrey (who funded the museum's auditorium) and Will Smith gifted us with some mighty thoughts in a poetry battle. You can [...]
The National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington D.C. opened its doors to the public this weekend, and the celebration was glorious. Presidents Obama along with President George W. Bush (who signed the bill authorizing funds to build the museum thirteen years ago) spoke eloquently about the importance of this museum and its place in American history. [...]
Greetings from London! GCP is on the road, checking in on globetrotting children. Since we are here on Thoughtful Thursday, today our focus is on Black British poets. From the many talented poets we present here just a few: Benjamin Zephaniah ("Dis Poetry") is a British Jamaican writer and dub poet who was included in The Times 2008 list [...]
GCP is at Chautauqua Institution, for the end of their week discussing "Boys Will Be Boys, Then Men". This week's Thoughtful Thursday (the Friday morning edition) comes from the amazing performance here last night of Daniel Bernard Roumain's symphonic composition of "Meditations on Raising Boys", featuring Marc Bamuthi Joseph performing spoken word with an all male chorus of 10 [...]
Summer is almost here! But along with summer fun comes summer slide, the learning loss that occurs when children do no educational activity during the summer months of no school. That loss is real: studies show that most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills over the summer months. Experts also agree that [...]
Zach Hodges, the Harvard defensive end featured in an earlier post who overcame great personal tragedy to become a star football player at Harvard, has signed with the Indianapolis Colts. While Hodges was not selected during the NFL draft as he had hoped, he signed with the Colts over the weekend after they expressed strong interest in him as [...]
NYC educator Alvin Irby is the founder of Barbershop Books, a New York City–based project that puts child friendly reading nooks and a variety of fun and engaging books into neighborhood barbershops, so young Black boys are encouraged to read while they wait for a haircut. With Barbershop Books Irby seeks to connect Black men to Black boys’ early [...]
If you live in or anywhere near New York City, or are planning a visit to NYC over the summer, make sure to take your sons and daughters to "One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North" at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). It is a wonderful exhibition that has at its [...]
Common Sense Media, the organization that helps parents navigate the treacherous waters of modern day media and technology, has posted the thoughtful piece "10 Great Role Models for Boys" on its website which you can find here. Included in their list of media role models is Neil DeGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist extrodinaire on "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey". One of our [...]
"Little Ballers", Crystal McCrary's wonderful documentary, follows a group of young AAU basketball teammates (including her son Cole) as they pursue their hoop dreams and a championship season. It premiered on Nick Sports TV (a programming block on Nicktoons) last week and will be shown again tonight at 9pm and tomorrow (March 1) at 10pm (EST). McCrary gives us [...]