Community Connection and Youth Activism

Our final conference theme is centered on community and youth. These sessions will help you connect with local New Haven organizations engaging in important education-related work, and will center the fundamental importance of community connection and youth activism.

Wednesday, August 7th, 10:50-12:20 PM

“‘First, Do No Harm’: Assembling A Pedagogy of Solidarity and Subversion”

Education is not safe from the dead hand of Empire. This is a fact that forces us to reckon with what it means to be a teacher and a student. We will build upon each other’s experience and expertise, engage in discussion, and analyze text to define what it takes to make teaching a form of scholarship and a revolutionary craft. We will try to generate practical methods as a group to go beyond mainstream “social justice” and into rigorous, subversive pedagogy that organizes communities, breaks the dichotomous teacher-student relationship, and tills the soil for mutual critical consciousness and humanity. In essence, we will be attempting to answer the question: what will it take to pry education from the dead hand of Empire?

Presenter(s): Harmony Solomon Cruz-Bustamante

Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America 

  • Harmony is a communist political worker and teacher-apprentice based in New Haven, CT. Born into a lineage of working-class Ecuadorians, Harmony has served as a student representative on the Board of Education, written curriculum, organized political campaigns, and teaches with the values of steadfast duty, service, and love for their fellow.

“Free Mario: How New Haven Students, Educators, and Communities Took on the U.S. Empire and Won!”

Join us to learn how New Haven Students, Educators, and Communities Took on the U.S. Empire and Won! During this session we will share the powerful story of the C4D’s partnership with Wilbur Cross High School and the Free Mario Campaign. We will provide an overview of the broad systems and specific policies that impact immigrants in the U.S. Learn about the impact of immigration enforcement on undocumented youth and families in New Haven. We will equip educators with the tools and knowledge, so that they may grow into their roles as an educator accomplice with undocumented youth and families.

Presenter(s): Maria Cortes

Connecticut Students for a Dream

  • Maria: (she/her/ella) is an undocumented womxn of color who originated from Tlaxcala, Mexico. Her resilience as an undocumented student has inspired her to join the liberation movement to create a world without borders and systems where we can all exist in an abundance of radical joy and love. Maria is the College Access Coordinator at Connecticut Students For A Dream, she supports community partners, educators, undocumented students, and families getting to and through higher education.

“Empowering The Next Generation of Reporters: The Youth Arts Journalism Initiative” 

Presenter(s): Lucy Gellman & Abiba Biao

In this session, Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman and Southern Connecticut State University junior Abiba Biao will discuss the creation and growth of the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI), a project of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven that aims to give high school students ownership of their city through reporting. Over nine weeks, students independently research, report, draft, and publish articles covering the arts, culture, and community in greater New Haven, telling the stories of their city in the Arts Paper. Afterwards, many YAJI alumni stay on as freelance reporters with the Arts Paper. The goal is both to empower a new, more diverse generation of reporters and let them know that their voices are urgently important—especially at a time when youth may be discounted outright.

The Arts Paper

  • Lucy Gellman is the editor of the Arts Paper and co-founder of the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative at the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. As a reporter and editor, she covers arts, culture, and community with an eye toward social justice. Prior to her time at the Arts Paper, she worked as a general assignment reporter for the New Haven Independent and a station manager at WNHH Community Radio. She holds degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and the Courtauld Institute of Art, both in art history, and is a former Fulbright fellow.

  • Abiba Biao is a third year Honors College student and public health major at Southern Connecticut State University. She began her journalism career as part of the YAJI class of 2022, and has since worked as a freelance reporter at the Arts Paper and New Haven Independent. Alongside reporting for local news, she also serves as a feature writer for the Yale Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), spotlighting the research efforts and contributions of Yale professors across the FAS in both the sciences and the humanities.

“Growing Our Own:
Launching the NHPS Education and Leadership Pathway”

Presenter(s): Julia Miller, Akimi Nelken, Janae Nelson & Daisy Perez Ruiz

We have the tools to solve the teacher shortage in NHPS on our own. Inspired by “grow your own” models across the country, New Haven has launched its own Education and Leadership Pathway, currently being piloted at Wilbur Cross and Metropolitan Business Academy. In this session, participants will hear from the founding teachers and two recently graduated students about their experiences bringing this work from theory to practice in the pathway’s inaugural year. Participants will also have the opportunity to support the development of the pathway through a brainstorming, feedback, and networking session. Help us inspire and nurture our future NHPS colleagues!

New Haven Public Schools

  • Julia Miller is an NHPS teacher, parent and alum. Committed to the practices of antiracist education and project-based learning, Julia has taught Social Studies for the last 17 years, first in Brooklyn, and now NHPS. In addition to teaching Civics at Metro, Julia launched two new programs in recent years. She co-designed Youth Justice in Practice, a capstone law pathway course in which seniors run the Metro Youth Justice Panel, a student-facilitated restorative justice initiative. Julia also worked on implementing the new Education and Leadership pathway, a “Grow Your Own” model aimed to inspire and ready the next generation of NHPS teachers. Partnering with Quinnipiac University, Julia piloted an Educators Rising program last year, and will be teaching an education seminar in conjunction with Southern Connecticut State University next. Beyond teaching, Julia plays a variety of leadership roles in her building, and has her Sixth Year Certificate in Educational Leadership.

  • Akimi Nelken (she/her) is entering her 15th year teaching English at Wilbur Cross High School. She currently teaches 11th grade English, AP English Language and Composition, and the foundational course for the Education and Leadership Pathway. She also serves as the Lead Teacher for the English department. Akimi is passionate about creating communities of learners through the use of talking circles and student-centered instruction that elevates student voice. She is equally committed to building communities of educators through collaborative planning and teacher-directed professional development. A California native, Akimi came to New Haven in 2009 to pursue a master’s degree in Urban Education Studies at Yale University and never left.

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  • Daisy Perez Ruiz is a recent graduate of Metropolitan Business Academy and will be attending Southern Connecticut State University in the fall studying Bilingual Education. During her time at MBA she participated in an after school program/college course called Educators Rising. Determined to become an Elementary School Teacher in the New Haven area, she received three scholarships that will help her achieve her dream: New Haven Promise, The Federation Of Teachers and The New Haven Scholarship Fund. She also received The Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish and has a tremendous passion for helping those students whose first language wasn’t English. For over five months now, Daisy has worked at Hope Child Development Center helping and guiding kids on their path to kindergarten.

“Labor-Community Coalitions: Organizing for the Schools Our Students and Families Deserve”

Presenter(s): Leslie Blatteau

Our fight for Fully Funded Schools continues. With districts around the state and country facing budget cuts, layoffs, and higher class sizes, and offering less support to schools, students, and families, we must organize and take action! Labor-community coalitions are one way we can build power and win the schools our students deserve. Join NHFT President, Leslie Blatteau, as she shares her direct experiences with this work throughout the state and offers concrete ways for educators to get more involved in this work the months to come. The session will be interactive. We will use our time together to identify specific organizing strategies that we can put to work in New Haven and commit to implementing them in pragmatic and impactful ways.

New Haven Federation of Teachers

  • Leslie Blatteau has been a proud New Haven Public Schools teacher and union member since 2007. She is in her third year as President of the New Haven Federation of Teachers. Leslie prioritizes engagement and activism among NHFT members, as well as solidarity with other unions, students, and families, as we work together to fight for the schools our communities deserve.

    Before becoming NHFT President, Leslie taught high school social studies and organized to support public schools and fight privatization. In the classroom and the union hall, she is committed to anti-racist and student-centered practices. Her focus on reflection, collaboration, and partnership with community has been key to this commitment.

    Leslie lives in the Hill neighborhood with her husband Jim and their daughter Francine (and their cats and dogs). She is a NHPS parent and member of the Hill Central School PTO where Francine is a rising 4th grader.

“Supporting Student-Led Action
on the Climate Crisis”

Presenter(s): Chris Schweitzer & Adrian Huq

New Haven Climate Movement (NHCM) is a grassroots, nonprofit organization made up primarily of youth which pushes for bold policy change on climate change at the city level. In this session, you will hear from two NHCM leaders about their organizational focus, campaigns, and successes over the years. Join us to learn about the role of schools in responding to the climate crisis, how schools and teachers can incorporate climate education into their programming, and why it is important to include youth in work surrounding climate change leadership. You will hear about NHCM's current internship programs in New Haven high schools and our efforts and progress to push for policy change on sustainability measures and climate education from the New Haven Board of Education. Finally, we will discuss challenges and opportunities for teachers when implementing climate education in their classes.

New Haven Climate Movement

  • Chris Schweitzer is the Director of New Haven Leon Sister City Project, which supports education, climate justice and leadership development work in Leon, Niceagua and New Haven. He has years of experience in human rights, community organizing, international development, and youth work in North Philadelphia, Latin America and New Haven.

  • Adrian Huq (they/them) is a 2024 graduate of Tufts University, an incoming graduate student at the Yale School of the Environment, and a proud alum of New Haven Public Schools. A climate activist and organizer, they serve as the co-founder of the New Haven Climate Movement Youth Action Team (est. 2019) which pushes for bold policy change at the city level. Adrian also coordinates the Climate Justice Schools Initiative, a joint program between New Haven Climate Movement and New Haven Public Schools that fosters greater climate awareness in multiple high schools. Additionally, as Youth Coordinator of the Climate Health Education Project, they have facilitated an internship program that supports New Haven high school students in advancing climate education in their school communities since 2018. Adrian has worked for various environmental organizations and also does work surrounding media and communications.

“Telling Our Story: Planning a (new-ish) New Haven History Course”

A cross-section of students at Metro and Wilbur Cross were asked this past winter what they know about the history of our city and, if they were given a chance to take a class on New Haven history, what they’d want to learn more about. An interdisciplinary squad of teachers from both schools sifted through the students' responses and began in-earnest the job of creating a course that reflected these student voices. While certainly not the first time New Haven history will take center-stage in an NHPS classroom, this course represents an attempt to study history of our city in a way that centers students, best practices, and community partnership. Participants in this session will get a deeper look at the initial planning, year-long vision, and taste of what the learning experiences might look like in the coming year for this exciting new course.

Presenter(s): Steve Staysniak

New Haven Public Schools

  • Steve is an English and Social Studies teacher at Metropolitan Business Academy (Metro). Steve teaches Journalism, a course on the history of New Haven, and with his colleague Julia Miller, co-teaches a senior capstone class called Youth Justice in Practice, a first-of-its kind course that teaches students how to facilitate restorative hearings and mediations in the school. In addition to his teaching duties, Steve is the Senior Class Advisor at Metro, chairs the school’s School Planning and Management Team, is a Teacher Consultant for the Connecticut Writing Project, and a member of the executive board for the New Haven Federation of Teachers. Steve is a New Haven resident and is a New Haven Public Schools parent.

“Word to Your Other”

Presenter(s): Aaron Jafferis

Travel back in time to think of something you wish a younger you had said, but wasn’t able to. Write a poem in which you say it, now. In advocating for that other you, you’ll practice the shift from silence to advocacy to activism. We’ll brainstorm ways that silencing, or speaking up, show up in our own and our students’ lives now. We’ll create mini-lessons adapting these prompts for our students.

The Word

  • Aaron Jafferis is a hip-hop poet, playwright and teacher. A former Open Rap Slam champion at the National Poetry Slam Championships, Aaron’s honors include a Creative Capital Award, Richard Rodgers Award, Sundance Institute / Time Warner Fellowship, NEFA National Theatre Project Grant, and multiple MacDowell Fellowships. He has led workshops and master classes in poetry, playwriting and hip-hop theatre at Hartford Stage, Connecticut College, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Virginia Tech, the New England Young Writers’ Conference at Breadloaf, Vermont’s Governor’s Institute on the Arts, Wesleyan’s Center for Creative Youth, the Dublin (CA) Federal Correctional Institution and dozens of other educational, healthcare, and youth-centered organizations. Aaron is the founder of The Word poetry program in his hometown of New Haven, which is modeled after his mentor June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley.

“Young People in the Movement”

In order to strengthen our analysis, our power, and a clear stance and set of demands and action we must have an adequate understanding of young freedom fighters. The Connecticut Black and Brown Student Union upholds young people as historically having been on the front lines of movements for social change, and we are going to spend some time looking at the ways in which young people have collectively organized against the injustices in their communities. We will spend time studying the legacies of young people that fought within larger movements for justice because it is a source of inspiration to explore the numerous ways in which young people played vital roles in broader movements for justice. Rooting our work as continuations of these legacies can help us envision how to push the work forward towards a common vision.

Presenter(s): Andriana Miller

CT Black and Brown Student Union

  • Andriana K. Milner (she/her) identifies as a Black/African-American woman. For the past few years, she has been working in the non-profit and educational field, working with youth between the ages of 14-24, families and community members. Her main focus is to empower the youth in knowing the power of their voices, encouraging community engagement and youth leadership. Since joining the CT Black and Brown Student Union, she has assisted with the passing of the School Resource Officer bill to ensure a safer learning environment for our black and brown students. Raised in Windsor, now living in Bloomfield, she is following her uncle, former Mayor Thirman L. Milner's footsteps in creating a safer community.