This year began with an animation around the history of voting rights and is ending with a claymation which looks at the history of African American hair. The young people at Kids on the Hill, are currently building clay figures and sets to represent the African village where our story begins. As each day passes we realize the extent of this project and how much time it will take. But many of the students are bringing new energy and excitement to their work daily. The young people are challenged with figuring out how to build African huts and mix colors to create vibrant landscapes and skies. This is an exploratory process. Students are learning as they go, and many of the teachers are too. For me it feels exciting to be around children creating.

The year had a challenging start, as I was confronted with 25 students, some who were passionate about art, many who were not. It became clear that the students needed to feel like their projects were connected to their lives. Hair seemed very relevant. It often caused conflicts as words like baldheaded and nappy were thrown around to insult each other. But the adolescent girls in our group also spent a considerable amount of time beautifying themselves by creating new hair styles. So we began by teaching techniques to create different hair styles, from braids to dreads, and asked hard questions about who determines in our society what is beautiful, and why is straight hair most desirable.

The claymation is an expression of what they have learned and a way for the young people to communicate the message to others. It is hard to know if the message of “you are beautiful” has sunk in. But I am hoping, that daily, as we create together and learn together we can keep promoting ideas, which build up rather than tear down.