Timmons Hall launches 'Freedom Classroom 101' with Black studies for local teachers
The Springfield-Greene County Park Board announced a new series of Black studies workshops for local teachers on Wednesday. The sessions, paid for with a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Fund grant from Community Foundation of the Ozarks, begin next month and run until June.
Dubbed "Freedom Classroom 101," the series "aims to equip teachers to research, rethink and reimagine how they teach African American studies," the park board said Wednesday. It begins with a presentation by Akbar Cook Sr. at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 4 at Timmons Hall in Silver Springs Park.
Cook is principal of Newark, New Jersey’s West End High School. He became known for creating the Light’s On program, the park board said. It provides students with a safe place to spend Friday nights: Students have the option to eat, play video games and basketball, do laundry, have assistance with homework and participate in other activities at school until 11 p.m.
Cook has not lost a student to gun violence since starting Light’s On, according to a park board news release, and daily attendance is up at West End High. In 2020, Oprah Winfrey surprised Cook with a $500,000 donation to the school. Cook has appeared on “Ellen” and “CBS This Morning” and been featured by CNN and The Grio, a U.S. news outlet and digital TV channel with a Black focus.
The park board said in-person registration for the first "Freedom Classroom 101" event was full, but Cook's presentation would be livestreamed on the City of Springfield’s Facebook page and on AfricanAmericanHeritageTrailSGF.org. The park board encourages online viewers to hold watch parties and hopes to amass 30 registered watch party coordinators. Those interested may register watch parties by emailing facility coordinator Christine Peoples at cpeoples@springfieldmo.gov.
Three other sessions are scheduled:
Saturday, Feb. 26, 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. — Art Immersion, with Kendra Chappell, author, educator, counselor and writer-director of “The Milly Project,” a play and film exploring the story of Milly Sawyers, an enslaved woman who won her freedom in a Greene County Court in 1834. Chappell’s workshop is meant to equip educators to deal with hard histories, empathy, resilience and value, through movement and creation.
More: The untold story of Milly Sawyers, a free black woman
Saturday, April 23, 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Meet n’ Greet Spotlight — Just Be Present, with Mark Simmonds, Springfield Option Site Program Coordinator for Springfield Public Schools; and Culturally Responsive Literature, with Dr. Sabrina A. Brinson, author, activist, diversity consultant, professor of childhood education and family studies at Missouri State University, and founder of Boys Booked on Barbershops and Girls Booked on Beautyshops literacy programs.
Saturday, June 11, 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. — The Equity Lens Model, with Taj Suleyman, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, City of Springfield.
More: Springfield diversity director outlines equity and inclusion plans to City Council
Admission to the series costs $30 and includes all three workshop dates and lunch. Registration is required and space is limited. To register for programs, contact Christine Peoples, Timmons Hall coordinator, at 417-864-1046.
Timmons Hall served Springfield's Black community as a church building for more than 80 years before its congregation outgrew the building and relocated. It reopened to the public in 2019 following relocation to Silver Springs Park in 2015 and years of restoration work, as the News-Leader reported earlier.
The former church was built in 1932 at the corner of Webster Street and Texas Avenue and now serves as an event facility offering historical, cultural and educational opportunities, owned and operated by the Park Board.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Black studies series 'Freedom Classroom 101' launches at Timmons Hall
