Through the Same Halls
Through the Same Halls: Journeys of Elders Born and Raised in South Central and Beyond was written by students of Manual Arts High School and published in April 2018
Foreward by Donald Bakeer
When I came to teach writing at Manual Arts High in 1984, there were over 2,000 students and only about ten poets. Students expected to struggle with reading and writing, and faculty expected the same, so the campus languished in a self-fulfilling prophetic academic malaise that was later coined soft racism of low expectations.
I determined to change that tradition with poetry because a lot of students who could not write a composition could be taught to write a great poem. Poetry empowers writers. It is an excellent doorway into the world of writing, a world that students at Manual Arts H.S. were traditionally excluded from.
So, I made everybody a poet. I taught haiku and couplets, sonnets and rap (I was the first to declare rap was poetry). I held schoolwide poetry contests with $100 prizes and rap contests in my bungalow. That was before the computer became ubiquitous and English teachers were leery of technology, so I had no competition for the school’s only video camera. All of my students had to participate in the weekly poetry slam. And, we wrote two anthologies: Sun City Songs I (1987) and Sun City Songs II (1988).
So, I am pleased to know the writing tradition lives at Manual Arts High, and the touching essays in this anthology are evidence of that. By writing about the experiences of their elders, these students have captured, anecdotally, a history of Mexico, Central America, and, indeed, South Central LA that is undervalued and mostly overlooked. After seeing their writing published, these students will never feel disempowered vis a vis the English language, again. And, their friends and family who read what they have written will be proud and, hopefully, encouraged to write themselves.
Thanks to 826LA for continuing to inspire students to write and publish the rich history of the people in and associated with Manual Arts High School.