[Xmca-l] Re: The Highlander Center in Tennessee

Andy Blunden ablunden@mira.net
Sat Aug 30 17:39:14 PDT 2014


Helena Worthen and Greg Thompson have responded off-line, in addition to 
Robert Lake and you who proposed it, Mike. And Helena wants to involve 
someone on the Highlander faculty. When does a collaborative review 
article become a broth with too many cooks? Pretty soon I think.
I will send a message to this group off-line to see if we can get a plan.

Andy
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/


mike cole wrote:
> I have heard no news of deadlines about an article of the sort I thought
> Andy was suggesting. And it appears that at least Andy and Robert are
> interested, and perhaps Henry? And?
>
> No centralized organization seems appropriate here. Those interested can
> recognize themselves from the discussion and let the editors what emerges.
>
> The theme(s) is/are clearly generative of interest.
> mike
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 30, 2014 at 2:27 PM, Henry G. Shonerd III <hshonerd@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>   
>> Hi Robert and Andy,
>> Taking a biographical perspective on a smaller scale, it's interesting
>> that an Australian Vygotskian/Hegellian/dialectic scholar would find so
>> interesting the civil rights work of a courageous Black woman, that a white
>> professor who gets impetus for writing while in movement (as he explains in
>> his letter to Vera) would have a thorough knowledge of her work, and that a
>> Black scholar (Lisa Delpit), should be associated with the "dark side" in
>> literacy for minorities. How pun-ishingly ironic, maybe at the heart of the
>> dialectic? Does it make sense to see such "entanglements" as consonant with
>> a fractal model of history and culture, fractal formations at any scale
>> being "self similar" and complex. Surely dialect thinking and fractal
>> thinking are blendable, just as science and art are blendable. I am
>> thinking about Fauconnier and Turner (on blending), Cantor (on fractals)
>> and articles by Andy on metaphor and narrative, romantic science and the
>> interaction of conceptual and pre-conceptual thinking. One more personal
>> anecdote ties in. Two weekends ago my wife and I had lunch with Vera and
>> Ruben in Santa Fe. She talked about the creative "leap". In her 1985
>> Notebooks of the Mind, Vera talks about "the joining of rapid bursts of
>> thought with a regime of disciplined work". And finally, Anna Stetsenko in
>> the the letters to Vera (Constructing a Community of Thought), argues that
>> "Creativity…is an ineluctable feature of all and every person in their even
>> utmost mundane activities and pursuits of everyday life." Vera and Vygotsky
>> bring us creativity at all scales. Typically, "going to scale" means
>> growth. Cancer is a growth. Destructive. Creativity is generative,
>> nurturing. In all of this I find hope, which was got me into the xmca
>> dialog in the first place.
>> Henry
>>
>>
>>
>> On Aug 29, 2014, at 7:43 AM, Robert Lake <boblake@georgiasouthern.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> ​Hi ​
>>> ​Andy,
>>> I am so glad you are intrigued by Septima's role in the formation of
>>>       
>> SNCC .
>>     
>>> She was often overlooked in the chauvinist culture of the times (both
>>>       
>> white
>>     
>>> and black) and that is why began researching her life. Most people see
>>> recognize Rosa Parks and Ella Baker's role and later those who were
>>> credited for the "Freedom School curriculum​
>>> ​". If you look at Clark's life and the manner and content of what she
>>> taught on John's Island and other parts of South Carolina, ​
>>> ​you can easily recognize that her work was seminal in the formation of
>>>       
>> the
>>     
>>> Freedom School Curriculum.
>>>
>>> I have tried to get permission to reprint Septima's autobiography from
>>>       
>> her
>>     
>>> family, but I have been unsuccessful. The book by Cynthia Brown  *Ready
>>> from Within *has a lot of  primary source interviews. Catherine Mellon
>>> Charon's book,  *Septima Clark: Freedom's Teacher *is richly detailed
>>>       
>> with
>>     
>>> many interviews of her friends  and documents from primary sources from
>>>       
>> the
>>     
>>> University of Wisconsin Highlander collection.
>>>
>>> Here is a link to a recorded interview with Septima that may be useful to
>>> you. I enjoyed hearing her voice at least.
>>>
>>> http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/G-0017/menu.html
>>>
>>> *Robert*
>>>
>>>
>>>>>>
>>> On Aug 29, 2014 5:05 AM, "Andy Blunden" <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> So you are placing Septima Clark right up there in importance, Robert.
>>>> I am part way through a "chronicle" of Highlander, called "Highlander.
>>>>         
>> No
>>     
>>>> Ordinary school, 1932-1962". It is very useful for me, so I can get
>>>> everything in sequence. So here I discovered that Septima Clark was in
>>>> charge of the discussions with the students who later joined SNCC. So
>>>>         
>> she
>>     
>>>> is coming into focus for me. I have just ordered two books on her,
>>>> including the one you recommended. Unfortuantely, an autobiography she
>>>> wrote in 1962 seems to be out of print and entirely unavailable now.
>>>>
>>>> Andy
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>>> http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Robert Lake wrote:
>>>>
>>>>         
>>>>> Hi Andy,
>>>>> Yes I do. Start with this .
>>>>> http://highlandercenter.org/about-us/history/
>>>>>
>>>>> And this biography of Myles Horton
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Haul-An-Autobiography/dp/0807737003
>>>>> and the biography of Septima Clark.
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.amazon.com/Freedoms-Teacher-Life-Septima-
>>>>> Clark/dp/0807872229/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=
>>>>> 1408889271&sr=1-2&keywords=septima+clark <http://www.amazon.com/
>>>>> Freedoms-Teacher-Life-Septima-Clark/dp/0807872229/ref=sr_1_
>>>>> 2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408889271&sr=1-2&keywords=septima+clark>
>>>>>
>>>>> I have written a piece on her as well and will send it this afternoon.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I think the book We Make the Road by Walking: A dialogue between Myles
>>>>> Horton and Paulo Freire
>>>>> is one of the best books on both these leaders.
>>>>>
>>>>> More Later,
>>>>> Robert Lake
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I will send more this afternoon.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 9:31 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net
>>>>>           
>> <mailto:
>>     
>>>>> ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>    Does anyone on this list know about the Highlander Center, what
>>>>>    used to be called the Highlander Folk School?
>>>>>    The people there are very helpful, but they're also rushed off
>>>>>    their feet (like everyone, I guess) and if there were any other
>>>>>    sources of information about it, that would be helpful. I'm
>>>>>    particularly interested if anyone is familiar with what they were
>>>>>    doing in the 1950s and 60s.
>>>>>
>>>>>    Andy
>>>>>    --     ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> ------------
>>>>>    *Andy Blunden*
>>>>>    http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>>>>>    <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> *Robert Lake  Ed.D.
>>>>> *Associate Professor
>>>>> Social Foundations of Education
>>>>> Dept. of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
>>>>> Georgia Southern University
>>>>> Secretary/Treasurer-AERA- Paulo Freire Special Interest Group
>>>>> P. O. Box 8144
>>>>> Phone: (912) 478-0355
>>>>> Fax: (912) 478-5382
>>>>> Statesboro, GA  30460
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>           
>>     
>
>
>   



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