Equity and Anti-Racism Task Force

As we prepare to part ways for a winter break, we want to wish happy holidays to everyone celebrating in the coming weeks! Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, a holiday marking the transition from Autumn to Winter with cultural ties to Christmas and many other winter holidays celebrated around the world. Many in our Hyde-Addison community will celebrate Christmas on December 25 and Kwanzaa from December 26 through January 1. Perhaps we have some Canadian, British or other community members who will celebrate Boxing Day on December 26. And the Christian New Year’s Eve tradition of Watch Night has special significance within African American culture, dating back to 1862, when African Americans gathered to ring in the new year and await news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect.

If you’re celebrating holidays in the coming weeks, please be mindful that not all members of our community are celebrating. This time of year can be challenging for non-Christians and members of marginalized communities. Check out A Racial Justice Guide to the Winter Holiday Season for Educators and Families, by the Center for Racial Justice in Education, for a library of culturally sustaining, anti-racist holiday lessons and resources for families during this Winter holiday season. The guide includes links to articles on Christian privilege, Islamophobia, antisemitism, and other topics to support an inclusive understanding of religious holidays and dominant culture during the Winter holiday season.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born January 15, 1929. Every year, on the third Monday in January, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday and, of course, DCPS and Hyde-Addison will be closed! The National Museum of African American History & Culture will celebrate with a free event titled The People’s Holiday: The Many Dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The event is free, but registration is required. Student artists from the Cinematic Arts & Media Production Department at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, right up the street from Hyde-Addison, will perform original work that reimagines and reinterprets the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And the museum’s Sweet Home Café will be serving Dr. King’s favorite dessert, pecan pie. And the DC government will celebrate the holiday with a peace walk and parade in Southeast DC, coordinated by the Coalition for Peace, a group of individuals and nonprofits dedicated to peace and positivity for DC communities.

Get a jumpstart on your celebration by reading Jonathan Eig’s new bestseller King: A Life, the first major biography of Dr. King in decades—and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. On the evening of January 8, the National Museum of African American History & Culture will host a conversation between Eig and Michel Martin, host of NPR’s Morning Edition, titled Historically Speaking: King: A Life. The event is free, but registration is required.

PBS has endless Winter holiday activity suggestions, including holiday crafts and book lists, on their website, with some lovely suggestions for five meaningful holiday traditions for kids. Hyde-Addison teachers have compiled this list of winter holiday books.

Check out read-alouds of Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story, by Angela Shelf Medearis, who weaves an unforgettable story around “seven principles” of Kwanzaa, or perhaps ‘Twas Nochebuena, by Roseanne Greenfield Thong, who describes one family’s Latino Christmas Eve traditions of tamales, decorations, singing and sipping champurrado (hot chocolate).

Disclaimer: The Hyde-Addison ES Equity and Anti-Racism Task Force is an independent group not associated with DCPS and any viewpoints or activities associated with this group are not endorsed by DCPS.