Professional Development at SUNY BroomeWelcome back! I hope your holidays were delightful and that you were able to enjoy them safely with those you cherish. I am happy to be back with you in a biweekly format this semester; we will see how it goes! I hope your semester is off to a great start and that you are beginning to settle into your routines. As always, have an idea? A need? A question? Send me an email at malmbergsm@sunybroome.edu or you can find me at professionaldevelopment@sunybroome.edu.

This week begins Black History Month, a time to honor, reflect, learn, and celebrate the diversity of the Black community. SUNY Broome faculty member Sandra Wright, with the gracious assistance of Marcom and Ciara Cable, put together a Black History Month website that is populated in part by your experiences and engagement with Black History Month: what it means to you, how you celebrate, and ways you are inspired by Black history. I thought a bit about how I celebrate, which is a through a deep appreciation of Black music, poetry, and art, some of which I will share on the BHM webpage. I hope you find your way to celebrate and share your contribution to the webpage by using the tag #SUNYBroomeBHM.

This is the ultimate list of Incredible Books by Black Authors, According to Black Bookstore Owners. What’s even better? Buying them from Black owned bookstores. If you ever get the chance, you have to go to Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee and Books in Philadelphia, which was founded by Mark Lamont Hill, whose work I was introduced to in grad school.

This timely article from Jesse Hagopian, titled “#TeachTruth: Don’t Censor Honest Accounts of History” talks about “a growing number of bills around the country that seek to ban an honest account of history in K-12 education, including many of the long struggles against oppression. These bills especially target the teaching of critical race theory (CRT), the 1619 Project, the Zinn Education Project and Black Lives Matter at School.” Hagopian discusses how these bills, and the targeting of teaching American history through a CRT lens, “would seek to deny this very real history of structural racism that has lasting imprints on our society today.”

We are also celebrating the Lunar New Year, and 2022 is the year of the Water Tiger. This article from USA Today talks about Lunar New Year 2022 and describes how AAPI folks are feeling hopeful and inspired to create change even as they make safety plans to celebrate amid the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing incidents of anti-Asian hate. I did some research into Tiger years and found that I could map very significant, dare I say life and path defining, events in my life that have taken place in Tiger years. In celebration, I will be enjoying some traditional New Year treats and making some New Year affirmations. Want to learn more about the Chinese Zodiac and Lunar New Year? Check out this popular Chinese New Year article.

Submitted by: Deena Price

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