The Black Millennial Renaissance Curriculum

Click Here for More About the Black Millennial Renaissance

  • To promote positive cultural identity formation in the African American community, with a focus on middle, high school, and college students
  • To provide a Black studies curriculum to parents who desire to supplement their child’s grades 6-12 education with cultural awareness
  • To provide a Black studies curriculum, aligned with Common Core Standards, to afterschool programs and homeschool parents to enhance and cater their educational programs for African American students
  • To provide a Black studies curriculum to middle and high school teachers who desire to incorporate culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining teaching practices into their classrooms

“On the Come Up” by Angie Thomas

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Part One: Old School
Chapter 1
I am so excited to be reading Angie Thomas’ follow up novel to The Hate U Give. It is so refreshing reading books with characters that look like me and my people. From the opening page, Thomas is drawing me in with details like a teacher who wears her hair in Sisterlocks (Mrs. Murray) and is reading the great poet Nikki Giovanni.

The protagonist is a high school junior named Brianna Jackson (Bri or Breezy). Her father was murdered 12 years ago. Her mother was a recovering drug addict, eight years sober. She lives in Garden Heights like Starr did. Brianna’s dad was a rapper, “Lawless, the underground rap legend” (p. 9)

Book Club Question:

  • When Mrs. Murray confronts Brianna after class about her grades slipping, Brianna admits she wants to be a rapper. She proclaims that college is not for everyone despite having aspirations to go to college.
  • What do you think? Agree or disagre? Why or why not?
  • What are your plans after high school?

Kwame Alexander

Kwame Alexander is an African-American male young adult (YA) fiction author and poet, who was born in New York, New York. He has won several awards including the John Newberry Medal.

Born: August 21, 1968

Author’s Website: https://kwamealexander.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KwameAlexanderBooks/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kwamealexander

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kwamealexander/

Kwame Alexander’s Books and Other Works