Issue 46 changeagent.nelrc.org March 2018 THE CHANGE Adult Education for Social Justice: News, AGENT Issues, and Ideas HAIR Some Fiiiiine Hair: 3 A Precious Inheritance: 4 Straight or Curly: 6 Schools: Focus on Care, Not Hair: 8 Mundan Ceremony: 10 Liberate Yourself: 13 Here I Am, World: 14 The Sadness of My Hair: 16 Hair with a Mind of Its Own: 17 Gray Hair: 18 At Peace with His Hair: 19 Aging Hair: 20 A Billion Dollar Industry: 21 Hair: An Emotional Journey: 22 It’s Only Hair: 23 Cranium Without a Crown: 24 Hair: A Big Deal to Women: 25 Dangerous Ingredients: 26 Recipes for Hair Care: 28-32 Mom’s Good Intention: 33 Ripe Palm Fruit as Shampoo: 34 Mine Was the Most Kinky: 36 Never a Hair Out of Place: 38 It’s Just Hot Hair, Baby: 40 At the End of the Row: 42 Gum in My Hair: 43 Bad Habits, Bad Results: 44 Ruthie Boirie, a student at the Brooklyn Public Library in New York City, opened her Serve the Same Sauce: 45 own barber shop in 1996. Read her story on pp. 50-51. Bad Hair Day: 46 Woodpecker or Rapunzel: 48 Ruthie’s Neighborhood Barber Shop: 50 ENGAGING, EMPOWERING, AND READY-TO-USE. Hair Salons and Tipping: 52 Student-generated, relevant content in print and audio at various levels of Hair Idioms: 53 complexity—designed to teach basic skills & transform & inspire adult learners. Cutting Hair: Trying Something New: 54 A MAGAZINE & WEBSITE: CHANGEAGENT.NELRC.ORG The Change Agent is the bi- SUBSCRIBE! RENEW! SUPPORT! We need you! annual publication of The New England Literacy Resource A Note from the Editor: Center. Each issue of the paper helps teachers incorporate social When we tell people the current issue is on hair, there is often a pause, fol- justice content into their curricu- lum. The paper is designed for lowed by “Whaaat?” intermediate-level ESOL, ABE, You heard it right, I tell them. Think of all the issues connected to GED, and adult diploma classes. something as mundane as hair. And, true to form, our student contribu- Each issue focuses on a different topic that is relevant to learners’ tors have surfaced those issues here. Whether it’s painful or sweet child- lives. hood memories; hair care recipes handed down through the generations; In New England, online access reflections on how hair care products affect us, the environment, and our to The Change Agent is available budgets; or cultural messages about race and gender free of charge through NELRC’s affiliated state literacy resource expressed in terms of how we should wear our hair— centers. Email changeagent@ you’ll find it here! worlded.org to learn how to ac- Meanwhile, our back issues (some of which are cess the site. available in print and all of which are available as Submissions: For the theme of our next issue, see the “Call for PDFs online) provide extremely helpful and relevant Articles” on the back cover. Note background to current events and other issues our that we feature writing by adult students face. learners. For submission guide- Please be aware that we depend on you to keep This back issue lines visit: <changeagent.nelrc. on Immigration org/write-for-us> or contact us at the magazine going. Can you spread the word to oth- provides important 617-482-9485 or changeagent@ background and worlded.org. er programs? Encourage your program to add online access (so that students can access the audio versions student voices on Subscriptions: a topic relevant to Individual, bulk, and electronic of articles)? Bring sample Change Agent articles when all of our students. subscriptions to The Change you present at your state conference? Your support Buy hard copies or Agent are available. See the makes a difference! download the PDF back cover and/or our website from our website. for details. —Cynthia Peters, [email protected] Editor: Cynthia Peters Cover: Photo by Kevin Dotson. The Editorial Board: Used with permission. Proofreading and editing help from: Sydney Breteler, Janet Isserlis, Silja Kallenbach, Andy Nash, Kathleen O’Connell, Ruby Reyes, Priyanka Sharma, and Luanne Teller. The Change Agent is published by the New England Literacy Re- source Center/World Education 44 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA 02210 (617) 482-9485 No information in this magazine is intended to reflect an endorse- ment for, or opposition to, any candidate or political party. Editorial board (from left): Ebony Vandross, World Education; Flavia Soares, Providence Public Library; Sophy Yim, Methuen Adult Learn- ing; Andy Nash, NELRC; Dakota Robinson, Harvard Business School; Cynthia Pe- ters, Change Agent Editor; Larry Britt, Iris Fanini, Miguel Bacho Cabezas, all from Providence Public Library, Christa Exter, Methuen Adult Learning. Inset: Siham Meskine, Methuen Adult Learning. Hair Some Fiiiiine Hair Sadonia Feazell Straight from the bare bottom of my mother’s womb my hair was very straight and clingy. My mother thought to herself, “My baby gonna come out with some fiiiiine hair.” She could imagine putting it in all types of cute little styles with ponytails, running her fingers through her baby’s thin, straight hair. Weary she would become, not yet ready to take on the shape and the color that it would become. The fist pumping baby has come and the feeling of I will overcome has now become a teenager with a different strand of hair—curls and afros, not to mention the beaded braided kinky now twisted hair. The world has no choice but to be ready but the mother thinks she’s got this covered with all the dyes and perms that will fry her daughter’s hair. A solution to the madness: let the hair grow whatever way it’s going to grow. Don’t try to tame it like it’s something you’re afraid of. Love the God given hair that’s thin, thick, straight, curly, and gray. I don’t care; this is my hair. And, yes, Momma, Your baby’s got some fiiiinehair! Sadonia Feazell is a student at Next Step Learning Center in Oakland, CA. She has been writing for a couple of years and this is her first published poem. She hopes it will be the first of many. changeagent.nelrc.org — The Change Agent — March 2018 3 Hair A Precious Inheritance Lessette Manners In my country, there is a popular saying that has white. This means been passed from mouth to mouth for genera- that Puerto Rico, tions. This saying comes in the form of a question an island just 100 that may seem superficial to other people, but for miles long by 35 Puerto Ricans it has a very deep meaning. The say- miles wide, is a ing goes, “Y tu abuela, a dónde está?” (“And your tiny spot on the grandma, where is she?”). Before I explain what planet where you this phrase means, I want to remind you that rac- can find a wide ism exists in almost all societies, and of course range of races in Puerto Rico is no all their shapes exception. and tones. If you The average Puerto According to are looking at Rican has DNA that is the National Geo- hair, you will see 12% indigenous, 65% graphic Society, the all types: straight, Western European average Puerto Ri- curly, wavy, can has DNA that blond, brown, and Asian, and 20% is 12% indigenous, black, and red. We African. 65% Western Eu- have everything! ropean and Asian, That is why the saying “Y tu abuela, a dónde and 20% African.1 está?” has a special meaning for us. It is because in In other words, almost every Puerto Rican has a this country, even if you have a very light skin and precious heritage of three races: black, Indian, and blond hair, your genes carry the remnants of all these races. You don’t have to look too far into the past, sometimes as recently as a grandmother, to identify the presence of another race. Despite these facts, in Puerto Rico, there is discrimination against people with dark skin. For example, companies that produce hair care products almost always advertise the typical hair of Caucasian women. This conditions people—es- pecially vulnerable young people—to think that there is only one kind of beauty. In my case, from the time I was a little girl, I heard people tell me I “¿Y tu agüela, aonde ejtá?” (“And your grandma, had “bad” hair. (I have curly hair that comes from where is she?”) by Fernando Fortunato Vizcarron- my African genes, type 4c.2 See “Hair Types” chart do is a poem written in the Puerto Rican tradition on the next page.) At school, other students and of Poesia Negroide (Black Poetry). In this youtube even adults made me feel ashamed of my natural video, it is recited by Eduardo Cortés. <tinyurl. hair. I started to see my hair as a defect instead com/ytuabuela>. Find the text of the poem in both of embracing and accepting my African heritage. Spanish and English in the Extras section of our This led me to try to hide my inheritance through website <changeagent.nelrc.org/issues>. 4 The Change Agent — March 2018 — changeagent.nelrc.org Hair chemical treatments like relaxers. As an adult, I always had the desire to free myself from the slavery of straightening my hair every six weeks. The chemicals burned my scalp and ears and, over time, I began to lose my hair. When I was 35, I lost my mother. One day soon after, when I was with my sisters trying to cheer ourselves up, I asked my sister to cut my hair.