Alumna and author Danzy Senna visits high schoolPosted in Articles, Campus Life, Interviews, Media Archive, United States on 2015-10-27 01:09Z by Steven |
Alumna and author Danzy Senna visits high school
The Sagamore: Brookline High School’s student newspaper
Brookline High School, Brookline, Massachusetts
2015-09-29
Sam Klein, Valentina Rojas-Posada and Sofia Tong
Danzy Senna, alumna and author of junior and senior summer reading book Caucasia, came to the high school today for a day of discussions with students and faculty.
Senna, who went to Stanford University and has published two novels, a memoir and a short-story collection said she was very fond of her experiences at the high school.
“I had a very wonderful time here, I was just saying that a lot of the identity that led me that to write this book was formed here,” Senna said.
She had a discussion with the students in A-block classes African American Studies and African American and Latino scholars. She also spoke at an assembly with juniors and seniors during T-block, held a writing workshop and discussion for seniors in Craft of Writing classes during C-block and had a discussion with English teachers during first lunch.
Exclusive Q&A with Senna
What was it like coming back to the school?…
…A-block:
The A-block meeting was held in the MLK room. Senna created an informal environment, joking back and forth with Associate Dean Melanee Alexander and social studies teacher Malcolm Cawthorne while students laughed. Both Alexander and Cawthorne went to the high school with her, and they talked about how their experiences differed from current students. Senna also talked about how inclusive her group of friends at the high school was.
“I had a group where I did not have to choose, where my blackness and mixedness was welcomed and I thrived,” she said.
Senna asked questions about the community at the high school, and whether there were cliques, gangs, or fights. She told a story about a fight she was in while at the high school, going into detail about a black fraternity that had started and how she was involved…
Read the entire article and interview here.