7th Grade Power Project

7th Grade Power Project
7th Grade Power Project
Danny Stock
On June 5, 7th graders presented their art, dramatic performances, and written projects for The Power Project, the culmination of their year-long study of revolutions, with focused units on the Haitian Revolution, the Indian independence movement and partition, and the Iranian Revolution.

The Power Project asks students to make connections across these three 7th grade history units, focusing on one of the following themes and essential questions for their projects: revolutions (What does dismantling oppression look like, and what do we replace it with?), injustice (What does injustice look like on a societal scale?), citizenship (What role does a person’s individual identity play when advocating for social change?), institutions (What kinds of government allow people to make change as their society evolves, and what kinds stifle change?), and the future (How can we draw on the revolutionary movements of the past to build a better future?).

At the multi-room exhibition featuring the Main Stage, the Art Gallery, the Cinema, the Coffee House, and the Literary Salon, GDS 7th graders interrogated history to present original projects. The 7th history teachers (including Julia Blount, Erika Carlson, and Toussaint Lacoste) said that the project perfectly encapsulates their departmental goals of developing global citizenship and historical empathy in our students.
Students with stacks of magazines at a table.
Literary Salon

Writers Navin Desai (The Liteanium Revolution) and Avram Shapiro (Divided: Stories from India, Haiti, and Iran) ready themselves to sign the Literary Salon Magazine, which included works from 12 students.

Panels of a comic.
Literary Salon

Two pages from Ike Song’s graphic novel, Indian Partition in a Nutshell, published in the Literary Salon Magazine.

Student standing in front of a wall of art.
Art Gallery

Lismayri Encarnación-Ruiz stands beside her original work, “Futuristic,” her interpretation of what Haitian people wore when enslaved, what they wear now, and what they might wear in the future, using fabrics in the color of the Haitian flag.

Student standing in from of an art display.
Art Gallery

Natalie Braun stands beside “Institutionalized,” her sculpture depicting how institutions around the world and keep individuals from having power, using walls (representing barriers to power) that have been broken down (through revolution).

Students in a classroom watching a movie projected on the wall.
Cinema

Talin Sidhu and CeeCee Dillard produced the movie The History Room: “It is no ordinary room. Be ready to see and learn the history of injustice.” Their movie played alongside seven others.

Student reading from a book in front of a classroom.
Coffee House

Iansã Powell performed one of six spoken word performances in the Coffee House, which featured students performing their written work. Her poems, “Broken Chains,” “Choices,” and “Evolution of Oppression” provided different viewpoints into the lives of native Haitians.

7th Grade Power Project
  • DEI
  • Middle School