2022-2023 Community Education Series

Learn, Explore, Be Inspired

The Epiphany School Community Education Series offers an annual slate of diverse educational opportunities for the adults in our school community—parents/guardians, grandparents, friends, and neighbors.

In keeping with our strategic plan, the Epiphany School Community Education Series enhances our authentic and inclusive community by welcoming diverse thought, sharing our expanded vision and mission, and providing creative and engaging educational opportunities for our community. We welcome ideas for future programming and we will continue to collaborate with neighboring schools and the Epiphany Parent Council to develop and offer events that meet our community’s interests and needs.

2022/2023 Series:

January 19, from 6:00-7:15 pm: Dr. Yuria Celidwen: Healing & Wholeness as Love, Power, and Resistance. Please RSVP to attend and receive Zoom link. (Part of our Equity & Inclusion Virtual Speaker Series, in partnership with neighboring independent schools, additional details can be found here).

ABOUT THIS EVENT: In community, we pause, we open, we nourish, and we become. We pay attention, and all we hear is urgency. The challenges are innumerable, but also infinite are the opportunities. Our grief is daunting, but also heartening is our compassion. This historical moment encourages us to reflect, make sense of, and participate in the collective transformation expected from the human world today. Contemplative living reminds us that intentional action requires mindful assessment of the causes and conditions that have shaped who and where we are today. I suggest three contemplative insights that are crucial to advance our shared journey towards collaborative and restorative solutions: the reckoning of the harm caused by human othering of self, others, and the Earth; a sense of ecological belonging that engenders a feeling of being part of an ever-expansive circle of care and concern for Earth systems and communities; and the realization of a collective path of spiritual becoming honoring life on Mother Earth.

*NEW DATE*, March 2, from 7:00-8:30 pm (on campus in the Great Hall; adults only):

ABOUT THIS EVENT: SEL Night, more info coming soon!

March 9, from 6:00-7:15 pm: LeDerick Horne: Disability, Race, and Identity. Please RSVP to attend and receive Zoom link. (Part of our Equity & Inclusion Virtual Speaker Series, in partnership with neighboring independent schools, additional details can be found here).

ABOUT THIS EVENT: Within this presentation LeDerick Horne will draw from the book “Empowering. Students with Hidden Disabilities: A Path to Pride and Success.” LeDerick will share his own experience navigating special education classes and will give advice to help all students develop positive identities as people with disabilities. Strategies to help students reach their transition goals will be provided. The audience will also explore the intersectionality of disability, race, and identity to help them create more inclusive schools and communities. LeDerick’s personal story and poetry will also be shared during this talk.

Participants will be able to:

List several evidence-based practices and strategies which can empower students with disabilities to reach their transition goals.
Describe the importance of disability identity to reduce stigma and improve student engagement and disability pride.
Address many of the challenges facing students with disabilities from communities of color to help service providers and families build a more equitable learning environment.
List sources of mentors and role modelsto help students build a meaningful connection to the disability community.
March 15 from 8:30-9:30 am (on campus in the Great Hall):

ABOUT THIS EVENT: Heather Clark on culture and belonging at school, more info coming soon

April 27, from 5-7:00 pm (on campus, parents, and children):

ABOUT THIS EVENT: STEM Night, more info coming soon!

May 4, from 6:00-7:15 pm: Kimberlee Williams: Dear White Woman, Please Come Home: Showing Up as a Safe Space in Our Schools. Please RSVP to attend and receive Zoom link. (Part of our Equity & Inclusion Virtual Speaker Series, in partnership with neighboring independent schools, additional details can be found here).

ABOUT THIS EVENT: Kimberlee Williams, Author of Dear White Woman, Please Come Home, is a humanist first and believes that racism can be dismantled through authentic relationship building where a mirror is held up to interrogate one's assumptions, beliefs, behaviors, and patterns of interactions. With a shift in any and all of the above as authentic relationships dive beneath the surface, the power and harm caused by the legacy of racism can be dismantled.

Past Events

Past Events

February 4, 2021, 5:00-7:00 pm, "Historical Impact of Racism in Present Day America: The Illusion of Inclusion": Presented by Dr. Joy DeGruy: This presentation will be based on her book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing. This talk will help the participants understand the history of race in the US and how anti-Black racism became the backbone of structural and institutional racism in America. (In partnership with neighboring independent schools).
March 2, 2021, 5:00-6:00 pm, "Parenting in a Pandemic:" Presented by Michael G. Thompson, Ph.D: For nearly thirty-five years, Michael has worked as a clinical psychologist, school consultant and international speaker on the subjects of children, schools and parenting. The Covid-19 pandemic has hit families. For almost twelve months families have been forced to think about death and safety and to talk to their very young children about it. They are dealing with the loss of regular school and remote learning from home, all the while facing threats to employment and the loss of social supports. Many parents are worried that their children will emerge traumatized from this long disruption. In this talk, Dr. Thompson will address the issues and fears affecting families and will offer psychologically sound suggestions for steadying their children and themselves in this difficult time.
March 17, 2021, 9:00-11:00 am, Alison Park of Blink Consulting, "Being an inclusive community – easier said than done?": This workshop will explore what it means to be a "caring and inclusive environment," why that can be a difficult promise to deliver on, and how Epiphany School families can help create a community of belonging. Please note that to protect the privacy of the topics discussed, this workshop will not be recorded. We hope you can join us live!
March 24, 2021, 5:00-6:00 pm, Tiq Milan, “How We Queer Our Lives to be Free”: Tiq Milan has been an advocate in the LGBT community for over a decade. He is also a writer and consultant who carved a niche for himself as a media advocate and one of the leading voices for transgender equality. In this talk he will discuss his transgender experience and how defining ourselves for ourselves can result in more love. This talk will ask attendees to reflect on and take ownership of their own understandings of gender, queerness and how race intersects these notions. (In partnership with neighboring independent schools).
May 18, 2021, 6:00 pm: Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race: The New York Times Best Selling Author will join us for a conversation about her book, So You Want to Talk About Race.
October 14, 2021, 6:00-7:00 pm: Gyasi Ross, Indigenous People, Race, and Education. Native American voices work to raise awareness about the unique challenges that Indigenous people face, and to acknowledge the important contributions they've made to the diverse traditions and cultures of America. Ross is the author of Don’t Know Much About Indians (but I wrote a book about us anyways) (2011) and How to Say I Love You in Indian (2014). You can watch a recording of the event here.
November 16, 2021, 6:30-8:00 pm: Dr. Erika Lee, Asian Americans in America's History: A Look to Xenophobia and Racism. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing group in the US and have long and complicated histories in the country. Still, most Americans may only know Asian Americans through the stereotype of America's "model minorities." Award-winning author and historian Erika Lee joins us to dive deep into the history of Asian Americans in the United States, with a specific focus on anti-Asian xenophobia and racism. This lecture and discussion will offer new insights into the Asian American experience and what it means to be American today.
January 13, 2021, 5:30-6:30 pm: Dr. Beverly Tatum, A conversation with Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum about Race and Racism. The ongoing senseless killing of Black men and women has prompted much-needed and long-overdue conversations about race and racism. Many of us wonder, how do we talk about this with our kids? How do we teach them about racial identity and equality? Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, president emerita of Spelman College, an award-winning clinical psychologist, a national authority on racial issues in America, and a thought leader in higher education, joins us to look at why these conversations are so difficult and share her insights on how to talk with kids and each other about race and racism and how to be actively anti-racist. You can watch a recording of the event here.
March 31, 2021, 6:00-7:00 pm: Jason Reynolds, Racism and Young People's Literature. Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author who writes novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audiences. His award-winning book, Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, was a National Book Award finalist, Carnegie Medal winner, and was named one of the best books of 2019 by NPR, The New York Times, School Library Journal, and more. Look Both Ways is composed of interconnected stories, each centering on a different student from the same school and tells what happens after the dismissal bell rings, brilliantly reminding readers to look at our surroundings more closely and notice all the things that connect us to our communities.
April 26, 2021, 6:00-7:30 pm: Virtual Presentation with Lynn Lyons, Helping Your Family’s Emotional Health: Do’s and Don'ts As We Move Forward. The emotional health of our young people was suffering prior to 2020. As we now emerge from two years like no other, parents need strategies for instilling skills their children and teens need to confront and reduce the negative impacts of anxiety, stress, and depression both at school and home. Using creativity, connection and energy, parents will learn how to increase their child’s flexibility, support the tolerance of uncertainty, and emotionally and preventatively equip themselves and those they love as we all move forward. This event will be co-sponsored by Epiphany School, Bush School, Spruce Street School, St. Thomas School, The Little School, and Epiphany Early Learning Program. Epiphany School and co-sponsoring schools' staff members will also have a special session the follow day. We hope you can join us for this Virtual Community Education event, Zoom link will be shared here the week of the event.
May 5, 2021, 6:00-7:00 pm: Dr. Bettina Love, We Gon’ Be Alright, But That Ain’t Alright: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom. Dr. Love discusses how Hip Hop Civics Ed, when linked to the framework of intersectionality and Abolitionist Teaching, creates a space where Black lives matter and analytic sensibilities are nurtured to engage youth in the work of fighting for visibility, inclusion, and justice. Her talk will end by calling for us all not only to teach students about racial violence, oppression, and how to make sustainable change in their communities through innovative and radical civic curriculum, but also to expose youth to the possibilities that come with envisioning a world built on Black joy, creativity, imagination, boldness, ingenuity, and the rebellious spirit and methods of abolitionists.
October 19, 2022 6:30 pm-7:45 pm: Tiffany Jewel: The Anti-Racist Kid: Identity, Justice, and Activism. Grow your antiracist consciousness! Using a framework similar to This Book Is Anti-Racist, learn how to take action and work towards creating anti-bias anti-racist classrooms, libraries, schools, and community spaces. Listeners will grow into their awareness and start to make a plan on how to support their own growth and that of those they are working with. Learn how to authentically center the voices of those who are too often silenced, ignored, and left out of history in our own spaces! Build an inclusive anti-bias antiracist community that empowers all who enter! You can get the Growing your Anti-racist Lens handout here.
November 15, 2022, 6:00-7:15 pm: Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr: NWord: Is There a Message in the Madness. Who is allowed to say the N!word? What do we do or say when the N!word is said in our classrooms, hallways, practices, cafeterias and resident halls? Ignoring the N!Word is not an option anymore - You can hear N!Word everywhere nowadays. Participants are challenged to examine their personal/professional histories with N!Word when and/or how they first heard N!Word and pictures/feelings associated with the word. The workshop encourages all people, but specifically future leaders, educators and parents, to consider the ramifications of casual or uniformed usage of a powerful and troublesome word.
December 8, 2022, 6:30-7:30 pm: Devorah Heitner: "Screenwise" virtual talk. (In partnership with The Bush School). We are excited to welcome Devorah Heitner for a virtual community talk on balancing tech time and milestones of growing up in the digital age. Devorah’s new book Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World gives parents new insights into kids’ digital world, so they can stop feeling afraid of tech and become tech-positive parents. Devorah will offer an interactive Q and A at the end, so bring your questions! This session is for parents of pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students. Recording of this event is available upon request, reach out to Alexa Sparks.
January 9 for Lower Division families (grades PK-2) & January 10 for Upper Division families (grades 3-5), from 8:30-9:30 am (on campus in the Great Hall): Family Coffees with Cher Anderton, Child Development Expert. Families and educators know that the pandemic impacted children in many ways. Have you wondered about appropriate developmental milestones and how these might be impacted by our shared pandemic experiences? Curious about what you may be seeing in your children now? Please join us for a family coffee with Cher Anderton, therapist, parent coach, and wellness consultant. Cher will be on campus to talk with Epiphany School families about child development milestones, offer strategies to support self-regulation, and help caregivers understand and meet their children’s varied developmental needs.

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