This past semester, as part of the Simmons Center’s Community Engagement Initiative and K–12 focus, we hosted Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM) in Norwood House as they held their annual fall training series. This year’s series was called Liberation 101 and was led by Suonriaksmay Keo (she/her/hers), the Youth Engagement Director of PrYSM.

From 2022–2023, the Reimagining New England Histories committee collaborated with educators and scholars to create K–12 lessons centering Black and Indigenous experiences in New England. Their work reframed Thanksgiving, highlighted mariners’ histories, and launched a student podcast contest to challenge colonial narratives.

The Reimagining New England Histories: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty and Freedom project tells Black and Indigenous histories through publications, educational programming and exhibitions. Founded in 2021, the initiative is a grant-funded partnership between Williams College, Mystic Seaport Museum and the Brown Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice.