During the 2024-25 school year, the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice collaborated with advisors Meg Cresci and Maria Gonzalez of the MET School to develop a literacy program called MET in the Text. Cresci and Gonzalez’s 12th-grade students have been visiting campus twice a month since September for two-hour sessions at Andrew’s House. During these sessions, students, their advisors, and Simmons Center Manager of Public Education Initiatives and Community Outreach Reina Thomas read, annotated, and analyzed literary techniques in Jason Reynolds’ books A Long Way Down and For Everyone, along with other smaller texts referenced in Reynolds' work. In addition, we welcomed guests from Rhode Island Black Storytellers (RIBS), Marlon Carey and local poets Justice Ameer Gaines, and Sage Morgan-Hubbard.
Reynolds’ books were chosen for this year's program because the MET students had previously read Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (a remix of Stamped from the Beginning by Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi) and had enjoyed it. We believed he would be a great choice because not only did the students enjoy his writing, but we also wanted to foster a love of reading in them while developing key reading and writing skills. Additionally, we knew that, with support from the Brown University Library, Reynolds would be visiting Providence in March to speak to Providence Public School students. We felt that opportunity would be a perfect conclusion to our MET in the Text program.
The event with Jason Reynolds on March 7th gave students the opportunity to ask the author questions, hear from other students across Providence who connected with his work, and learn about his writing process, discipline, and sources of inspiration. The highlight for the students was the opportunity to meet him after the talk to take pictures and sign their books.
People often caution against meeting our heroes because sometimes they don’t live up to our expectations. But for our MET students, who not only brought the books assigned in the program but also those they had personally purchased, meeting Jason Reynolds turned out to be even more meaningful than they had imagined.
The Simmons Center hopes to continue this important partnership with the MET next academic year which will focus on a new author and theme.
