The Book Of Dreams Project Chapter One Description

I was a little nervous when the students at Harford Friends School and I began our studies of The Underground Railroad,and local Black history.. After all, this was the Book’s first chapter, and uncharted territory for all.

As the kids settled in to the project,my fears were replaced with pride. After four three hour sessions, the first chapter of an original piece of fiction inspired by our studies had been composed. The story centers around a boy and girl, both slaves. The kids worked together, with no help from teachers or parents. I’m very proud of what they created. (click here to read) I emphasized to the students that there is history beneath our feet, and in front of our faces, everyday, everywhere. It’s just that many of us never bother to check it out,because we don’t know it’s there.

I knew that we would not have to look very far to find some tasty local Black history. After all,we live in Maryland!

As it turned out, we would Christen the Book Of Dreams by entering the first chapter just two miles from our school.

In 1867,a one room school house was built from wood,and stood amidst the rolling farm land of Darlington,Maryland. The school was for black children only,during the long years of segregation. The Hosanna school has been restored to it’s original condition.. It still stands alone with fields all around,as though little had changed. As we entered the classroom, there was a silence,occasionally punctuated by the creaking of a wooden floor board..The old desks were still in their original positions,empty and mute. A pot belly stove sat in the same corner as it always had when it was the sole source of heat for the small building. There was a quiet energy about this place..

It would not have taken much to imagine the ghosts of children and teachers long gone, learning to read,write,and add in this very room. Many of the children and some of their parents who had never learned to read walked 6-7 miles each way,rain or shine. Teachers in black schools such as this were paid about half of what teachers in the white schools were paid. The curriculum in black schools was very different than in white schools as well. The local board of education explained the disparity by stating that the black children would grow up to be farm hands,so they did not need the same level of education as their white neighbors children. The cool thing about today was, that we did not need to imagine ghosts.. We had Christine Tolbert with us, who along with her parents and grandparents, had been a student here as a young child.

We also had Gladys Williams who was Christine’s teacher,right here in the very room in which we all were now seated.

Today,they would both be OUR teachers. The kids listened well,and asked many questions as the ladies wove their stories of a bygone era..Later,Tamika Hudson read two original spoken word pieces to us all, in the voice of Harriett Tubman. Christine told us that even when she was a child,there had always been strong relationship between the Deer Creek Friends Meeting,and the Hosanna School, and surrounding black community.She said that today felt like a family reunion of sorts. Tamika and Gladys seemed to really hit it off,as did we all.The kids then put quill pen to Cotton paper,and the first chapter had been entered.

It was an awesome day, and not one that any of us will soon forget. I know that the Book will travel to many schools and historical sites,and I’m looking forward to seeing it take on a life of it’s own.

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Book Of Dreams Project By Gandhi Hurwitz

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke)

The Book of Dreams is living testament to good people who chose to act when the evil of slavery governed in America. Written by American school children in the 21st century, it will tell the stories of ordinary people, black and white, enslaved and free, who tapped into deep waters and together worked to create safe passage to freedom on the Underground Railroad for thousands of American slaves. The Book’s creator, Gandhi Hurwitz, sees the project as a way for children to understand that if their ancestors could work together in such a tumultuous and primitive world, so can they in today’s world.

Born at the Steppingstone Museum in Havre de Grace, Maryland, the Book of Dreams was “beaten out of the fire, carved out of wood” by Steppingstone’s resident blacksmith, Tom Alexander, and Masters of the Shop and woodworkers, Wade Whitlock and John Weifenbach, with jointing by Joe Cambria. It is massive, structural, permanent. Handcrafted entirely of iron and black walnut, it measures 30”x 36” x 9” and weighs in at about 60 lb. Visitors to Steppingstone’s Fall Harvest Festival on September 23 and 24, 2006 will be able to watch these master craftsmen put the final touches on the Book of Dreams, using traditional techniques and hand- and foot-powered tools.

The Book of Dreams will “visit” its first school during Black History Month, in February 2007, where the students at Harford Friends School in Darlington, Maryland will research local Underground Railroad history and write Chapter One as a parent-led and expert guest enrichment activity. Hurwitz, whose daughter Clairellen attends the school, says he was inspired by local Quakers who worked on the Railroad, including members of Deer Creek Meeting where the school is located. (The previous Meetinghouse in Darlington is believed to have been burned down by arsonists who objected to Quakers’ antislavery activities.)

After leaving Harford Friends, the Book will travel far and wide to schools along Railroad routes in Maryland and beyond, perhaps circulating as far south as North Carolina. Students from each school will research local Railroad history and write a Book chapter. Each chapter will be recorded on a large sheet of archival cotton paper and entered into the Book. Hurwitz has invited Tamika Hudson, an actor and Harriet Tubman interpreter, to contribute a written piece in Tubman’s voice. After the Book has circulated, it will return to its permanent repository at Harford Friends School where 8th grade students will write the last chapter as part of their year-long study of Harford County and American history.

Hurwitz calls Steppingstone the perfect birthplace for the Book of Dreams. Located on the site of a Quaker family farm believed to have been a station on the Underground Railroad, Steppingstone is a living history museum and interpretive center of American farm life near the Mason-Dixon line. Hurwitz found receptive partners when he first presented his vision to Steppingstone’s Director, Linda Noll, its board of directors and craftsmen. Under the Museum’s sponsorship, the craftsmen – all volunteers – have dedicated dozens of hours to building the Book.

The Book’s striking appearance was inspired by a design created by Clairellen Hurwitz. Two wrought iron, life-size arms – one shackled and skeletal, the other unshackled – reach across the Books’ black walnut cover. They are connected by a railroad track. A hand-carved rendering of the African continent rises out of the wood. A burnished iron North Star sits near the top. “Book of Dreams” is boldly embossed along the Book’s iron spine. You can view photographs of the Book on the project’s website: www.bookofdreamsproject.org

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