‘Teaching African-American Studies in Our School Systems’ at UMSL, Feb. 1-2
By Chris King
Of the St. Louis American
Teach one person black studies, and you have one less ignorant person in the world. Teach an entire conference of people how to teach black studies, in St. Louis, and you have the makings of a much less ignorant St. Louis.
That is the premise behind “Teaching African-American Studies in Our School Systems,” an inspired two-day conference organized by Niyi Coker Jr. of the University of Missouri-St. Louis for February 1 and 2 on the campus of UMSL.
Coker, just now midway through his first academic year in St. Louis, is the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of African and African-American Studies at UMSL, with specialties in theatre and media. He said the funding for the conference comes primarily from his position’s endowment.
“Luckily, the Des Lee endowment pays a certain amount of money for activities,” Coker said. “Some would rather fund their own research, travel or buy expensive computers.”
Such a detached, self-centered approach – of which academics are frequently accused and often guilty – holds no appeal for this Nigerian-born scholar and artist, who earned a Ph.D. from Temple University and an MFA from the City University of New York.
“When I got here, I looked around and asked myself how the institution, UMSL, could interact with the community,” Coker said.
“African-American education seemed to be a good beginning activity for bringing the community in and creating a symbiotic relationship.”
The subject area of the conference is one of his academic passions. He also takes it to be an area of study in which the local community could use some assistance.
“When I got here, one of the first things I heard about African-American studies is that it’s not really taught in the schools,” Coker said.
“There are no resources, and nobody to point teachers to resources.”
A humble and open man, Coker was excited to learn about local pioneers in the field of multicultural studies, such as Eugene B. Redmond, K. Curtis Lyle and the late Barbara Woods, who have pointed students and teachers in St. Louis toward pertinent resources in this field. But no one would dispute his conviction that much, much more remains to be done.
“My big role at UMSL will be to produce events like this,” Coker said, “where students and teachers can meet within an intellectual discipline, find something vibrant about that, then take that into their classrooms.”
Finding “something vibrant” in the conference he has organized should not be difficult. More than 25 speakers are scheduled, with roughly half of them based at UMSL and the other visiting from elsewhere, including cross-town guests from Washington University and Saint Louis University.
Coker is proud of the conference keynote speaker, Molefi Asante of Temple University, the prophet of Afrocentricity and one of the more influential academics in the field. Asante will speak at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 1.
Coker also pointed out the first (8:30 a.m.) speaker on Thursday, Feb. 2, the Rev. James Bevel, who organized Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Children’s Movement in Birmingham in 1963.
Another former intimate of Dr. King’s, the Rev. Billie Kyle, will deliver the luncheon address on Feb. 2 at noon. “He was organizing the workers in Memphis, where Dr. King was killed,” Coker said. “He was the man who brought Dr. King to Memphis.”
In addition to such living specimens of African-American history, Coker has received commitments from academics and artists in a wide variety of disciplines. Panel topics include African-American education in St. Louis, race issues and psychology of the black child, interrogating the aesthetics of hip-hop, culture as element of pedagogy, the black experience in literature, African history: misconceptions and misinformation, and collaborations between a teacher education program and an urban school district.
Perhaps the best news, for the underpaid teachers being targeted by the conference, is that registration is as close to free as you can get: a mere $25, which includes all activities, a luncheon on Thursday, refreshments at the break and a parking permit.
“It’s about access,” Coker said, explaining the extremely modest fee.
“I am concerned for our program to reach into the community and not stay in the Ivory Tower.”
Registration for the conference, with the prepaid fee of $25, is required. Call (314) 516-5974, fax credit card information to (314) 516-6414, or mail a check payable to University of Missouri-St. Louis to: Nichelle Hardy, UMSL, Continuing Education and Outreach, 206 J.C. Penney Conference Center, 1 University Blvd., St. Louis MO, 63121. Sessions will be held at the Millennium Conference Center and Millennium Student Center at UMSL.