“As an African American youth growing up here, there was no access to art. But I realized that it was so vital to adults to see themselves as confident, as powerful, as capable, and to stimulate their creativity.”
Schooley previously worked as a cultural community developer in Austin, Texas, and moved back to Alabama in 2018. A year later, she started the Juneteenth camp, which served about 20 children ages 8 to 16. Now in its third year, 32 campers signed up for the weeklong camp, from a range of backgrounds.
Throughout the day, campers honed a variety of art forms, paying homage to Choctaw land and learning about their own ancestry as well. While younger students gardened near the main house, teenagers worked on a spoken word performance – another element that they’d include in Saturday’s production.“Maybe the step has like a travel to it?” Ojeya Cruz-Banks suggested to a group of teens, who were working on a spoken word act.
A counselor led five campers – Wali, Zakhaa, Ora, Ken and Simeon – in a final rehearsal for the day. Facing the glimmer of the pond, they raised their hands in unison and recited the last verse: I am from the community and village that helps me grow.Wali smiled.After lunch, campers gathered in a sunlit room. African art dotted the walls, along with student paintings that described strategies for coping with negative emotions, and a chart that listed the elements of culture.
“Being from Alabama, a lot of our history was lost, besides the Civil Rights history that we had from slavery,” he said, noting that he was taught that enslaved Africans had come “willingly” to America.
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