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Exploring & Reimagining Power

Adriana Guzman

Students explore terminology around power in light of Tyre Nichols' life and death, and then reimagine power through a positive lens.

Current Issues

To the teacher:

Tyre Nichols is one of many known victims of unwarranted and unauthorized use of power by law enforcement in the United States. In this activity, students will explore terminology around power and reimagine power through a positive lens.

Photo: Tyre Nichols. https://thiscaliforniakid2.wixsite.com/tnicholsphotography

 

 

Gathering:  Poem by Langston Hughes
 

  • Read the poem Harlem, by Langston Hughes, out loud. See the poem below. If possible, share it on screen while it is being read.
     
  • Have students turn and talk to someone close to them (in pairs or trios). Share: What about the poem spoke to you?
     
  • In the whole group, invite each person to share (3-5 minutes).
     

Harlem
By Langston Hughes


What happens to a dream deferred?
 

      Does it dry up

      like a raisin in the sun?

      Or fester like a sore—

      And then run?

      Does it stink like rotten meat?

      Or crust and sugar over—

      like a syrupy sweet?

 

      Maybe it just sags

      like a heavy load.

 

      Or does it explode?


From The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, copyright © 2002 by Langston Hughes.

 

After everyone has shared had the opportunity to, read the following out loud:
 

Langston Hughes knew his ancestors waited many years and never did experience true equality, and he wondered whether or not he ever would. Even as highly esteemed a poet as he was in Harlem (New York), it did not make up for the fact that much of the rest of his society would not acknowledge his work simply because of the color of his skin.”

Allisa Corfman, Poem Analysis
https://poemanalysis.com/langston-hughes/harlem-a-dream-deferred/ 

 

 

Part 1:  Exploring Power


How can our dreams be deferred?

Tyre Nichols and countless other people of color have had their dreams taken away from them by an unjust use of power. Let’s explore what power means and how it relates to some other terminology and human behavior. 

Post paper signs around the room, each with one of the six terms below about power. (These definitions are inspired by multiple sources, including https://www.racialequitytools.org/.)
 

  • Power: a personal ability to act on and make things happen at any given moment.
     
  • Power over: using one’s personal power and privilege to exercise control over individuals for one’s personal gain.
     
  • Power with: using one’s personal power and privilege for the benefit of working collaboratively with others to move forward in specific circumstances.
     
  • Privilege: an unearned social power accorded by the formal and informal institutions of society to ALL members of a dominant group. Privilege is usually invisible to those who have it because they’re taught not to see it, but nevertheless it puts them at an advantage over those who do not have it.
     
  • Positionality: aspects of one’s identity such as race, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, and age, and the relative power in society that each of these aspects does or does not afford. In other words, your positionality describes your social power in relationship to people of other identities.
     
  • Institutional power: Legal, historical, collective access and control sanctioned by the state. Power wielded by entities like governments, churches, schools, courts, and corporations to control people and direct their behavior through the use of rewards and punishments.


Give students post-it notes. Ask them to go around the room and read each definition. At each sign, ask students to consider:

  • What associations do you have with this word or phrase?   
  • What does it look like? Feel like?
  • How has it shown up in your life? In society?

Then ask students to write their associations/thoughts on post-it notes and post them below or around each sign.

Once students have posted their notes, give students time to look over each others’ notes in a “gallery walk.”

After the gallery walk, ask students to share with the group:
 

  • What was it like to come up with your associations for these words?
  • What struck you in the gallery walk?
  • What patterns did you see?
  • What thoughts, questions, or feelings did it leave you with?

 

 

Part 2:  Reimagining Power


Note: This can be a task for individual students or a group of students in class, or it can be a take home assignment.

Tell students: Now that you have shared what these terms look like and feel like, let’s reimagine them. 

  • Give students materials to draw/write on (paper, pencils, colored pencils, markers, crayons, etc.).
     
  • Ask students to reimagine “power”:  How can power – in one or more of the forms we have discussed – be positive and beneficial to everyone in society?  What does that look like/feel like?
     
  • Draw and/or write your response. (These will be shared with the class.)


Part 3:  Sharing


Choose one of these options, depending on the amount of time available.

  • Have a few students volunteer to share what they created (and perhaps displayed others’ creations during your next session together)
     
  • Ask students to swap papers with someone else to explore what was created (during a set amount of time)
     
  • Display students’ work on tabletops or wall space, and you can have the entire class walk around to read/see what was created - like a gallery walk

 

Closing

Display this photo taken by Tyre Nichols.

https://thiscaliforniakid2.wixsite.com/tnicholsphotography

 

Close out in a way that feels best for your class:
 

  • Take a moment of silence.
     
  • Invite students to read the statement Tyre Nichols made about his photography, and then consider: What kind of power was Tyre Nichols using with his art?  
     
  • Say this together, as an affirmation: “Today, I take one step toward achieving my ultimate dream. I am stretching the limits of who I can be.” - Kathryn Drury Wagner
     
  • Share this quote: “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” - Langston Hughes


Resources
 


A grand jury indicted five officers involved in the Nichols incident. They have each been charged with murder and are in custody. They have been charged with "second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravating kidnapping, resulting in bodily injury, aggravated kidnapping involving the possession of a weapon, official misconduct through unauthorized exercise of power, official misconduct through failure to act when there is a duty imposed by law, and official oppression," according to the Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy.