Location: Stokel Commons, Portsmouth Middle School

Presenters:
Nikita Stewart, Assistant Editor, New York Times
Elizabeth DuBrulle, Director of Education & Public Programs, NH Historical Society
Erin Bakkom, Social Studies teacher, Portsmouth Middle School.

Moderator: Sen. David Watters, NH State Senator and Professor Emeritus Department of English, University of New Hampshire

States across the country have seen new laws prohibiting the teaching of so-called “divisive concepts” that present critical perspectives on histories, laws, social practices, and literature that have excluded the opposing voices and histories of the struggle for justice and freedom from exploitation by African American, Native American, Asian Americans, and People of Color.

This panel will deal with the history of the clashing versions of our American stories—stories that have been written to privilege one group and exclude the stories of people of color, and stories that reveal the resistance to oppression and present a more inclusive vision of America. This is even more difficult with the drastic reduction in teaching history and social studies in New Hampshire schools.