The chairman of the Board of Education on Monday voiced his support for a spoken word poetry presentation and workshop at New Canaan High School that’s generated some questions and criticism.
Held last month, the presentation from Carlos Andrés Goméz was designed to help participants learn about and experience spoken word poetry, district officials have said, and most of the feedback from students and staff has been positive.
Yet some viewed the presentation as political and slanted, promoting Board of Ed Chairman Brendan Hayes to say that he “spent some time looking at the situation and the poems that he put forth and presented and I didn’t see any political issues at all.”
Goméz’s presentation was designed to “focus on the issue of empathy and mutual respect and really just understanding various perspectives,” Hayes said during the Board’s regular meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School.
“I saw an effort to teach kids and present in an impactful way what empathy means, what mutual respect means and I think that is very important for us to teach whether that’s part of this ‘emotional intelligence’ initiative specifically or not and I think it gets kids talking about their various interests and their various concerns and probably in a way they would not necessarily do had that speaker not come to school and given that presentation. So I think that is the type of thing that we should be doing.”
Though no video recording of the presentation exists—district officials said that’s because of copyright restrictions—Board of Ed member Maria Naughton said “it was a little edgy,” with poems addressing “controversial topics” such as “toxic masculinity” and racial profiling.
“They were definitely controversial topics, so if we are allowing artists to come in and perform about topics that are seen as controversial, I do believe that there is a policy on that—that it should be impartial or it should be both sides—so are we opening up the door for any artist to discuss and address or introduce any possible controversial topic?” she said. “The topics were partisan for sure. They had a slant one side so there wasn’t the other side.”
Hayes said he disagreed with Naughton about the topics, and that the presentation was meant to get students “ to understand each other’s differences and respect them.”
“And to do that we cannot just talk about 20 kids going to a class every day and not having any sort of conflict,” he said. “You have to talk about some controversial issues in some circumstances, because those are the things that actually create issue as it relates to mutual respect. So I do not personally view it as ‘political.’ It’s just simply raising issues and outlining how you as an individual should react.”
Naughton responded that it appeared there was no “debrief” or “moment for all students to give feedback to share their thoughts” on the presentation after it was over.
“It sounded like it was a performance and then they went to their next class,” she said. “So I don’t see how it’s an empathy lesson and the topics were definitely controversial, so I’m not sure how balanced it was.”
Parents were notified of the presentation in a March 8 newsletter, district officials said at the meeting, and Gomez’s was paid for by a local parent organization.
Board of Ed Vice Chair Dionna Carlson that after the performance, she reviewed Gomez’s YouTube videos and that she understood “how some parents might view certain things as more problematic for they belief structures.”
“But I then went back and asked what poems were brought forward to the kids and seeing both what he does in other venues and what was discussed in the schools, it sounded like he modified his address to be more appropriate to a high school audience,” she said. “I think if parents just looked at a YouTube video of some of his performances and just looked, they may get a different perspective on what was brought into the schools.”
She said the district “did the right thing” in terms of communicating with both parents and Goméz ahead of his appearance.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said the high school had a contemporary spoken word poet come to perform for the students in 2012-13 and that it was hugely successful.
Addressing Naughton’s specific concern that one poem had to do with “toxic masculinity,” Luizzi said, “I think what he’s talking about was a narrow definition of ‘appropriate.’ ”
“Masculinity can be toxic, so it’s about how the stereotypes can narrow our accepted behaviors. And then everything outside of that can be seen as wrong and then trying to conform to a definition of masculinity can be toxic to people who don’t naturally feel or act that way. So I don’t think saying masculinity can be toxic.”
He added that “the intent and the purpose of it shouldn’t be lost in the conversation.”
“Which I think is the idea that spoken word poetry is itself an art form and it was to expose our students to spoken word poetry,” he said.
The poems themselves “have to have context,” Luizzi said.
“Something has to happen, and it generally is related to individual experience, so with this performer it was related to his experience growing up. He is a Colombian-American growing up and the experiences that he had, the language and poetry tell stories.”
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Here’s a Goméz spoken word performance from three years ago:
I find Marie Naughton’s call for “both sides” of issues like toxic masculinity and racial profiling disturbing. This is a policy that has recently crept into public discourse that mistakenly equates behaviors that are not equal. Does a presentation on domestic violence, for example, call for “both sides”? Not every issue has another side, or at least not one that rates a hearing
Can someone from the all-Moms Parent Faculty Association explain why they thought it was a good idea to pay for a guest speaker to come to the High School and address “toxic masculinity”? I think that the outstanding young men of the Class of 2019 – and their Dads – deserve an apology from the PFA, BOE Chair, and Superintendant. Attached is a recent NBC News profile of Mr. Gomez, a talented performance artist who is popular at college campuses. As you can see, it’s not at all political. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna730181
Janet, your comments about Maria Naughton’s quote are unfair. Your characterization of how toxic masculinity manifests itself might be completely different than someone else’s because it is an undefined expression that often has a political context. Among some people there is a growing presumption that characteristics that are inherently masculine are toxic. Identity politics are pervasive in our public discourse. If we’re going to invite someone to speak on issues like “toxic masculinity” among other politicized subjects, we should have emphasized that they need to be clear on terms and definition given an audience of kids that may not be mature enough to be aware of the implied presumptions they are likely absorbing and running with. I’m not sure if that emphasis took place here but I doubt it.
David Brooks — a voice of moderation on social issues — wrote this in a column this morning: “Young people are supposed to be woke social justice warriors who are disgusted by their elders.” The concern Maria and others have expressed seems related to that dynamic rather than a lack of understanding of the damaging nature of systemic issues like racism or domestic violence that you speak of.
What’s the difference? You can see this type of thinking on MSNBC nightly. I think it’s good to expose teens to different ideas and thoughts. Certainly when they get to college they will see a broader spectrum of opinion. Why shelter them now? It’s an opportunity to develop critical thinking skills and form their own opinions. That said I think that Mr Gomez generalizes too much about the toxic male culture. I don’t see it as much of an issue in New Canaan in how boys are raised. Perhaps Mr Gomez’s thinking was clouded by the environment which he grew up in which he described as a “Latin machismo culture”. I wonder if Mr Gomez has an opinion on hip hop music. Does he feel that it’s misogynist lyrics could play a roll in creating a toxic male culture? Certainly bad optics for the school system at this point in time to bring in a speaker that probably insulted at least half the tax paying population in how they are raising their children.