Feel free to explore these additional resources on your own to supplement your knowledge for these lessons or share and discuss these sources with your classrooms.

• What Are Youth Rights? (Youth Rights)
  Youth rights are the rights that everyone should have, but that are denied to some of us because of our young age. These rights include the right to be full participants in our representative democracy through voting, the right to privacy, the right to be free from physical punishment, the right to make decisions about our own lives, the right to be outdoors, the right to prove ourselves, and the right to receive the same amount of respect as anyone else.
  
  learn more
  
  
• Why Ordinary People Need to Understand Power (TED)
  Far too many Americans are illiterate in power — what it is, how it operates and why some people have it. As a result, those few who do understand power wield disproportionate influence over everyone else.
  
  watch video
  
  
• Digital Civic Engagement (Unicef)
  Many of today’s youth take to digital spaces to develop their civic identities and express political stances in creative ways, claiming agency that may not be afforded to them in traditional civic spaces. The key difference between civic engagement by youth today and by older generations is the availability of digital technology, which provides a low-barrier-to-entry canvas for young people.
  
  learn more

Click here to download a PDF of this exercise

Subject(s): Theatre and Social Studies

Goals: Students will be able to:

• Portray unique, multidimensional characters.
• describe how theatrical works can entertain, inform, and interpret the human experience.
• Examine the extent to which power is shared.
• Identify the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and ethical use of material and intellectual property.

Show Connection:

• Patients like Nellie, Elizabeth and Matilda on Blackwell’s Island physically rebel and speak up when they can, strategically, to protest their treatment at the hands of the administration. Students will better comprehend just what civic empowerment looks like as they physicalize their relationships to civic empowerment and how they fight for the causes that matter to them for future generations.

Set-Up:

• Divide the class into equal sized groups, minimum of five students per group, and place them in distinct areas of the classroom.

Description:

• In each group, have students discuss the following questions. (Instructors should float around the room and support productive and insightful discussion among the groups.):
  • What does the phrase “civic engagement” mean to you?
  • What does being a well-rounded citizen in the United States of America mean to you? What things does a well-rounded citizen do?
  • In your opinion, do all people in the United States, regardless of gender, have the same opportunities and abilities to pursue their passions and the causes that matter to them? Why or why not? How could possible inequalities between genders be eliminated?
• Following a short discussion, each group has 10 minutes to create group tableaus that represent one of the following thematic titles:There is More Than One Way to Make Progress
  • Planting Seeds of Progress for the Future
  • Is My Fight Your Fight?
  • A Common Goal for the Common Good
• Groups should create one tableau each, using their full bodies and found objects in the room.
• Each group’s frozen picture must feature every member of the group. Every person in the group should be able to identify what person, place, thing, feeling they are representing in their frozen picture. These images can be literal depictions or can be more metaphorical in nature should the group be so inclined.
• The instructor should move around the classroom, offering support as they can. Encourage the groups to think in three dimensions, use their full bodies, levels and depths of field to tell a story through a frozen image.
• Once time has elapsed, have each group present their frozen picture and hold it in place for the class to explore. Students that are not in the presenting group can get up close and personal and way up to and through the frozen picture to closely examine the image presented to them. What does the audience see? What story is being told? Who might have power or lack power in these frozen images? Is there a clear winner or loser in the image?
  • For an added challenge, with the group that is frozen in place, countdown from 10 to 0. When you reach 0, the members of that group should reposition themselves into whatever they think is the opposite of the position they were frozen in before. So, if they were in a powerful position standing tall and strong, maybe they are now smaller and more passive, closer to the floor. If they were connected to many other members of their group physically, now they are isolated and not physically connected with any other member of their group. Groups present and the audience walks around museum style to explore it. Discuss and note things you noticed. (Feel free to do this with as many or as few groups as you might like.)

Discussion:

• What do these frozen images tell us about how we as a community feel about working together towards a common goal? What makes working together hard, and what could make it easier?
• In The Voices on Blackwell Island, how do the characters fight for progress? What does that fight look like? Are they successful?

Click here to download a PDF of this exercise

Subject(s): English, Theatre, Social Studies

Goals: Students will be able to:

• Take knowledgeable, constructive action, individually and collaboratively, to address school, community, local, state, national, and global issues.
• Use verbal and nonverbal techniques for presentation.
• Describe how theatrical works can entertain, inform, and interpret the human experience.

Show Connection:

• The characters of The Voices of Blackwell Island are fighting to be heard in several ways in an environment that does not value, see or hear them as they would like to be valued, seen or heard. In this exercise, students will unpack and utilize the tools at their disposal to amplify their voices and causes. In exploring these tools, students will better understand that they are not powerless and that each and every person has the ability to be a changemaker and voice for the cause they believe in.

Materials:

• Arts and Crafts Supplies
• Campaign Causes Sheets
• Campaign Criteria Sheets

Set-Up:

• Divide the class into groups of equal size.

Description:

• In The Voices of Blackwell Island, characters like Nellie and Daughter have their own aspirations they reach for in one manner or another. Some of these aspirations might seem as serious as a heart attack and some of them may seem ridiculous and fleeting. The characters also go about fighting for these causes in a variety of ways, some big and some small.
• What, in your opinion, are some of the strongest and most effective ways for a person or group to bring attention to a cause? (Marches, protests, slogans, visual campaigns, conversations, etc.)
• Each group of students has 40 minutes to create a campaign around one of the fictional causes. The groups should take their cause seriously even if it seems rather silly to them. Causes and aspirations that are most often achieved are the ones fought earnestly, honestly, and passionately for. Don’t phone this in and laugh off the work you are about to do. If you believe in the cause, your audience will believe in the cause! Fight for it!
• The campaign should include the following, to be presented by the group in a theatrical fashion at the end of the work period:
  • A visual representation of your cause and what you are fighting for. This could be a poster, banner, logo, street art tag, etc. Something visually informative that conveys the vibe or specific cause you are fighting for or against.
  • A chant, song, or musical vocalization of some sort that your group can repeat and present to the rest of the class. Again, this should be in reference to your cause.
  • A short 1-minute speech where one or several members of the group outline what their cause is, why it matters, and how the audience can take action to help the cause.
  • Two strategies of next steps and actions that your group can take to further the cause. (Civil Disobedience, protests, letter campaign to a specific location, etc.)
• Students should think outside of the box with all of these aspects of your civic campaign. What could you and your group do that would bring attention to your cause and promote change? You may not have the ability to vote for a cause you believe in via elections yet but there are a myriad of other ways to bring attention and action to what matters to you.
• Have the groups present their theatrical campaigns for their causes.

Discussion:

• What about these campaigns stood out to you? Why do you think it left an impression in your mind?
• What sort of emotional, psychological and physical appeals did the campaign use to get your attention and call you to action?
• Everyone has things they experience in life or read about in the news that hit their heart. Things that they know need to be changed. What is your “thing”? What is your cause? What’s the roadmap for you helping your cause? What’s the first step? The second? The third?
• How could you see adapting some of these strategies to more grounded or real life examples in your own lives?

Click here to download a PDF of this exercise

Subject(s): Social Studies, Theatre and English

Goals: Students will be able to:

• Recognize the fundamental worth and dignity of the individual.
• Compare and contrast historical, cultural, economic, and political perspectives in United States history.
• Describe, analyze, and evaluate artistic choices.
• Identify and apply digital citizenship as it relates to research, performance, and production of theatrical works.

Show Connection:

• Mother and Daughter in The Voices on Blackwell Island develop causes to fight for over the course of the show. Students will better understand the causes that the characters possess and why they matter to them by sharing what causes or “trees” of their own they are planting and nurturing as they move forward in their own lives.

Description:

• Note: This exercise involves homework. There’s no effective way to do this in one setting – much of the exercise is students preparing presentations at home.
• At the end of The Voices on Blackwell Island, Mother states, “If ever someone says the work is futile, remind them that a society grows great when people plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in….You might be the only voice tomorrow. But maybe the next day there will be two voices. And then three. And then more and more and more….But, you know, maybe, if you plant the tree, eventually other people will be able to grow up knowing what it’s like to be free in the shade.”
• All of the characters in The Voices on Blackwell Island develop causes to fight for. What are they? What are the trees these women and men were planting?
• Now it is the students turn to think about what their cause is. What is the tree they’re planting for future generations to rest in the shade of?
  • Possible Exercise Extension: Have each student pull out a piece of paper and something to write with. Give them ten minutes to brainstorm a response to the prompt “What is a cause that matters to you? What is a tree that you are planting or hope to plant for the future?”
• Every student is going to create a “booth” or “tree you are planting for the future” (interactive, presentational or otherwise) on a subject they would like to express to a portion of the class on what their cause is. (Some examples might include environmentalism, equal rights, being unabashedly oneself, voting registration, etc.) These expression booths can feature items from their lives, favorite things, an exploration of an aspect of their identity or personality but they should ultimately relate to a cause or subject matter that is important to them and that they fight and advocate for. Every student’s booth must feature at least two physical items that relate to their subject or cause in some manner. These booths will be presented when next we all meet together as a class. (If the instructor deems the students will need more time to prepare, shift presentation dates accordingly.)
• Presenting: One half of the class sets up and presents while the other half interact with the exhibits. The groups then swap positions. When presenting booths, highly encourage students to be as invested in their given moment or topic of expression as possible and to be equally invested in asking questions about other people’s booths. If you believe in it and care, so will your audience.

Discussion:

• What causes and booths stood out to you the most? What made them impactful?
• What causes that were not mentioned do you want to push for and take forward into the future? What causes do you hope to leave behind in the past?
• How do you think you could take the presentations you did here and share this information and passion with the wider community and world?
• What new questions are you thinking about, having seen the spectrum of our booths?
• Everyone has things they experience in life or read about in the news that hit their heart. Things that they know need to be changed. What is your “thing”? What is your cause? What’s the roadmap for you helping your cause? What’s the first step? The second? The third?