Wendy Cole is the Executive Director of the Maple Street School, a cooperative Preschool in Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn where she thrives on being a facilitator of culture and community. In addition to her work at Maple Street, Wendy leads the Leadership Initiative‘s Advancing Equity Learning Community with Fela Barclift of Little Sun People. Wendy reminds us all of what works and what is joyful in education, and holds true to the belief that it is necessary to teach each child and family to be themselves, to be free, and to be accountable. Wendy and her colleague Marisa Lark Wallin recently published an article on Ridiculous Resilience in Medium. If you are in need of hope and joy, or to be reminded that you have the skill – play – that will get us through this, take a moment to read it.

Wendy’s community approached this crisis with characteristic curiosity and creativity. One of the structures they created were community preschool concerts via Zoom. Wendy answered some questions about how the concerts work and how they have provided connection for the children and families in her community.

How did you get the idea of doing the community preschool concerts? How do they work?

As a co-op, social justice-based and heart-centered preschool, we believe in connecting to and supporting our community. We also recognized when we began to create our digital preschool that children and families need and want experiences that bring joy and community. Music, art and stories nurture all of us. They provide pleasure, connection and learning while physical distancing.

We also learned artists in our community don’t have gigs. We realized we could do family friendly concerts, hosting the space, with donations going directly to artists. We also decided we could make these concerts open so that families who cannot afford care or don’t have digital school or connection to others can join. We have had a grandpa from Italy, an aunt from Chicago, children who have moved to California, London, and Australia, teacher’s church friends, and many of our extended friends and community join us.

What have the children and families in your community needed most right now?

An example of what our community needs right now is togetherness and understanding. This morning on Zoom after a storytelling, four-year-old Jade had a stethoscope and three-year-old Devin had a fluffy dog toy.  Jade exclaimed, “When this is over, I will come to your house and check on your dog with my stethoscope.” Then Horatio added,  “I would like to go, too, and bring my horse, cowboy hat, and boots and go to your house, too.”  Then Emmalee added “I would like to bring my robot cat to Horatio’s house.” Then an older child in first grade reminded us it is not safe to go out yet.  

When we have our community concerts, we share for a bit: five-year-old Lucas showed his toilet paper art, three-year-old Luca showed how he made orange juice, and then we all listen together. We have had artists play drums, guitars, a tuba, a trombone, a viola, a violin, pianos, dancing, ukuleles, shadow puppets, singers, lots of props, a pretend koala bear, and some real alpacas, sheep and goats. All of these bring us together. We are also dancing and singing, eating oatmeal for breakfast in our pajamas, or under a blanket on the couch.

What are some of the things happening in the concerts that have surprised or delighted you during this time? 

All of the concerts delight and surprise me. I believe two important ways we build community are through rituals and surprises. Rituals root and ground us and surprises keep us fresh. The ritual of our concerts is to see our community in its village everyday. This feels like medicine: a child who is shy showing her furry friend, what teacher Ann Marie now calls the survival twirl each day, the so many times we sing Wheels on the Bus, Afunga and Twinkle Twinkle. Children and their grown-ups need the “daily vitamin” of being together in community sharing and listening to a concert.

Surprises and delights have been both big and little, both impactful and beautiful. Surprises include children making up songs, all the fun mutes in a horn including a ball in a tuba, and children seeing a new or homemade instrument they have never seen before. Big surprises have been an alumni drum concert, nine-year-olds reading, and the fabulous Illustrious Blacks  hosting the best family/teacher/staff community dance party in the Zoom-iverse.

What role do you think local communities of young families will play in the months ahead?

I think this virus and pandemic are traumatic and we can help by being there for each other and figuring out how we want to be. At Maple Street we want to be and work towards being a welcoming anti-racist beloved community that grieves, tells the truth, advocates, thanks essential workers, supports mutual aid, and plays, sings, and dances together. We do this in micro and macro ways through togetherness in board meetings, and town halls and concerts, continually doing our survival twirls.

Please email Wendy (wendy@maplestreetschool.org) if you would like to join the Maple Street School’s community concerts.