Bee Dreams of Spring:
Archiving the radical imagining of a Detroit learner during the COVID 19 pandemic
Nearly two years into the pandemic, many schools have returned to virtual learning amongst the latest COVID surge. Even in this context, the dominant narrative in education centers around “learning loss”. Bee Dreams of Spring encourages us to ask what about “connection loss” from the ongoing effects of the pandemic?
Bee Dreams of Spring is a short story that archives a day in the life of one Detroit student during virtual learning in the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the day they dream for warmer days and being back together with their friends.
Lead Teaching Artist, Cyrah Dardas, created this body of work while in partnership with The James and Grace Lee Boggs School, to deliver our media-based programming based on the theme: Community as Care. We embarked on delivering the AIR program virtually as we all navigated uncharted territory surrounded by grief, loneliness and a tumultuous social and political context as COVID reached new heights in the darkness of winter 2020/21. Dardas, focused on creating a virtual space centered on cultivating connection and community amongst the youth during their classes together to provide a salve for the isolation that young people were experiencing. Throughout the partnership, Dardas facilitated imagination exercises, and discussed dreams for the future when we could be together again.
This short film trailer is inspired by the responses from youth when thinking about a future of togetherness beyond their current context. Bee Dreams of Spring is a love letter written by the artist facing her own isolation as an educator craving the energetic exchange that takes place when collaborating with youth through art and media making. It is an imaginative exercise in understanding what it must be like to be a child in this moment and the means by which they are coping.
Illustrated and Directed by: Cyrah Dardas
Co-written by: Cyrah Dardas & Nia Rah
Participants: Nai Martinez, Nzinga, Nia Rah
“The intention of this project is to bring awareness to the importance of connection and relationships in learning environments and to foster conversation amongst adults and educators about making space for this in our schools…especially now.”
A full synopsis for Bee Dreams of Spring.
Community As Care; Connection as Priority:
What if education centered the connection and community between young people above all else? What if we built centers for learning that celebrated student desires to build relationships with each other and fostered friendship? After two year of disrupted schooling and virtual learning, we understand how difficult it is to foster learning when young people are forced to be distant from one another. We must recognize the traumatic effects of isolation and inability for deep embodied learning to take place during the pandemic. Instead of the orientation on “academic learning loss” in the recovery of the pandemic, what if we focused on mending the connection loss that has been experienced? Consider:
How can we reimagine what student engagement looks like in school?
What would it look like to encourage youth to work collaboratively and connect?
How can we create opportunities for youth to connect to themselves and each other over what they are experiencing and learning about themselves, each other and the world around them?
RESOURCEs TO PROCESS AND NAME THE IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC WITH YOUNG PEOPLE:
A special thanks to Detroit Narrative Agency and the James and Grace Lee Boggs School