Exploring Culture, Identity, and History: AP African American Studies Comes to Harlem

From jazz and literature to social movements and modern culture, a new Advanced Placement African American Studies class is giving students the chance to explore voices and stories that have shaped America in powerful ways.  The AP African American Studies class goes in depth about African American history starting from the beginning in 1600 C.E. to study the past and present lives of African Americans. Students taking the class will complete and present projects over the course of the year to dive deeper into the culture and identities that contributed to the history of the United States.

Since this is a brand new class being offered at Harlem this year, students get to experience the class first hand with little to no prior knowledge on it.  With this opportunity in its first year, the teachers and students can develop the class from scratch to find engaging ways to learn in the class.

Logan Biles (12) said, “I’m liking learning about the intricacies of African history…it is reworking my brain on certain aspects of African history that were buried and are now being uncovered.”

The extensive research that AP African American Studies goes into will bring many parts of African history and African culture to light that people may not have known about before.  Students are able to dive deeper into the identities that have contributed to shaping our country and world as we know it today.  The lessons learned in this course is important to be offered to students every year

Kyra Newnam (Social Studies) said, “I think there is a lot of benefits [to offering the class each year]. Is it challenging? Yes. Is it gonna provide you a lot of opportunity to grow? Yes, and just expose you to something that you don’t always have the opportunity to engage with.”

Offering this class every year instead of every other year will give all students the opportunity to get a perspective of specific parts of history that aren’t often taught in depth.

Having a class in Harlem that teaches about a part of history that is strongly overlooked can benefit the schools overall culture and knowledge on certain issues, and benefit every student at Harlem.

Biles said, “I think it’ll benefit me by turning another page on a history book that I haven’t learned about, and I think it’ll open my mind some more to keep me excited to go the sixth hour.”

This class’ goal to teach students about different cultures and ethnic backgrounds along with preparing for the AP test and project at the end of the school year. But with a class like this exploring the foundations of a whole culture of people, the interest in the class goes far beyond a score on the AP test, it can influence how people interact with each other to continue to create a welcoming space at Harlem.

Newnam says, “I hope to keep the interest, to hopefully make people see the value of it. I think it’s super valuable to explore this history because this isn’t just a history class, it is art, literature, and music.”