The Adventures of Wynk

Shevare’ Perry shares her visual and written talents in way that creates opportunities for students to share their story and truth as they travel through time with the adventurous Wynk. Ms. Perry shared her poetry with me prior to her visit as the guest artist at our school. This allowed us to learn new vocabulary words, focus on times in history where strong, African American women were taking a stand and, explicitly teach our students about inequalities and injustices and give words to students to think about how they could make a difference by speaking their truth. As Wynk is introduced to women and places in recent history she transforms into an independent thinker who has learned from other’s lived experiences. This made a resounding impact on my art students as they were able to reflect and think about various ways to be upstanders and seek ways to make a difference.  In addition to Shevare’s beautiful poetry, she shared her visual multi-media portraits. The portraits are beautifully layered with folded and sculpted paper and prompt students to want to challenge themselves with a new technique inspired by Ms. Perry’s art.

The highlight of collaborating with Shevare’ was the day of her visit. From her engaging presentation and poetry of Wynk to how she interacted with the students, it made for a day of creativity and personal expression.  It is clear that not only does Ms. Perry have a passion for her art, but for sharing her story about Wynk.  Shevare’ is dedicated to making an impact in how students share their voice and can create in new media. She went above and beyond as she added to her poem when Wynk visits our school with a mission to think about poverty and hunger and how students can make a difference in their community.  I consider it a privilege to have had the opportunity to meet Shevare’ and work with her to engage young thinkers in their art and community. I look forward to the times when we will have more opportunities to collaborate.  The experiences my students had with Ms. Perry are surely something they will remember for a long time.