CP celebrates the return of Beloved Community Night

Our students came together last week to celebrate Beloved Community Night with their friends and family. Popularized by Martin Luther King Jr., Beloved Community happens when people of diverse racial, ethnic, educational, class, gender, abilities, sexual orientation, backgrounds, and identities come together in an interdependent relationship of love, mutual respect, and care that seeks to realize justice within the broader world. The night coincides with National School Choice Week, during which we acknowledge the incredible program Community Preparatory School provides for students and families in the area. To begin, each classroom showcased projects by students that are driven by current events, what they are studying in their subjects with extensions to the Beloved Community, and ways they are giving back to our school community. For the second part of the night, families moved to the Community Room to watch Creative Arts students participate in a musical showcase. They performed “Cumbia Del Sol” in both Spanish and English, “When We Sing” in both Sign Language and English, and “Sansa Kroma” in Akan, which is a native language to Ghana. To end their showcase, students performed their 2023 National School Choice Week Dance to celebrate Community Preparatory School.

The event brings a spirit of love, kindness, sharing, caring, support, giving, fellowship, and joy, along with the eating of delicious food. Families each brought food from their cultures for the beloved tradition of the “bread and rice room”. This began as a way to feature the diversity of bread and rice across the cultures represented, but has blossomed into families bringing whatever foods are most important to them. Creative Arts Teacher Janine Lee explained, “The learning that leads up to the event, the collaboration with their teachers and peers to prepare, the opportunity to take leadership to plan, and the experience of performing on stage all make the night an incredible experience for our students and the community.” Thank you to all out student performers, the families, Ms. Janine Lee, and our principal and teachers who made this night possible. This celebration is an important part of the school’s commitment to actively working against discrimination within our community, and exemplifies what it means to be a member of a Beloved Community.