Tom begins today with a look at the challenges facing immigrant students at Patterson High School in East Baltimore, where one third of the student body is foreign-born. Many of them have fled war, urban violence and oppression.
Tom is joined by journalistLiz Bowie, who profiles some of these remarkable young people in her Baltimore Sun series called Unsettled Journeys, and Margot Harris, who works with the immigrant students as head of the English for Speakers of Other Languages program at Patterson.
Then – Fanon Hill on the work of The Youth Resiliency Institute he co-founded and leads. The Institute works with African American children and adults, primarily in Cherry Hill and Albemarle Square. One of its programs is called The Journey Project, which focuses on family engagement to help kids improve their performance in school. It includes an African Family Drumming Group, designed to build cultural and family connections in the community. Cherry Hill residents and members of the drumming group join Tom in the studio.
Tom Pelton puts the Environment in Focus. And Andrea Pippins, a designer and illustrator who teaches design at theMaryland Institute College of Art, joins Tom in the studio to talk about her latest project: a new coloring book for grown-ups called I Love My Hair: A Coloring Book of Braids, Coils, and Doodle Dos.