Diane Ravitch and Kevin Coval are our guests today on Hitting Left.

Diane Ravitch

First batter up on the Klonsky Brothers, Hitting Left show this morning is ed activist, historian, and author Diane Ravitch. Diane's latest book, "Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools" is a must read.

You can follow her daily blog here. I do.

She and I will be talking about vouchers, charters, and the Trump/DeVos "choice" offensive which aims at nothing less that putting the final nail in the coffin of public education.

Hitting in the clean-up spot will be in-studio guest, Chicago poet Kevin Coval. He's bringing with him a young Louder Than a Bomb poet.

Kevin Coval

Kevin is the co-founder of LTAB, the world's largest poetry festival, which exploded on the Chicago scene back in 2001 and has grown exponentially since then. He's the is the editor of "The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop". His 8th book, “A People’s History of Chicago" came out earlier this month. It's a collection of 77 poems representing the city’s 77 diverse neighborhoods and the people within them.

You can hear it all live on WLPN 105.5 FM Chicago, this morning at 11 a.m. CDT, streaming at lumpenradio.com or listen to the podcast at your leisure on Liberated Syndication.

Justice delayed is justice denied

An aspiring Chicago poet and community activist walked out of a Cook County courthouse Wednesday to hugs and cheers from dozens of supporters after prosecutors in a surprise move dropped charges against him for allegedly punching a police officer during protests over the death of Laquan McDonald. -- Chicago Tribune

"Aspiring", my ass. Malcolm X. London is an accomplished poet and playwright -- called the Gil-Scott Heron of this generation by Cornel West. He's a member of the Young Adult Council of the prestigious Steppenwolf Theater, and has appeared on PBS for the first ever televised TED Talk with John Legend & Bill Gates & has shared stages with actor Matt Damon & rapper Lupe Fiasco as a part of the The People Speak, Live! cast. He also appears on Season 2 of TVOne’s Verses & Flow.

Poet/Activist Malcolm London with supporters. 

In 2011, Malcolm London won the Louder Than A Bomb youth poetry slam in his native Chicago, scooping the top award as both individual performer & with a team. The poet, performer & activist recently wrote & directed a spoken word infused play responding to the Zimmerman verdict called Two Years Later at the Goodman Theatre with an ensemble of five youth poets. Malcolm’s work has been featured on national outlets including CBS, NPR, Huffington Post, The Root, and the CHICAGO TRIBUNE.

And the list goes on.

Justice Delayed... While it took 13 months to for the administration to release the video and charge killer-cop Van Dyke with McDonald's murder, they had poet/activist Malcolm London yanked off the street, in jail and booked on trumped-up felony charges in the blink of an eye. But within 24 hours, States Atty. Anita Alvarez ordered all charges dropped, in the "best interests" of the city. And by "best-interests", she meant her own and those of the mayor and Supt. Garry McCarthy's. Her problem -- tons of community support for Malcolm; plus there was reportedly video of his arrest with cops using illegal "escort holds" and "emergency handcuffing" (Sun-Times).

Judge Peggy Chiampas who told Malcolm, he was "free to go", wasted no time in busting "Chicago Tonight" producer Chloe Riley and chastising her for "creating a media circus." By circus, she meant -- Riley took a few pictures of Malcolm walking down the courthouse hall with supporters, following his release from jail (THE HORROR!). Chiampas, apparently bitter of being forced to cut Malcolm loose, then threatened Riley with jail time unless she destroyed her pics. She complied.

The wheels of justice spin fast when necessary.

It's the new, improved Rahm. 'Doesn't believe in personal insults...'

Here's Blaine Principal Troy LaRaviere laying it all out on Chicago Tonight.



PARTY LINE...You can always tell when the line comes down from the 5th floor at City Hall. It's picked up quickly and echoed down the halls and through the cubicles at Clark Street -- "That LaRaviere guy and those other principals are in league with Karen Lewis and the teachers union."

But by the time flack Sarah Hamilton's message reaches the end of the line, it doesn't always come out the way it was intended. Yesterday it was first mouthed clumsily by Rahm's attack dog, John Kupper who came right out and called CPA Pres. Clarice Berry, "a CTU shill". Yes, and that was the message coming from Hamilton's newly-created version of the warm, fuzzy ("I welcome principals' concerns and ideas") Rahm.

After Berry fired back with both barrels, Rahm made Kupper apologize.

“I regret my reckless remark and offer Dr. Berry my public apology,” Kupper wrote in an email to the Sun-Times.

BTW, Berry's full statement, which appeared in an earlier version of Fran Spielman's E&O report is now gone. But you can read it in full, here.

In a separate emailed statement, Hamilton wrote:

“Mayor Emanuel does not agree with what John Kupper said nor the sentiment behind it, and he believes personal insults have no place in public debate." 

Wait, what? Rahm doesn't believe in using personal insults in public debate? That's right. This is the new, improved Rahm. Not the one who dropped the F-Bomb on Karen Lewis. Not the one who called a group of liberal activists "f—ing retarded." Not the Rahm who repeatedly insulted Chuck Todd, suggesting he was ignorant about charter schools, was "backward" looking, and that being in Washington had affected "your brain." Not the Rahm who threatened to kill  Energy Sec. Stephen Chu if he talked about climate change.

C'mon Rahm. Don't wuss out on us now.

Next came this toned-down version of the line from gadfly blogger Alexander Russo. No he's not on staff but he's a quick study.

I keep wondering whether LaRaviere is an independent mind speaking out against CPS and anyone else who gets in the way of making Chicago schools better or whether he's one among many who've come to loathe the Mayor so much that he's allied himself with the union across the board.  

Yes, he was just "wondering."

LOVE THIS...Thanks WBEZ, Young Chicago Authors, Free Write Jail Arts and the Chicago Community Trust for helping Louder Than a Bomb give voice to the brilliant young poets locked up inside the Cook County Detention Center. And be sure and check out these amazing WBEZ photos by By Bill Healy.

Stay dry and have a great Rahm-less weekend.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Team Englewood at LTAB

Team Englewood Spoken Word Team

"Hide Your Schools, Hide Your Homes, Hide Your Children, 'Cause [Rahm's] wrecking it all." -- Louder Than A Bomb

 Fran Spielman, Sun-Times reporter

"What is the one thing that trumps money? Movement." -- Rahm’s re-election and GOP gov race

Fox Business commentator Todd Wilemon

"If You’re Poor, Stop Being Poor." -- TruthDig

The Reader's Political Editor, Mick Dumke

 When asked why the unions want Toni Preckwinkle to run for mayor: 

"Well she's not Rahm Emanuel, for starters. She hasn't declared war on the teachers union and launched into school 'reform'. She's a former school teacher. And it's not just the teachers union. Other unions are upset with him for pension reform and other matters." -- Rahm’s re-election and GOP gov race

Louder Than A Bomb

This review also appears in The Huffington Post

 

If like me, you're burnt out on all the Waiting for Superman hype, I've got the perfect antidote. Go see Louder Than A Bomb, a brilliant and powerful documentary that is nothing less than eye poetry. I was lucky enough to score a couple of tickets to a sold-out showing at Chicago's International Film Festival but had to watch from the packed theater's second row. However, the tears running down my face weren't caused by my proximity to the screen, but from the power of spoken-word poetry and the stories behind the Chicago high school kids performing it.

No, there are no superheroes in this film, no Michelle Rhee or Geoffrey Canada. No power philanthropists searching for instant (no waiting) solutions to the complex problems facing inner city schools. Instead we hear the much more compelling stories about kids often consigned to the bottom tier of the school system, those who are the main, often passive or unwilling targets of current top-down school-reform policies. The stars are a diverse mix of students, teachers and parents, acting powerfully as agents of their own teaching and learning, making meaning of their own (and others') lives, struggles, and stories through the power of hip-hop and spoken word.

The film folds itself around the annual Louder Than A Bomb poetry slam competition, a Chicago original, which has grown into a national movement. LTAB was started a decade ago by Young Chicago Authors, a youth-oriented creative writing and literacy organization that attracts kids from every corner of the city.
The competition is intense and loaded with contradictions. How is a judge supposed to rate a poem on a scale of 1 to 10? I've been a volunteer judge at several of these slam competitions, torn between wanting to give every poem, every performance a 10 and trying, at the same time, to act in the spirit of the competition. The operating slogan is, "The Point Is Not The Points, The Point Is The Poetry." But do the the kids really buy it? The fun for me is seeing how each performer draws on the energy of the audience. They in turn, respond to a judge's low score with chants of, "Listen to the poem! Listen to the poem!"

LTAB follows four groups of young poets through the months leading up to the big event. They dig deep within themselves to create stunning statements about their lives, their politics, their schools, and world as they see it. They're driven to learn and create in ways difficult to capture within the walls of high school English classes. It all starts from reflection -- who am I in the world? -- and grows from there with the guidance of skilled and artful teachers and coaches.

Equally important for me as an educator, was the story of authentic teaching and personalized interaction between teacher and student under the most difficult of conditions -- the very things we were trying to capture in the early days of Chicago's small-schools movement more than a decade ago. They're the things that get lost in the current test-driven. teacher-proof reforms envisioned by the Waiting for Superman crowd who view poverty and racism as mere "excuses" for low test scores.

LTAB is co-produced and directed by two Emmy-winning TV documentary producers, Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel. After the Film Festival showing, Siskel held a Q & A with an enthusiastic audience where he described his experience driving by a local theater and seeing "Louder Than A Bomb" on the marquee, with a big, diverse crowd of teenagers gathered outside. After coming back and sitting in the audience, he knew exactly the film that he and his partner Jacobs had to make.

Local poet and Young Chicago Authors Artistic Director Kevin Coval, described the pair's struggle to win trust and confidence in order to capture the authentic voices of the young poets. We we were then treated to a live performance by the (now graduated) team from Steinmetz High School, sharing a version of their now acclaimed, "Counting Graves." 

I can't wait to see Louder Than A Bomb again, this time from a better vantage point. You should do the same.