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Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds
Welcome to the Cultural Curriculum Chat Podcast—an inclusive space for educators, DEI practitioners, and all individuals eager to foster diversity and understanding! If you're seeking a vibrant, authentic podcast to guide you in implementing Multicultural Education, look no further. Are you yearning for inspiration to cultivate a truly inclusive classroom community? Join us on a journey filled with insightful resources, practical tips, and a touch of humor, all led by the knowledgeable educator, Jebeh Edmunds.
Our podcast is designed to uplift and empower you, offering a blend of expertise and laughter to spark creativity and engagement in your educational endeavors. Tune in to discover a wealth of valuable insights and strategies that will ignite your passion for inclusive teaching practices and multicultural learning.
Embark on this enriching experience with us, and together we'll champion diversity, inspire change, and create welcoming spaces for all. Subscribe now to stay connected, join the conversation, and access more empowering content. Let's make a difference, one episode at a time! Thank you for being a part of our mission.
Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds
Season 4 Episode #25: Sharice's Big Voice: A Native Kid Becomes A congresswoman Book Review My 100th🌟🌟🌟 Episode
When the echo of "What are you?" reverberated through her life, Cherise Davids chose to answer with a voice that was anything but small. Join us as we unfold the vibrant tapestry of a Native American woman's journey to the halls of Congress, a story beautifully chronicled in her autobiography "Cherise's Big Voice: A Native Kid Becomes a Congresswoman." As your host, I'm honored to share the triumphs and trials that have sculpted Congresswoman Davids into a symbol of hope and resilience. From her early fascination with martial arts to her unwavering commitment to service, Davids' narrative is a profound reminder of the strength in our roots and the power of a voice that refuses to be silenced.
Our conversation ventures beyond just one remarkable individual's path. It's a chorus of diverse voices and experiences that enrich the fabric of our shared human experience. This week, we celebrate the colorful mosaic of stories that have graced our podcast, each thread weaving into the next, creating a picture of what diversity and inclusion truly mean. The wisdom gleaned from these narratives is a beacon guiding us towards a world of belonging and justice. So whether you're settling in for a quiet evening or looking for company on your morning jog, let these stories inspire you to embrace the many voices around you—and perhaps, find the courage to raise your own.
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Hello everyone, jeba Edmonds here. Welcome back to the podcast. Now, what do you get when you have that feeling in your soul? By listening to others, you can make great change and by using your voice you can be a trailblazer. That is the epitome of this book, cherise's Big Voice.
Speaker 1:A Native Kid Becomes a Congresswoman. Written by US Congresswoman Cherise Davids with Nancy K Mays, illustrated by Joshua Mengesig Powis-Steckley. Now, if you're not familiar with Cherise Davids' story, she is one of the first two Native American women in Congress and she is also the first openly gay member of Congress to represent Kansas. This autobiographical book talks more about her personality and her drive to become a Congresswoman. I love Cherise's personality and she said we have a lot in common that she liked to talk a lot. She uses this part of her story to set the stage of her being curious, asking people questions of who their family might be if they liked Bruce Lee. Her love of trying to become Bruce Lee in the sense of her love of kicking through the wall and breaking down barriers per se and being raised by her mother and seeing her mother asking people questions and talking to people and listening to what people have to say and how she would be punished by her teachers by Making her go out in the hall and she would still talk in the hall. I mean, raise your hand, listener. If you have been in that situation. You know, I know my mom is kept some of my report cards that would say, jeb, it talks too much. You know she reached your at my own heart to, and how she would Talk about her distaste for onions on her pizza. I mean, your students are gonna be sitting here giggling and also being moved by Sharisa story and some of the questions when kids are curious in what I like to.
Speaker 1:How Sharise talks about this is that question that makes people of color and students skin crawl of what are you? Who are you? And that's something that a lot of your students can relate to and her saying that in your heart of who are you in? Being teased by being a Native American young girl and going to her mother and what am I? And her mom said you are a Native American. And then she told me that you know that question isn't nice. It's not a nice question to ask people. But she also talks more in depth about being members of the Ho-Chunk Nation and the story that Cherise paints for us in her own narrative is talking about the history of the removal act by the US government and how her people, the Ho-Chunk people that originated in Wisconsin and northern Illinois, were forcibly removed out of their homeland.
Speaker 1:The story of her being a part of the people with that sacred voice, the big voice, propelled her to continue to use her voice to make positive change. And she talks about being raised by a single mother and her mom working in the military and having her move for over 20 years just her and her mom outside of the country to Germany and then back to Kansas and Missouri and just moving back and forth. And her love of watching Bruce Lee movies and meeting a soldier in Germany on their base that taught her for free martial arts and that also propelled her to find a life and love of the martial arts. In seeing her mom getting the accolades and her promotion and her job and pinning that promotional patch on her mother really set the stage of her starting to become aware of her own power and standing in that and I love this page that says it took years for her mother to earn this promotion and she knew how hard her mom worked and the words here that said, focused and fierce, confident and kind is a person who serves others, and that was her aha moment of I'm going to serve others. I don't know quite how, but I'm going to in this book how she worked really hard and she did that same act of listening to people, even if it wasn't anything you wanted to hear. She talked about how listening to customers when she worked at a pizza restaurant and how she helped to try to solve problems the best way she could, then going to college and using some of those money that she would get to pay for her further studying of martial arts. She wanted to learn to fight like her idol, bruce Lee, and learning how to use the art of jujitsu and taekwondo and capoeira, you know. And starting her first MMA match. I know some of your students are probably like, yeah, we love UFC and her being one of the trailblazers too, of in that mixed martial arts world and going back into law school A lot of people of color, especially indigenous peoples, when they see themselves of being in different places that historically have not had them represented to her.
Speaker 1:That's where she finally found her place, in a school where there were more Native Americans preparing to become lawyers. She was finally felt powerful in herself as a Ho-Chunk member, but also never having to hear that question what are you? She finally felt, wow, I belong here, here with people that look like me, that I don't have to answer that heartbreaking question. When you get that question what are you? You automatically, as a person of color, feel like you don't belong. You automatically feel like this isn't computing. Why are you here, what are you and why are you in this space? So many of people of color I know that can relate. And when you are amongst like-minded folks that look like you as a person of color, you just have this sigh of relief of oh, I don't have to justify me being in this space because I belong in this space. I hope that makes sense for you listener out there.
Speaker 1:These steps in her life, these trailblazing steps, and always thinking about that fundamental shift in her of listening to the people and using her big voice to make positive change. She ended up working in the White House and seeing that these laws that are being made aren't reflective of the people that they serve. So again, she used her big voice to continue to challenge and disrupt and help to create laws and fine tune the laws to make sure all people, all walks of life, are represented how they should be. Then she ran for Congress. I mean, you sit back and you go, wow, your students are going to listen to you, read this book, and they're going to be like what she had her love of martial arts. So she, of course she's watching Bruce Lee videos and trying to mimic in practice and they can think about okay, what kind of moves am I making by somebody that I love? Maybe that's a hockey player and you're trying to perfect that risk action? Okay, I have kids that play hockey, so bear with me. So who are these figures that your students is trying to emulate at home? And what could lead to something great?
Speaker 1:You know, she had that first dream of being a martial artist. And then she had that dream of being a lawyer and speaking up for those whose voices have been silenced. And then she took it a step further to say it's not only the indigenous people that I'm representing, it's all of the people, people in the LGBTQ plus IA community that need that voice to be heard. There's so many other people that have been silenced and disenfranchised and marginalized. And what can she do as a congresswoman, and she did it and she listened.
Speaker 1:I love how she empowers our students reading this book to say, yeah, you're going to get doubters, you're going to get people that you want to put yourself out there. That is the biggest form of courage is to put yourself out there. But then you're going to have people doubting you every step of the way, but you don't need to listen to them, because I feel like when we listen to the doubters is when we stifle ourself and we stifle our own power. And she just talks about how she listened to everyone in her constituency in Kansas and how she won. Use your big voice to fight for your beliefs and always remember you deserve to be seen and heard". This book is so important. It talks a lot again about social justice. It talks a lot again about using your voice for good. It also talks a lot about listening and problem solving. These are the pillars in education that we need to focus on in 2024 and beyond.
Speaker 1:Cherise has an author's note that I want you to read here, as well as our illustrator. Also, at the end of this book, you're going to learn more about the Ho-Chunk Nation. It is written by John Green-Dear, the former president of the Ho-Chunk Nation and he describes the origin story of the Ho-Chunk peoples as well as the history throughout the United States of the Ho-Chunk people, just to paint you a picture of the traditions that they hold dear, as well as, more in depth, about the Removal Act in 1830 by US President Andrew Jackson. So it really does give you a good background. I highly recommend you reading this book from the first page to the last and do more research on that removal act and the various tribal nations that had been displaced and disenfranchised by that law. I also want you to continue using this book as a launching pad to learn more about Cherise David's and other people of color trailblazers in our US government when you are learning about various biographies of others. These are the people that your students can read about and know that these people are still in real time doing the work that their constituents had poised them to do by electing them.
Speaker 1:Share this episode with an educator or a friend who wants to learn more about trailblazers and how they make positive, transformational change. I am so excited to share with y'all that this drum roll is my 100th episode. Just let that sink in my 100th episode. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for listening to me if you're new or if you've been my tried and true from my first episode. I am so humbled and grateful and blessed that you have followed along this journey with me. I can't tell you how excited for the 100 plus more episodes that I'm going to create the cultural curriculum chat podcast.
Speaker 1:I just have to sit back and reflect and think about me using my voice and listening to you all and in trying to share on this platform books by BIPOC authors and books written about BIPOC people in the United States to help cultivate your knowledge and create conversations that you have with your students, that you have with your colleagues at work, all about diversity, equity, inclusion in the big B, belonging. So many of you have reached out to me and said Jeb, I don't even know where to go, I don't know where to start, I don't even know how to have this conversation with my kids or even my students. And I am listening to you all and I am looking for books. I tell you I know I have a book habit, I love my books, but I'm finding these books to help answer your questions. I'm finding these individuals that are of all walks of life that are authors themselves and creatives, and even people that are our allies, with that capital A, that want to see positive change in our students and in our workplaces to be more inclusive and more belonging.
Speaker 1:And honey, I am just getting started, y'all.
Speaker 1:I am so excited to showcase those voices of the people of all walks of life, to let you hear them and learn from them, as well as let you read these books that these people of all walks of life and faiths have created for me to share with you on my platform, so that you can get these books, you can learn from these authors and artists that I have showcased and I continue to showcase on my podcast for here on out, so that you can just put in your headphones or you can listen on your way to the grocery store or wash and dishes, or whatever you find is your comfort space to get some advice from me, and I'm so grateful that I'm using my voice to help you on this diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and justice journey. So that's all that I have for you today. Don't forget to drop a review in the podcast so I can be shared with the masses on the Cultural Curriculum Chat podcast. Thank you so much again. I look forward to seeing you back here same time next week. Bye, bye.