Teaching Shakespeare Institute 2026

I just documented this year's Teaching Shakespeare Institute (TSI) on assignment for the Folger Shakespeare Library. A lively group of master teachers from across the country study and learn at the Folger for three weeks in an intensive hands-on professional development program. 

Thanks to the staff at the Folger for this opportunity: David Kilpatrick, Liam Dempsey, and Garland Scott. 

OUDC 30 | Birmingham, Alabama- 16th Street Baptist Church / Kelly Ingram Park

OUDC Class 30's fellows visited the 16th Street Baptist Church  and Kelly Ingram Park, part of the historic Civil Rights Trail in Birmingham,  Alabama. The church is where four young girls - Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Denise McNair and Carole Robertson, were murdered by a bomb set by a racist KKK member.  Nearby Kelly Ingram Park commemorates the struggles for equality and freedom in Birmingham during the Jim Crow era.

Thanks to all the OUDC fellows and staff for their good work and for the opportunity to be of service to their mission.

 

OUDC 30 | Selma Alabama

OUDC Class 30's fellows travelled to Selma, Alabama, site of one of  the critical turning points in the civil rights movement. They crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where the Bloody Sunday massacre occurred, and the start of the historic marches to Montgomery. They also visited the Voting Rights Museum, heard from local 'foot soldier" veterans of the movement, met at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, and participated in a workshop led by local healing activist Afriye Wekandodis of By The River Center For Humanity.

Afriye Wekandodis

Memorial for the late Jo Ann Blnd, civil rights foot soldier

Edmund Pettus Bridge