AMD Students Talk Books, Culture, Social Issues in Project LIT

Project LIT, one of the newest clubs at Anne M. Dorner Middle School, is more than just a book club.

In the words of its members, it is “an open door to another world,” a place where “everyone’s free to learn and educate” and somewhere to “share your ideas and explore more about the world beyond books.”

Project LIT is a national literacy movement of teachers and students who are dedicated to promoting a love of reading; empowering young people; and expanding access to culturally diverse and relevant literature. Jarred Amato, a Nashville high school teacher, founded Project LIT in 2016 to help eliminate “book deserts” – areas with limited access to books that celebrate diverse languages and cultures. The movement has spread nationwide, with more than 1,700 chapters.

AMD English teacher Elizabeth Blye said she had considered starting a Project LIT chapter for a while. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests against police brutality in 2020, the timing was right this year.

“I did not know how the kids were going to be, how the kids were going to respond to this and how I was going to respond to this emotionally, and starting this club has probably been my single best decision,” she said.

The seven students in grades 7 and 8 who are in Project LIT – part of AMD’s STAR afterschool enrichment program – have been meeting virtually on Thursday evenings. Three more students – two sixth-graders and one seventh-grader – joined Project LIT in March.

Blye said her goal is to expand the club each year, fundraise for a book vending machine at AMD with Project LIT titles, and invite parents and other students to “share our collective love of culturally relevant and inspirational books with the school to increase positive literacy experiences and promote awareness of important issues that the books bring out.”

The club’s goals parallel those of the school district, which prioritizes achieving education equity and expanding culturally diverse literature collections.

“Ossining is really diving into equity and inclusivity, and parents are more open to it for their kids because they recognize that their kids need anti-racist, anti-bias, inclusive books,” Ms. Blye said.

Seventh-grader Owen Brennen became interested in reading about racism after police killed George Floyd last May. “When that happened, I wanted to research it. It was kind of like a passion project for me, so I started reading books about it,” he said.

He exchanged books over the summer with Ms. Blye, who was his school librarian in fifth grade, and that was in part how she knew it was time to launch Project LIT.

Kids can have a positive impact by sharing what they learn through reading “to let people know, not what is right and wrong, but educate them about certain topics like racism or LGBTQ+ to kind of broaden their education on current events and different topics.”

There are more than 20 middle-grade and 20 young-adult Project LIT titles each year, based on voting and surveys of leaders and students. Ms. Blye works with the nonprofit First Book to acquire the books.

One of the books the AMD group read was Janae Marks’ “From the Desk of Zoe Washington,” about a girl whose biological father is in prison for a crime he did not commit. It introduces middle-schoolers to the issue of mass incarceration of Black men in the United States and efforts to exonerate wrongly convicted prisoners, seventh-grader Mia Uzcategui-Dommar said.

The AMD chapter members recently took part in a virtual visit with the Connecticut-based author. Another chapter had organized the event and invited Project LIT clubs.

The group also read Jerry Craft’s “Class Act,” about a student of color’s experiences in a prestigious private school.

“Why I like Project LIT is because I really love reading books and I also love talking about the books I’m reading with other people who read the same books as me,” said seventh-grader Carter Simkins.

Club members do not have to read or discuss anything that makes them uncomfortable. “You can talk about whatever you want to talk about the book to your personal boundaries,” Carter said. “It’s really up to you.”

Eighth-graders Kimberly Huanga and Anna Bomwell also love reading and discussing books. “One of the things that I like about Project LIT is it kind of gets me to read books that I wouldn’t normally read on my own time,” Anna said.

Kimberly said both books helped her understand people’s experiences that are different from her own. “I never read those type of books and I feel like I got really interested in those books afterwards,” she said.

Seventh-grader Gavin King said he likes arguing and debating topics, and the club is a great forum for that. Jeremy Zhina, who is in seventh grade, is also a member of the club. Sixth-graders Shanzay Khan and Kiera Bisnauth, along with seventh-grader Maddie Bisnauth, joined the club in March.

With all that happened in 2020, Mia sees 2021 as a year “where we can take action” in terms of combatting racism, anti-Semitism and other societal problems. “It’s deciding if we’re going to ignore it or if we’re going to face an unknown,” she said.