As District leaders mull how best to respond to mass youth gatherings in commercial areas, at least one young person has found solace in Grounded, one of Anacostia’s newest offerings.
“It’s honestly amazing,” Sebastian Frederick, a student at Anacostia High School in Southeast, told The Informer. “They serve coffee, matcha, boba, and stuff like that. When we went, we did yoga. It’s important to get away from industrialization and move towards connecting with yourself.”
Earlier this school year, Sebastian and his classmates spent hours at Grounded, an all-in-one plant shop, cafe and wellness enclave on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE.
Developing America’s Workforce Nucleus (DAWN) coordinated the field trip. This University of the District of Columbia (UDC) program, in collaboration with Nature-Wise, D.C. Public Schools and Anacostia High School, is helping students explore career opportunities and connect with nature.
Caroline Brewer, founder of Nature-Wise, a program that engages young people through literacy and outdoor exploration, said DAWN can serve as a model of what the District can do for young people on a grander scale.
“Children are hungry for these opportunities…to learn, to grow, to identify as people who are capable of doing great things,” Brewer told The Informer. “They will take advantage of opportunities that are offered to them to do things that are different, that are meaningful, that allow them to connect with nature and with the best of who they are.”
Students’ excursions to Grounded and other sights across the D.C. metropolitan area recently culminated in the release of “From Anacostia with Love: An Ecological Journey.” Sebastian— one of 12 students who contributed to this collection of poems, essays, and reports— said he wrote the pieces “What you don’t know about nature and me,” and “I’m Like a Meteor Shower” after tapping into the depths of his consciousness through a writing process facilitated by Nature-Wise.
“First, we had to do our creative thoughts…, then we would do a one-on-one revision with Miss Caroline [Brewer], then we would edit,” Sebastian told The Informer in March. “Then we’ll take another day and then we’ll edit again. We did final revisions [last month] since we did that in the summertime. We sat down with Miss Caroline and did the same thing over.”
Since joining DAWN last summer, Sebastian and his classmates have also taken trips to Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Northeast, Oxon Run Park in Southeast, Roosevelt Island, and the Library of Congress. They also visited Mt. Pleasant Acres Farm, the ancestral home of Harriet Tubman in Eastern Shore, Maryland, where they learned African-American history and the basics of horticulture.
Through it all, Sebastian kept his late grandmother at the forefront of his mind.
“When my grandmother died in the ninth grade, it was always troubling my mind,” he explained. “This experience taught me that some things have to die in order for new things to grow. I just learned that and I carried that with me. It made me want to speak about how I grew as a person from being so depressed and to finding calmness and peace.”
Nature-Wise’s Lead Instructor Demands More Creativity From City Officials
During its March 31 legislative meeting, the D.C. Council approved a motion to postpone its vote on an extension of what’s been referred to as the emergency juvenile curfew.
That vote will now take place, most likely, on April 21, upon District public and public charter students’ return from spring break.
The emergency juvenile curfew law, first approved last August and extended by the council later that fall, has allowed the Metropolitan Police Department to establish curfew zones where young people under the age of 18 are prohibited from gathering in groups of more than nine. During Easter weekend, the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) hosted a late-night event at King-Greenleaf Recreation Center, where young people were involved in altercations.
Shortly before DPR rolled out its spring break programming, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) called on the council to make the emergency juvenile curfew permanent. Some people, such as Brewer, however, say that more must be done to channel the youth’s energy.
“We know from so much history in this country that punishing young people for being teenagers does not help us as a society,” Brewer said. “When we invest in their intellectual, social and emotional growth and development, it is a lot less expensive than the punitive measures.”
Brewer’s relationship with DAWN started during the summer of 2023 when DAWN’s deputy director Xavier Brown invited her to conduct a presentation for the Anacostia High School students. She’s since stayed on as a lead instructor, utilizing a curriculum that connects environmentalism and literacy to help students better appreciate nature and find their voice as writers.
Part of that process, Brewer said, involves creating positive experiences in spaces and places not too far from their school, including Grounded and Anacostia Neighborhood Library.
“These young people are very excited to see institutions, organizations, businesses in Southeast D.C. that support their growth and development,” Brewer told The Informer. “A lot of the nature spaces are not far from where they live and from the high school. They were very happy to discover these places, to discover what they had to offer, to be able to interpret it for the readers of the book.”
On the morning of March 6, dozens of teachers, staff, students, and community members gathered in the library at Anacostia High School to celebrate the release of “From Anacostia with Love: An Ecological Journey.”
After opening remarks from Brewer, Brown, Anacostia principal Kenneth Walker, and DAWN founder and former UDC president Dr. Ronald Mason, some of the student authors read their works from the anthology. All of the young authors later appeared before the audience to read “Sensing the Anacostia Courtyard,” a poem that came together on school grounds when each of them made observations about their surroundings.
“It was one of those poems where everybody went into the courtyard…to just write down what they saw, what they tasted,” Brewer told The Informer. “It just so happened that there was an apple tree and a fig tree in the courtyard. We took one line from each person’s observations and we created that poem called a found poem.”
Other portions of “From Anacostia with Love: An Ecological Journey” are inspired by students’ experiences at Mt. Pleasant Acres Farm and on the Little Patuxent River in Laurel Maryland where they went kayaking.
“These are writing experiences that the students have generally not had,” Brewer told The Informer. “Being able to write in different ways, different genres and different formats helps to build their confidence, not only about writing, but about expressing themselves. It’s beautiful to see them blossom into more confident writers and readers and storytellers.”
Young People Reflect on Their Time Outdoors
Other works produced throughout DAWN’s existence include “Through My Anacostia Eyes: Environmental Problems and Possibilities,”which was published during the fall of 2023. Under Brewer’s direction, students become authors while learning about Black contributions to environmentalism, as well as the pollution afflicting Ivy City and the Anacostia River.
For NaQuan Shepherd, DAWN was the ideal program for a young person, like himself, who’s loved nature from a young age.
“Being outside, that’s where you can learn the most and have fun,” said NaQuan, a senior at Anacostia High School. “You can also have your fun on your devices, but I feel like when you’re outdoors, it’s not as artificial. You’re actually out there experiencing what you were meant to experience.”
NaQuan’s essay, “Nature and Me,” chronicles a connection to the outdoors that started as early as elementary school during recess. In his written work, NaQuan spoke about how his appreciation for nature grew, even with the changing of the seasons.
As NaQuan explained, DAWN helped him delve into career pathways for people of his ilk, including organic farming, hydroponics, and electric fishing.
“We spent a lot of time outdoors,” NaQuan said. “I challenged myself to not be on my devices at all during these trips. I was very connected with the activities. We went to a few places, and we worked on a farm for a little bit. It was very engaging.”
Anacostia student La’Georgia Callaham told The Informer that putting her words on paper opened her up to the world.
“It’s bittersweet,” said Callaham, an 18-year-old senior at Anacostia High School. “I’m still a little shy about it and I’m still learning more about it. I finished it through all the challenges, so it feels great.”
Callaham counts overcoming family challenges and developing positive traits among her greatest life accomplishments. As she works to maintain consistent school attendance, Callaham, an aspiring attorney, sees her involvement in DAWN as a step in the right direction.
For her, nature has become another source of stability during uncertain times.
“I didn’t know that I would have this type of connection with nature and I would learn certain stuff,” La’Georgia said. “Clearly I can put it on my resume. It’s another thing that I can say I did. That’ll help me further my career.”
