LELA House

Author: Roshaunda D. Cade, Ph.D.

  • Cultural Custodian

    Cultural Custodian

    Hello!

    How are you? I pray you’re well.

    I’m doing fine and dandy, thank you very much.

    Last time I wrote, I mentioned I’ve come to consider myself a cultural custodian for black women, and I promised I’d elaborate on that idea.

    Lately I’ve pondered a lot about my career, and what I love to do, and what I love to read, and who I like to serve, and so many things pointed to black women. I’m a black woman, and I love that. I love my skin and my hair and my culture. I’ve even learned to love things like having to work harder for half as much and consistently being underestimated when I walk into a room. I don’t love that those things are reality; rather, I love that through them I’ve learned strength and compassion.

    I seek out and surround myself with black women. I read books by and about black women, particularly historical black women. I care about what concerns us. And through LELA House, I find my work connects to protecting our hearts, expanding our joy, and highlighting our voices.

    All of this led me to consider myself a cultural custodian of black women. Obviously I looked up many definitions and connotations of cultural, custodian, and cultural custodian. Who would I be if I didn’t look up definitions? 🙂

    Many definitions included the ideas of preserving, maintaining, safeguarding, and promoting the traditions, practices, values, and narratives of a culture. I find all of those ideas valuable and accurate as they relate to my work at LELA House. Through book coaching, writing coaching, and self-care services, I do, indeed, strive to preserve, maintain, safeguard, and promote the traditions, practices, values, and narratives of black women. One definition of cultural custodian, from “The Custodian: Introduction: The Custodian and the Significance of Art Preservation” in the November 13, 2023 issue of Selections Magazine, added some nuance that particularly struck a chord with me.

    “In the world of art, the custodian plays a pivotal role in the protection, curation, and promotion of artworks and collections. Whether an individual or an institution, custodians shoulder the responsibility of ensuring that these artistic expressions remain intact for future generations. Their role extends beyond mere preservation; it encompasses a commitment to making art accessible, fostering an understanding of its historical and cultural context, and supporting the broader appreciation of artistic endeavors.”

    Resonating the most with me is the idea of black women ourselves, not solely the creative works we produce, as art. My take on the quotation becomes the following.

    In the world of black women as masterpieces, the custodian plays a pivotal role in the protection, curation, and promotion of individual black women and us as a collective. Whether an individual or an institution, custodians shoulder the responsibility of ensuring that black women’s narratives remain intact for future generations. Their role extends beyond mere preservation; it encompasses a commitment to making black women’s stories accessible, fostering an understanding of their historical and cultural context, and supporting the broader appreciation of black women, our experiences, and our creative expression.

    And yes, that is work I want to do.

    Why do I care so much about our stories from the long US 19th Century and supporting those who tell them? Because mere preservation isn’t enough; our stories must be accessible to foster an understanding of our historical and cultural context. Why do I care about our stories from other historical eras and supporting those who share them? Because our narratives must remain intact for future generations. Why do I care about our joy and well-being and supporting black women as we incorporate these things into our lives? Because we must support the broader appreciation of black women, our experiences, and our creative expression. Why do I consider myself a cultural custodian for black women? Because we are masterpieces who must be protected and promoted as individuals and as a collective, and God created me to serve in that role.

    God has been leading me to work as a cultural custodian for black women for my entire life. From my high school acts of civil disobedience to pledging my sorority to adventuring with my mother, to being outraged at discrimination in a library, I’ve spent 30+ years serving as a cultural custodian for black women without knowing that was what I was doing.

    But I know now. Let’s see where God will take me.

    Until next time!

  • The Mission Doesn’t Have to be Final

    The Mission Doesn’t Have to be Final

    US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon plans to shutter the US Department of Education and is calling it the department’s “Final Mission.” This mission, per McMahon, will adhere to three convictions.

    1. Parents are the primary decision makers in their children’s education. 
    2. Taxpayer-funded education should refocus on meaningful learning in math, reading, science, and history—not divisive DEI programs and gender ideology. 
    3. Postsecondary education should be a path to a well-paying career aligned with workforce needs.1

    I have so many thoughts.

    The first is that generally, I agree. I say that with great hesitation, however, because I know how I understand the three convictions is likely not how she understands the convictions. Nor is how I would apply the three convictions how she would apply them. That is evident to me by the simple fact that, to me, applying these convictions would leave the US Department of Education not only intact, but also more robust. Enacting and maintaining these convictions for every learner in every family in the country requires great work of a large scope – the kind of scope that necessitates a US Department of Education. 

    1. “Parents are the primary decision makers in their children’s education.” I agree with that. Generally speaking, parents and guardians are the primary decision makers in their school-aged children’s lives. That doesn’t mean, however, that all parents and guardians are good decision makers. Nor do most parents and guardians have adequate information to make all educational decisions for their children. Hear me out. I’m not saying we should remove parents and guardians from their children’s education – not at all. Had someone tried to remove me from my children’s education, I would have unleashed an apocalyptic level of fury. What I am saying is that all parents and guardians haven’t dedicated their lives to the art and science of education, nor have they mastered the various subjects taught at school. Parents and guardians need support and help. It truly does take a village to raise a child. A community of input in educational decision making benefits our children, our communities,  and our society. Parents and guardians have the final word on their children, but they don’t have the final word on all the children in their communities; nor are they the only voices that should be heard.

    Parents and guardians being primary decision makers should not result in public funding for education being shuttled to private schools. It shouldn’t mean children with disabilities or from low income environments or who are unhoused or who don’t have parents or guardians or whose primary home language isn’t English no longer receive services vital to their educational access. It should not determine that only a male centric, white-washed curriculum be the version of education our children receive. Parents and guardians as primary decision makers should not embolden a return to de facto segregation. 

    2. “Taxpayer-funded education should refocus on meaningful learning in math, reading, science, and history—not divisive DEI programs and gender ideology.” I agree with this up to the dash. Generally speaking, education should focus on meaningful learning in important subjects, of which math, reading, science, and history are central. I’m not so sure how I feel about the word “refocus,” but other than that, the first part of the sentence is solid. If, as a society, we actually focused on “meaningful learning,” diversity, equity, and inclusion of people of various races, ethnicities, abilities, genders, languages, cultures, and on and on would be included in the lessons taught and the foundations represented. Because we ignore the historical fact that people who are not white, male, cisgender, and heterosexual have always participated in all fields, subjects, careers, and histories, we omit them in much of what we teach. Because we don’t include representation of people who don’t align with the aforementioned categories, we need DEI. The intent of DEI is not divisiveness. It becomes divisive when people’s perceptions do not align with the truths being shared.

    “Meaningful learning in math, reading, science, and history” should include more than a brief mention of the same historical figures over and over. It should include more than a nod to the various months of the year earmarked for community representation. “Meaningful learning in math, reading, science, and history” should include all of the people who have made possible the math, reading, science, and history that we teach.

    3. “Postsecondary education should be a path to a well-paying career aligned with workforce needs.” I agree, but postsecondary education should be so much more than merely an avenue toward employment. I definitely want everyone to be able to work in a well-paying career doing something they love and something that is meaningful to their community. I bristle a little, however, at the idea of aligning postsecondary education with “workforce needs.” I get it. We want people to be able to complete their postsecondary education and find a job that will use what they learned. But the needs of the workforce change rapidly, and in order to provide high-quality education, postsecondary institutions cannot and should not change per the whims of workforce needs. 

    Rather, let’s teach people how to discover their strengths, how to lean into those strengths, how to learn, how to innovate, how to create, how to research, how to make mental connections between disparate ideas, how to view themselves as part of a larger whole with rich histories to draw upon, how to care about the people around them and the planet they occupy, how to serve others, how to achieve mastery, how to think like a person in their field, and how to think divergently. When we equip learners in such a way, they will be prepared to enter careers and flexible enough to align with workforce needs. Plus they will have more empathy and connectedness to their communities, our society, and the world.

    McMahon’s “Final Mission” seems positioned like the upcoming Mission: Impossible movie, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. I would like to see, instead, a move toward something more like a Star Trek movie with a “continuing mission . . . to boldly go where no one has gone before.”  US education needs an overhaul, yes, but let’s do it together for the good of everyone.

    1.  Linda McMahon. “Our Department’s Final Mission.” https://www.ed.gov/about/news/speech/secretary-mcmahon-our-departments-final-mission
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  • Reading with Roshaunda is Moving to Substack

    Reading with Roshaunda is Moving to Substack

    As you know, I do recorded readings of 19th Century US literature by and/or about black people. I’ve started to do those readings on Substack.

    I decided I wanted a space to explore all of my 19th Century literature ideas in one place, and I didn’t think that place was LELA House. I think it’s LELA House adjacent, but it’s separate enough that I thought I’d try a different platform.

    So on my Substack, you will find my recorded readings, and you’ll also find my musings. I talk a lot in my videos about ideas I have, so now I’m writing about some of those ideas on Substack.

    Please head over to Substack to check it out and sign up to receive all my new posts.

  • THRIVE Community

    THRIVE Community

    I’m building THRIVE Community to support black women in higher education, particularly those who live in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

    With all of the changes under the new Trump administration, I’m concerned about – well, a lot of things, to be honest. The takeovers, the proposed eradication of the Department of Education, the erasures of history, the attack on the arts, the redaction of DEI, and on and on. Honestly, it’s exhausting. And disheartening.

    So I’m ecstatic that I serve a God who is Sovereign and in control and able to handle whatever comes our way!

    As I’ve been thinking and praying about all the things, my heart keeps circling back to black women in higher education. Higher education is a difficult space to exist in as a woman. And even more difficult as a black woman. Add in all of the things happening in the US right now, and we get a concoction primed to take out all the black women fighting the good fight in higher education.

    I may not be able to do everything, but I am able to do something, and the something I can do is provide a place where black women in higher education can create, encourage, hold, and demand space for our own creativity, joy, and rest.

    So I’m creating THRIVE Community. It’s a work in progress, and we need your help.

    Please check out the link to learn more about THRIVE Community, and if you would like to join our new community, just fill out the Google form you’ll find near the bottom of the THRIVE Community page.

    If you like what you find, please share THRIVE Community with others.

    Here’s to THRIVE-ing!

  • The Escape by William Wells Brown, Act 1, Scenes 3-4

    The Escape by William Wells Brown, Act 1, Scenes 3-4

    I have a Youtube playlist where I read aloud from 19th Century American literary texts, and I thought I’d share those here. In addition to reading the texts, I add my own commentary and analysis. I hope you enjoy them.

  • The Escape by William Wells Brown, Act 1, Scenes 1-3

    The Escape by William Wells Brown, Act 1, Scenes 1-3

    I have a Youtube playlist where I read aloud from 19th Century American literary texts, and I thought I’d share those here. In addition to reading the texts, I add my own commentary and analysis. I hope you enjoy them.