Reimagining Tupac's Rose in Concrete as an ELA Unit

Room for Antiracist Inquiry: An Example Unit

This summer, I had the privilege to work for the Upward Bound programs at both Nebraska Methodist College and Creighton University. These programs are designed to enrich the academic experience of students that will be the first in their families to attend a college/university and live below the federal poverty line. These programs both nurture and challenge students. For the literature course I taught for each program this summer, I attempted to reimagine Tupac Shakur's famous "The Rose That Grew from Concrete" poem and position it as an antiracist lens of study. 

Students started by reading the poem from Shakur, discussing metaphors and interpreting the poem's significance. Next, I wanted to challenge students to see the metaphor's application to today's society and further understand the struggles facing communities of color today. To help students interpret the "concrete" mentioned in Tupac's poem (namely the community and society obstacles designed to impede black success), students read Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds. This book is a "remix" of Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning, and it aims to share the history of racist ideas in America on a level accessible for teens. 

"We can't attack a thing we don't know. [Racism.] That's dangerous. And ... foolish. It would be like trying to chop down a tree from the top of it. If we understand how the tree works, how the trunk and roots are where the power lives, and how gravity is one our side, we can attack it, each of us with small axes, and change the face of the forest. So let's learn all there is to know about the tree of racism. The root. The fruit. The sap and trunk. The nests built over time, the changing leaves. That way, your generation can finally, actively chop it down." (Reynolds)

This challenging nonfiction text shares the history of racist ideas, from 1415 - present. It does so with a narrative style that clear and understandable, yet lighthearted as much as emotionally challenging. Students kept a reading journal throughout their experience, participated in small group discussions, and constructed timelines of key events. This helped them learn more about the concrete roses must resist and overcome in order to grow. 

Next, students picked one of three fiction options by Angie Thomas: The Hate U Give, On the Come Up, and Concrete Rose. In small literature circles, they read their fiction selection with the lens of history presented in Reynold's book. What racist ideas were these characters trying to overcome? The goal: to provide students with an inquiry opportunity to see the concrete in "real life" and understand the struggle each and every rose must take to grow where society fails to nourish.

The synthesis of these three texts (a poetry anthology, a nonfiction text, and a fiction text) was a challenging task. To demonstrate their learning, students were asked to create their own interpretation of a project that represented the connections between the texts. They were given a trifold poster board and complete freedom to create whatever project represented their antiracist understandings as a result of their work. 

Ultimately, I am very pleased with the outcome of this unit. Students engaged in difficult conversations, journaled about their emotional reactions to the texts, and made connections between what they see in their daily life to what has been happening in this country for centuries. They were engaged and invested, and all I had to do was continue to provide a safe space for them to conduct their inquiry. I hope to continue this unit in the future, and perhaps I will post a unit plan for use by those interested in recreating this work in their classroom.