Forty one years ago, a teacher in Oakland, California had an idea that he thought would lift up both the voices of social activists and his own students: a festival of memorized oratory timed to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life's work. He called it an Oratorical Festival and a tradition was born. Fast forward a 28 years to a school gym in Oakland where a sixth grader named Isabel Klein recited excerpts of a 1995 speech by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, declaring with great passion that "women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights". In the audience that day was Isabel's mother who was so excited by what she saw that she started an Oratorical Festival at the school where she taught. And when Isabel's mother -- Blue School fifth grade teacher, Carrie Klein -- moved to New York City five years ago, she partnered with sixth grade Novels and Nonfiction teacher Amy Zolla to bring the Oratorical Festival to Blue School. A new tradition was born.

This year marks the fifth annual Blue School Oratorical Festival. Now coordinated by Carrie, Amy, and librarian Laura Winnick, the Oratorical Festival has grown and changed a bit over the years but one thing has remained constant: the opportunity to lift up the voices of social activists and our own students. Every class from fourth through eighth grade presents a piece and several dozen students in fifth through eighth grade go one step further and memorize a second piece to present individually. Those students have been meeting weekly since Halloween to choose, analyze, memorize, and practice their pieces.

Maya Angelou, Frederick Douglass, Coretta Scott King, Barack Obama, Lyndon Johnson, Barbara Jordan, and Langston Hughes are just a few of the people whose words have found new life and a new audience in the past thanks to both individual and class performances. Last year's festival even included a spoken-word performance of Lin-Manuel Miranda's "My Shot" from the play Hamilton!"

The function of freedom," the late Toni Morrison told Barnard College graduates at their 1979 commencement, "is to free someone else." In that spirit, we invite you to come be part of this tradition by attending the fifth annual Blue School Oratorical Festival. Featuring excerpts of speeches, poems, and essays by a diverse range of activists and leaders including WEB DuBois, Sojourner Truth, Nikki Giovanni, Michelle Obama, Sylvia Earle and Greta Thunberg, the Oratorical Festival will include both class and individual presentations as well as a Blue School staff tribute to Toni Morrison.

Carrie Klein

5th grade teacher