By Jolie Robinson

With over 20 workshops and 2 guest facilitators, RCDS’ Martin Luther King Jr. Day touched and educated many of our Upper School students. The workshops offered ranged from AI to sports, dance, music, and psychology. The keynote speaker was Mr. Iain Haley Pollock, an author and poet, who has received several honors for his work, most recently the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award for his work Danse Printemps et Quarantaine. After leaving RCDS in 2022 as the Head of the English Department, he is now the director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Manhattanville University in Purchase, New York. 

Mr. Pollock returned for the day to share his poetry, highlighting Black excellence and the experiences of a mixed-race American. He also taught Writing Toward Justice: A Seminar & Poetry Writing Workshop with the Keynote Poet Iain Haley Pollock. Pollock reflects on his time at Rye Country Day as “an important moment when English teachers at the school and nationally were reckoning with…the body of literature seen as most important and how to reformulate it for the 21st century”. When asked about the most touching part of the day for him, the poet mentioned “having the chance to sit down and talk with Maleah [Dunkley ‘27] and Dana [Dacosta ‘26]…their thoughtfulness allowed me to talk about poetry in more interesting and substantial ways than I would have if I had been alone up there on the PAC stage”. Within his workshop and seminar Pollock used “Poetry [to] allow…space to process what we find most difficult in life…what has been most painful, what has upset us most, what we find unfair or unjust” to teach students about the importance of the arts and language for social justice.

In the Lower and Middle School, RCDS welcomed back another former teacher and author, Ms. Aundrea Tabbs-Smith. Ms. Tabbs-Smith gave presentations and readings to the children, spotlighting courage and Dr. King’s positive impact. The Lower Schoolers read lines from miscellaneous picture books, demonstrating the power of words to support self-confidence and courage. The presentation ended with the entire division singing “Give Light,” a common song among the Lower School music program. In the Middle School, Tabbs-Smith read a chapter from her own book For the Quiet Black Girl. This book “speaks to anyone who feels like they don’t belong. It speaks to anyone who has experienced something traumatic that has shifted how he or she feels about himself or herself,” she says in an interview with magazine/newspaper Être.

The following day, students, families, faculty, and staff came back to school for the MLK Day of Social Impact. Winter care packages, along with greeting cards, were assembled for the Building One Community (B1C) immigrant resource center in Stamford. B1C describes its mission to be “to advance the successful integration of immigrants and their families. Our vision is one welcoming community in which all immigrants are thriving and contributing members”. This is seen in all of Dr. King’s work, so working with B1C helps us to honor his life and legacy. Sonali Narain ‘29 states, “The most meaningful part of the day…was decorating the bags and picking out items to put in them, knowing that it was going to bring somebody joy. It felt rewarding to do something creative that could make a difference in other people’s lives.”

Following the Day of Social Impact, the RCDS Parents Association’s Community Connections (RCC) Committee partnered with the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to host an RCC Lunch & Dialogue. This was focused on courage, the school’s theme. Led by Mr. Dan Murray, Director of Global Studies, the event brought parents and community members together to talk about how compassion and hopeful courage show up in our families and strengthen our school community. Participants shared their thoughts on how these qualities guide children as they navigate the challenges of an ever-changing world. The event was a meaningful opportunity to connect, reflect, and inspire each other with stories of courage in everyday life.

In line with the school’s theme of courage, these three experiences have profoundly impacted our community, from all three divisions to parents. Many have gained insights into the Black experience and learned how to advocate for others and stand up for important causes.