Voices Students - Hope for the Future

2025 has been the epitome of a challenging year. Looking at the world around us, it is easy to feel like things are hopeless. The enshrined laws designed to protect our civil rights and liberties are being ignored and broken each day by our elected officials. Our own students, at their young age, have directly faced institutionalized cruelty and lack of humanity as they are targeted by pernicious policies that threaten their future. It is easy to feel hopeless right now.

And yet, in spite of it all, there is hope. Our students are the embodiment of hope and we need your donations to support them.

For the students that we work with at Voices of a People’s History, the struggle is often felt at a very deep level. As teenagers, they don’t yet have a say in the policies that will shape their future and they aren’t in control of the curriculum in their schools. They are still figuring out who to trust, what institutions have their backs, and where they can start to make a difference. This is where our work comes into play.

Since 2014, Voices has held space inside New York City schools with middle and high schoolers across the area. The program began as supplemental work integrated into an AP U.S. Government course. Then, as with so many things, the pandemic changed our work. When in-person instruction resumed following the Covid-19 lockdowns, our students had changed dramatically and our program needed to shift to meet that new reality. Not only did we have more schools on our docket, but we soon discovered that our curriculum should not be a one-size-fits-all model. We created a bespoke version of the curriculum for each school that met the specific needs of their students. The result has been a program that realizes the mission of Voices and Howard Zinn’s legacy more than ever—a people’s history should be accessible to every person.

Regardless of the state of the world around us, a few features are always present in the classroom:

The power of the first-person narrative rings through time. By reading Voices, both to themselves and with each other, students bridge the past to the present with genuine empathy serving as the connection to long-standing fights for freedom.

The themes are universal. Whether speaking up for their peers in the schoolyard or against a bully in public office, our students heed the lessons learned from changemakers of the past. They leave our classroom with a greater desire to resist oppression wherever they see it, no matter how small.

The students know what is important to them. Through our work with them, students develop oratory skills, internal confidence, and a personal compass for social justice to stand up for the future that they hope to achieve in their communities.

As we wrap up this chaotic calendar year, and sit in the middle of a turbulent academic year, we ask you to help us continue to support students and educators as they navigate the challenges ahead. With education cuts, book bans, and failing leadership, educators are looking for new ways to connect with and inspire students. With your help, we seek to do two primary things:

Reach more schools and students in and around New York City. We have worked with over 500 students and have a current roster of five partner schools. But we know the need spans far beyond our current reach!

Develop our archival materials into a program that we can easily disseminate to educators across the country. They are asking for help and we want to deliver.

Thank you for being a part of the Voices community and for joining us at Lincoln Center over the years for the students’ final showcase. Your support is crucial to continuing to keep Voices in the classrooms of our communities.

Please take a moment to give what you can and support us in continuing to inspire the next generation of changemakers. When equipped with the right tools— empathy, self-empowerment, and a commitment to justice and equality—these young people will, at last, right the wrongs of our past.

In solidarity,

Anna Strout and Shade Adeyemo

Voices Education Staff and Classroom Teaching Artists

“Being a part of Voices gave me an outlet to express the passion I have inside as a teen from NYC. In America, individuals similar to me were oppressed just for exercising their 1st Amendment rights. Silence does nothing but encourage the problem in America. As the next generation, Voices opened my eyes and encouraged me to speak for what is just.”

— Briana, Maxine Greene High School '20