BY TALEEF FALLS, GUEST WRITER TO THE TIMES
ORLANDO — This year, Florida’s Department of Education banned an Advanced Placement course on African American studies. The state also implemented new laws that subsequently led to local school districts banning more than 300 books. Poet, author, and historian Valada Flewellyn began asking why teaching African American history is an issue. As a result, she created an initiative, Puzzled Peace, designed to call attention to the removal of the coursework and to encourage opportunities to connect with others. The puzzle, a metaphor for connectivity, reminds us of the ability to come together and the value of the individual in outcomes that affect issues in a community.
The Puzzled Peace Reception will be held on Sunday, September 29, 2024, at 2:30 pm at the Winter Park Community Center (721 W. New England Ave., Winter Park, FL, 32789). At this symbolic ceremony, an expression of our community’s collective concern about this issue, a representative from various organizations will place a puzzle piece into the community puzzle.
The event will also feature local artists who have artistically expressed their concern over this issue. Exhibits displaying their art will pop up at various locations. At the reception, there will also be a celebration of the founding of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the founders of Black History Month. The ASALH theme for 2024 is “African Americans and the Arts.”
Puzzles were given to individuals, families, businesses, and organizations. The project has been displayed at Mt. Olive AME Church (Orlando) and the Central Florida Zoo (Sanford). It is currently on exhibit at the Winter Park Library. Future exhibits are also planned for the following venues: Eatonville—Cheyenne (Franklin Property), Eatonville Library, and Eatonville Town Hall; Longwood—Dare Books; Orlando—Girl Scouts of Citrus and the Wells’ Built Museum of African American History & Culture; and Winter Park—Hannibal Square Heritage Center and Winter Park Library Center.
The response to Puzzled Peace has been heartwarming. Families came together around the puzzle table. One mother commented how wonderful it was to talk to her children without them being distracted by their cell phones. “We were all engrossed in the puzzle, doing something together without technological interruption. We were happy to see what we had accomplished together.” Additionally, elders at Hope Presbyterian Church at Lake Nona, employees at the Eatonville Library and Eatonville Town Hall, and members of the Washington Shores Presbyterian Church have completed puzzles. A few people were so proud of their puzzles that they famed them.
Most agree that taking African American History out of our public schools and colleges is a puzzling issue. History should leave no story out. Asked when the Puzzled Peace exhibits would stop popping up, Mrs. Flewellyn responded, “When teaching African American History in Florida Schools is no longer an issue.”
For more information, go to the Puzzled Peace website at www.puzzledpeace.weebly.com.
