"How It Feels to Be Colored Me" Ideas

As it is the end of the year, I wanted to make sure that my students have exposure to writing by women, people of color, etc. We spent a little time on the Harlem Renaissance, and one of the pieces that is in our book is "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" by Zora Neale Hurston. I love this essay because she is so positive in it, despite the obvious discriminations she experienced from being a black woman in the 1920s. Anyway, after reading the essay, I had my students watch this TED talk, and then we all wrote a positive experience journal. It was kind of fun to get upbeat for a while, because so much of what we read in English is, let's face it, a bit of a downer.