Every Person Is a Philosopher

William Ayers is former Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of several books including Teaching Toward Freedom and Public Enemy. Caroline Heller is a professor at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she also directs the PhD Program in Educational Studies (Individually Designed Specialization). She is the author of Until We Are Strong Together and Reading Claudius: A Memoir in Two Parts. Janise Hurtig is co-director of the PRAIRIE Group at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she directs the Community Writing Project. She is the author of Coming of Age in Times of Crisis: Youth, Schooling, and Patriarchy in a Venezuelan Town and co-editor of Gender’s Place: Feminist Anthropologies of Latin America.

«This wonderfully humane and instructive book pays tribute to Hal Adams, a community educator with a deep belief in the ability of common folk, and also pays tribute – beautiful tribute – to the writers themselves, poor people of color who arise from these pages in their eloquence and agency.»(Mike Rose, author of Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education)«Hal Adams is a sovereign soul. From the testaments offered in this volume, his words and actions continue to grow in the hearts of all who had the pleasure of knowing him. Through an undying commitment to the idea that everyday folks are often the greatest doers and thinkers, he will forever live in my heart as one of the best examples of a quiet, reflective warrior for justice.» (David Stovall, Professor of African American Studies and Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago)«If ‘every person is a philosopher,’ then Hal Adams was a midwife for bringing forth generations of everyday wisdom. This gathering of essays, written as if huddled at a wooden coffee table, reveals the sweet music of people and communities becoming, writing, imagining, revolting, hesitating, trying on selves, and sometimes moving to action. The words on the page embody the soft, generous spirit of Adams as he channeled the souls of Freire, Gramsci, Du Bois, C.L.R. James, and also homeless adults, rap musicians, and Somali immigrants whose names we don’t know. Hal carved small spaces where everyday people could gather to write on ordinary thought, real conditions, what has been, what is, and what must be. He asked his comrades to see themselves as writers as he invites those of us who remain, yet, to re-fashion ourselves as humble architects of the next generation of spaces, where hesitant voices and drafty writings meet politics, human (in)securities, and humor, to create a tomorrow not yet.» (Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor, CUNY Graduate Center)

• Contents: Bill Ayers/Caroline Heller/Janise Hurtig: Introduction: Hal Adams’ pedagogy of ordinary thought: Planting the seeds of change – Hal Adams: A Brief Biographical Sketch – Hal Adams: A grassroots think-tank: Linking writing and community-building (reprinted from Democracy and Education) – Elsa Auerbach with Jorge Garcia, Brenda Gonzales, Rebecca Kilgallon, Tamzin Partridge, and Ann Rettman: Ordinary thoughts, whispers of revolutionary thinking – Janise Hurtig: The praxis of sharing and the dialectics of small group writing – Stephen Mogge/Kate Power: Showing up: Writing, reading and cross-cultural awareness in community literacy work – Caroline Heller: Evidence of things unseen – Christine Tarkowski: Itinerary with Hal – Anne Carlson/Michael Staudenmaier: Philosophers in La Casita: Hal Adams’ politics in theory and practice - Janet Isserlis: Listen to me, listen to us: lives made better – Peter Kahn: Making the ordinary extraordinary: Youth writing, publishing and performing poetry – Annie Knepler: Goldfish in the river: Stories capturing moments in time – Hal Adams: Writing and changing together: Reflections on writing workshops in Chicago neighborhoods.