​The story beneath the story

This film follows Calvert Colored School (W.D. Spigner School) and the people who refused to let Black educational memory—and Black educational possibility—be erased.​
​Beyond the Schoolyard is not only about a building. It’s about how Black communities build schools, build teachers, build protection, and build futures—even when institutions do not. It asks what education becomes when a community treats learning as stewardship: something you maintain, defend, and pass on.

​Trailer

SYNOPSIS

Through in-depth interviews with alumni like valedictorian-turned-teacher Mrs. Curnell and counselor/butician Mrs. Ghee, and footage from the 2024 Texas Historical Marker dedication ceremony, the film traces how Black families built this school, what made it possible and what it took to secure recognition nearly a century later. 

Themes

​Community as Curriculum
What people learned because the community built the conditions for learning: care, discipline, protection, expectation.
Black Educational Futures
Not nostalgia—futurity. What does it mean to inherit a Black educational tradition and translate it into now?
Memory as Infrastructure
Oral histories, records, and reunions function like institutions when formal institutions fail to hold Black history.

​Method (research-creation)

Inside the Room

​Oral History
Long, careful conversations with alumni and community members—elders carrying educational history as lived experience. My role is to listen well, make room for joy and grief, and protect what people share.​ 

The Paper Trail

​Archive + Public Record
Documents, historic imagery, and the paper trail back what the community already knows: they built and sustained the school. Paired with oral histories, these records anchored the marker application.

timeline

  • 1929 - School Opens
  • 1969 - Last graduating high school class
  • 2009 - Building closes as a school remains site of Alumni Association activities
  • 2010s - 2020s - Alumni Organize, raise money, push for recognition
  • 2021 -  Marker approved
  • 2024 - Marker dedicated

​WHY THIS MATTERS NOW

This film is for anyone thinking seriously about Black education today—schools, museums, cultural organizations, and families. It invites conversation about:
  • What communities build when they build schools
  • How educational traditions survive displacement, underfunding, and neglect
  • What it looks like to treat Black educational memory as a resource for designing futures, not simply honoring the past
​I partner with schools, museums, cultural organizations, and community groups to host screenings and conversations.
Formats:
  • Screening + talkback (Black education, memory, and futures)
  • Educator/community dialogue (what the story teaches, and what it asks)
  • Oral history/community archiving (add-on)

status & Support

Trailer complete; additional filming underway. I’m currently seeking production/post-production support and institutional partners for screenings, educational use, and distribution.
Seeking:
  • Post-production funding
  • Screening partners (museums/cultural orgs/schools)
  • Educational distribution partners