The Youth Institute’s 1974 Thanksgiving show, an annual tradition put on by students, featured musical performances, a comedy routine by 9-year-old Teresa Williams (sister of Mary Williams), student poetry, a Tae Kwon Do demonstration, and “The Meaning of Thanksgiving,” a four-act play written and performed by students.

This article from the Intercommunal Newsletter describes the overflowing audience of community members awed by students’ talents.

The school’s play, which critiqued the common representations of Pilgrims and indigenous people, reflected the IYI curriculum, which presented a more radical — less settler-centered — version of history than a typical public school course. The play suggested that slavery was at the center of white America’s wealth and that, from the start, white Americans had understood their wealth as derived from the African bodies they held in chains.

The staging of the play also exemplified the school’s larger belief in students’ potential and the value of creativity. The article ends with a quote from IYI director Ericka Huggins about future performances, which they aim to improve with time.