Our final class this semester celebrated our school’s home neighborhood, the Castro District, and our school’s namesake, Harvey Milk, and his role in creating the now-iconic rainbow flag. Tuesday’s class had a very special visitor, Mr. Michael, one of the incredible community volunteers at HMCRA who gives his time and support to our students every week. Mr. Michael lived in the Castro for many years and marched alongside Harvey Milk and Gilbert Baker, the creator of the flag. Students listened intently as Mr. Michael described many of the local shops he used to frequent in the Castro and were astonished at what $1.50 could buy 40 years ago. Together we read the book Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders and illustrated by Steve Salerno.
To honor the Castro’s significance to the LGBT+ community and the giant flag that flies above the neighborhood today, we made a pride parfait, with local organic fruit representing each of the six colors on the current version of the rainbow flag. (The original flag had eight colors!) The kids particularly enjoyed working with kiwis and pineapple guavas, which represented green. They whipped cream from scratch and then alternated layering cream and fruit in clear cups. Because it’s almost winter and most purple fruits like grapes, plums, and mulberries are not in season, we used fig jam to represent purple. It was a sweet way to end the session and to connect more deeply with our community. See you in 2019!
