Underground Books, one of the few African American bookstores left in the country, opened in 2003 as part of 40 Acres Complex at Broadway and 35th Street. Without a library in Oak Park, Underground Books serves a literary hub for the neighborhood.
Imagine this: You are trying to listen to the instructions from your teacher on your laptop, the volume is all the way up, but you still can’t hear. You look around the room and all your brothers, sisters, even parents are trying to do the same. Add the fact that you are still trying to figure out how distance learning works. Sounds frustrating, doesn’t it?
March of 2020 brought about so many sudden changes as we began to grapple with the fact that there was a global pandemic and that it was not safe for schools to be physically open. During this time we made quick adjustments to our instructional model in an effort to find new ways to continue to be there for our St. HOPE community and overcome the challenge of not being able to share the same physical space with our scholars each and every day. Over the course of the summer we spent considerable time planning and preparing for the new school year.