Hurrying down the hallway of Davis Street 21st Century Magnet School, Sharece Sellem ran into a roadblock named Kaison Mims.
Kaison, a Davis Street fifth-grader, had been refining a monologue about a comic day at Six Flags with his little brother. He wanted to perform it for Sellem. Sellem stopped, cocked her head. An impromptu critiquing session began.
Since the school year started at Davis, Sellem (pictured) has planted roadblocks like Kaison throughout the school. She makes a point of running into them.
Sellem, who’s 25, doesn’t have a full-time job at Davis. Technically she’s a $50 a‑day part-time sub. She waitresses at night at Chili’s in Hamden.
In reality, she has become a daily presence at Davis. She comes in for free on days the principal, Lola Nathan, doesn’t need a fill-in for an absent staff teacher. Sellem has had fifth and sixth-graders writing scripts based on their home lives, developing characters, memorizing parts, performing for the rest of the school.
As Kaison performed in the hallway, Nathan observed Sellem from behind a glass wall steps away in the principal’s office.
“She’s like magic with them,” Nathan said. “She doesn’t stop ‘til she gets it done.”
Nor does Nathan. She wants Sellem inspiring and teaching Davis students as much as possible. Even though Sellem doesn’t have a teaching degree.
The Independent is checking in on Davis, one of the school system’s star performers, throughout a transitional year. (It inhabits temporary quarters on Legion Avenue as its Westville home is being rebuilt.) As New Haven embarks on a reform drive aimed at making its struggling public schools the best urban district in the nation, Davis offers clues to what works.
Among the reform drive’s goals: Attract and develop talented teachers. The way, for instance, Lola Nathan is working within the confines of budgets and work rules to make an energetic, talented young woman part of the Davis team.
“1 — 2 — 3 … Action!
Nathan discovered Sellem last year when Sellem came in to sub. Nathan spotted talent. She encouraged Sellem to start an after-school arts program. Sellem asked for permission to stage a spring play.
“Tell me what you need,” Nathan said.
Sellem didn’t need much. She got the kids excited about the show, rehearsed with them. She bought costumes herself. She convinced a local company to donate T‑shirts.
Over the summer Sellem attended a monologue slam in a Manhattan nightclub. “When I saw that,” she recalled, “I said it would be awesome for the kids.”
“There’s so much talent here” at Davis, she said. “I know some of these kids have it rough at home. This is great for them.”
She got to work as soon as the school year started. Nathan called her in to sub in fifth and sixth-grade classrooms. Sellem asked the students to write stories about a summer experience, one that evoked “strong emotion.”
“When they heard ‘strong emotion,‘“she said, “most of them thought of their parents.”
Once they wrote out narratives, Sellem told them to pick a single character. Develop the character, she said. She taught them what monologues are. She told them to write some.
After they refined their scripts, Sellem worked with them on performing. They memorized the lines. They practiced delivery. She coached and critiqued them along the way and helped them trim their performances to 30 seconds. She set up a contest for the best monologues.
“A lot of the kids didn’t even know they could act,” Sellem said.
The results were on display last Friday when Davis held its first school-wide “town meeting” of the year. It featured Davis’s first monologue slam.
(Click on the play arrow above to watch highlights.)
There were no alcohol served, no bouncers outside the door. The yelling voices were for the most part preadolescent. But given the electricity in the air, you could have closed your eyes and imagined yourself in that nightclub Sellem attended over the summer.
Seated on the floor of the school’s cafetorium, magnified shouts ricocheted off the walls with the intensity of Superballs. The students hailed the performers as they raced to the center to deliver their monologues.
“One … Two … Three … Action!” the students cried out. The performers responded with rapid-fire monologues.
Laughter nearly drowned out Justice Willoughby’s account of wrestling with boredom at home: He can’t go outside. He can’t play Wii. So he invents a football game.
Egged on by the crowd’s delighted giggle, Justice stretched out a runner’s imaginary gallop downfield. “The crowd cheers!” he announced. And it did.
The laughter took on a knowing tone as sixth-grader Nijae Flower piled on complaints about mom. (“I’m not my sister! I’m tired of her always trying to compare me to you!”)
Daily domestic frustrations emerged as a theme, as in “Messy Room,” Vanessa Hansen-Quartery’s monologue in the voice of a character named Melissa:
Auggh! I am sick and tired of cleaning this room! … Next time I find a room like this, I will drag his lazy butt up here and make him clean it up. Hats, belts, pants, it’s such a mess! … What are my new skinny jeans doing in my trash bin? … Now, I have to wash them again! … I do everything! I do the dishes, I do the laundry, I vacuum, all Jason does is sit behind the computer all day! He’s worse than Jeremiah!, well sorta … At least the mess isn’t that big … I’m almost done cleaning the room too … (pause )…There … done. Now to go find Jeremiah.
After the students finished, Sellem announced a surprise performer: Principal Nathan, who ran to the mic and picked up on the “why me?!” trope.
She played herself in the monologue.
“Why did you choose me to be the principal of Davis Street Interdistrict Magnet School?” Nathan implored the audience. “I never understood why you chose me to do this!”
“Yay hoo!” The cafetorium erupted in laughter. You could barely hear Nathan when, after a comic pause, she delivered the punch line. She understands why she’s the principal, she said — because she works with the best staff and students around. She meant it.
After the monologues, Sellem handed out prizes to the student winners: notebooks and mechanical pencils. She paid for them herself.
Mentor & Mentee
Thrilled with the results, Nathan prepared after the town meeting to post photos of the winners and their winning essays on the bulletin board outside her office.
Sharece Sellem, in the meantime, is working on a new after-school program for Davis this year. She’s also organizing a later-afternoon program in Newhallville for students citywide. She wants them to develop monologues based on characters from African-American history.
Sellem was the oldest of five children growing up in Hartford. She said she adopts a “big sister” approach to working with students. She encourages them, pushes them to do better. “I’m also very loving.”
Lola Nathan, who has been Davis’s principal for 19 years, plays a mentoring role for Sellem, too.
Sellem studied video production for two years down south after high school, then returned to Connecticut. She worked as an administrative assistant at a Hartford arts organization, where she picked up ideas she brought to Davis.
As she finds ways to keep Sellem on the team, Nathan is also encouraging her to complete her undergraduate degree and obtain her teacher certification. She has big plans for Sellem, at Davis — and beyond.
Previous stories about Davis Street 21st Century Magnet School:
• Comer Is Back
• Principal Keeps School On The Move
• Pot Melts
• So Long, Old Davis
• Music History Steps Offstage
• Music Video Of The Week
Some previous stories about New Haven’s school reform drive:
• Philanthropists Join School Reform Drive
• Wanted: Great Teachers
• “Class of 2026” Gets Started
• Principal Keeps School On The Move
• With National Push, Reform Talks Advance
• Nice New School! Now Do Your Homework
• Mayo Unveils Discipline Plan
• Mayor Launches “School Change” Campaign
• Reform Drive Snags “New Teacher” Team
• Can He Work School Reform Magic?
• Some Parental Non-Involvement Is OK, Too
• Mayor: Close Failing Schools
• Union Chief: Don’t Blame The Teachers
• 3‑Tiered School Reform Comes Into Focus
• At NAACP, Mayo Outlines School Reform
• Post Created To Bring In School Reform
• Board of Ed Assembles Legal Team
Wow Sharece! What a great teacher, and only a sub. Whatever it takes, get this woman on staff.