I Am Gullah, I Do Not Fade: Teaching Gullah Geechee History Through Language
I rise from de moss-heavy hush of Beaufort.
"I Am Gullah, I Do Not Fade" is a poem written and spoken in Gullah, the language my people carried from West and Central Africa to the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. It follows "No Sun Here" in Section One of my collection We Were Never Meant to Beg for Light.
It speaks for a people who built the Lowcountry from marsh and mud, who were told their language and their culture would wash away with time, and who are still here: carving their names in indigo, stitching their dreams in sweetgrass and calling their ancestors' names out loud.
The video reading is dedicated to my grandmother, Rosalie Frazier Pazant. She helped found the Original Gullah Festival in Beaufort, South Carolina, in 1986.
A New Lesson for Grades 9–12
I've turned the poem into a complete poetry and history lesson for high school classrooms. Students analyze how writing in Gullah is itself an act of resistance, then test the poem against primary sources, including an 1864 outsider's account that predicted the culture would "pass away."
A 30-page printable PDF for two 50-minute class periods, with a teacher guide, a timed lesson sequence and differentiation ideas
"Words That Crossed the Ocean," Gullah words with African roots, plus a Gullah word guide, a listening guide and close-reading questions
A History Connection with my Backstory, linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner, Charlotte Forten's 1864 "Life on the Sea Islands," sweetgrass baskets and land loss today
A viewing guide for my 1:37 video reading set to Geechee Girl, plus audio of my readings of the poem and its Backstory
Three writing choices, including an original "I Am ___, I Do Not Fade" poem, with a rubric and a teacher answer guide
Teaching It With Care
The lesson treats Gullah as a language, not "broken English." It lets the author's voice come first, and it never asks students to imitate an accent or puts heritage speakers on the spot.
It's aligned to the 2023 New Jersey Student Learning Standards for English Language Arts, grades 9–10, with notes for grades 11–12, and it supports New Jersey's Amistad mandate.
The cover art is Geechee Girl, my own digital artwork. You can get Geechee Girl on Etsy.
It pairs with No Sun Here, the poem that comes before it in the book.
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