TIP Fellow Jeri Johnson Wins 2021 Lindback Award and gets class visit from Marlon Fuentes of the Grammys May 14, 2021 – Posted in: Uncategorized

TIP Fellow Jeri Johnson is a 2021 Lindback award winner! The Lindback Foundation recognizes 60 distinguished teachers and seven principals from the Philadelphia public schools who demonstrate excellence in promoting learning at the highest levels. The teacher award recipients are chosen for activities that improve the intellectual and character development of their students.

Marlon Fuentes from the Grammy Awards visits

Jeri teaches ELA and social studies at Baldi Middle School and is enrolled in TIP for the second time this year. This year Jeri is a fellow in Professor Carol Muller’s seminar Listening to the Music of Contemporary Africa: History, Politics, and Human Origins. When Jeri asked the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammy Awards, for an African hip-hop playlist, they sent renowned producer and director Marlon Fuentes to deliver it in person, via her virtual classroom. Fuentes visited on April 28th and spoke to students about the rich culture music brings to all people. He shared the names of international Hip-Hop artists he works such as Yemi Alade (Nigeria) and Angelique Kidjo (Benin).  Students were delighted to have such an esteemed person in their classroom, who told them “Now is the greatest time to produce and share music with the world!”

This is Jeri’s second year in the TIP program. Last year Jeri was a Fellow in Professor Kathleen Brown’s seminar New Histories of Slavery: The View from Penn & Slavery Project and wrote a unit called Welcome to America: Enslaved Diasporic and Indigenous People.