A loving mother and wife, a poet and artist, a deeply cherished member of the Sinclair community. For 26 years, Henry-Jones has not only inspired countless people but dedicated herself to promoting diversity and connection through her passion for art and education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I was in high school, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher,\u201d she reminisces. Reflecting upon yesteryear, Henry-Jones recounts the absence of African Americans in prime, academic fields: \u201cI never had a black person as a teacher in any classroom, K through 12 and most of my college years.\u201d Thereon, Henry-Jones has made it her mission to become \u201ca role model for all people.\u201d She attended Penn State and for a portion of her career, she taught high school until 2005 when she began to teach at Sinclair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI see poetry as a way of connecting with other human beings, understanding the world and making change in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was also during high school that Henry-Jones came to her immense love of poetry. In fact, it was this very passion that led her to become a professor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was so silly,\u201d she giggles as she details her experience with a peculiar class, in which there were only three students, including herself. The Voice Instruction teacher had taken ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, for the remainder of the year, the school did not provide a substitute teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd so for a year, me and the other two students would go to the classroom, which was [an empty] music room, and we just came up with our own things to do,\u201d said Henry-Jones. There, the trio would listen to musicals or even teach each other certain dances. Remarkably, one of Henry-Jones\u2019s peers was a young poet who was a part of a \u201cGovernor\u2019s School,\u201d or a summer-study program for talented youth, and had introduced Henry-Jones to her works. She then encouraged Henry-Jones, who then had never wrote a poem, to write and publish her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henry-Jones became more serious about poetry when she attended Sinclair\u2019s Writing Workshop, an event that has taken place for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome of my teachers, who are currently my colleagues, taught the workshop,\u201d she said, confessing that these wonderful individuals had encouraged her to share her many talents with a larger community, albeit through writing groups or the many memorable ways she has channeled her passion for poetry to-date\u2014from being a member of Dayton\u2019s first national Slam Poetry team 20 years ago to a quintessential member of a Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Poetry Contest, of which Henry-Jones describes as an opportunity that encourages youth to “write and create art”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is through these experiences, in which she engages with the community, that she is “learning to be a leader, learning longevity, and learning to be more compassionate.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, poetry and the Sinclair community greatly influenced her decision to become a professor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The event was called the Black Women’s Think Tank,” Henry-Jones illustrates, alluding to a Sinclair-held event in which she performed her poetry. There, a member of the English department had approached Henry-Jones, inquiring if she would be interested in becoming a professor. Thus, Henry-Jones achieved her masters in English and since, she continues to inspire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henry-Jones cites her children, of whom she notes radiate with compassion and brilliance, and the poet Lucielle Clifton as sources of inspiration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taylor Pendleton A loving mother and wife, a poet and artist, a deeply cherished member of the Sinclair community. For 26 years, Henry-Jones has not only inspired countless people but dedicated herself to promoting diversity and connection through her passion for art and education. \u201cWhen I was in high school, I knew that I wanted to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":27711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2102,3,3525],"tags":[1418,3860,1425,930,1419,3861],"class_list":["post-27707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-tartan-news","category-tartan-spotlight","tag-campus-life","tag-furaha-henry-jones","tag-tartan-news","tag-tartan-pride","tag-tartan-spotlight","tag-taylor-pendleton"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/tartan-3-rotated-e1579641036507.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-7cT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27707"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27727,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27707\/revisions\/27727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong>Reporter
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"