Clem Richardson, New York Daily News, October 29, 2007
The 52-year-old Bronx resident and father of five creates Afrocentric crossword and word-search puzzles to teach children young and old about African and African-American culture and history.
Marketed under the “Puzzles For Us . . . the puzzles with a purpose” label, Dunn’s puzzles have started appearing in New York City public school classrooms—a nice turn of events, since that’s where the first one appeared more than 15 years ago.
He’s also under contract to create puzzles for both the American Civil Liberties Union—on racial profiling—and the legendary Apollo Theater.
“I call these cultural entertainment,” Dunn said. “The idea is to whet people’s appetites so they want to know more.” Though schoolchildren are the target audience, the scholarship behind each puzzle is more college-level. Dunn’s puzzle clues are taken from history, culture and popular culture; solutions to one puzzle include a speech by Sioux Chief Sitting Bull, ancient Egyptian ethics and an award-winning recording by local radio personality Gary Byrd.
{snip}
[Dunn] created his first crossword puzzle in 1991 as a way to help his stepdaughter Ebony learn more about history. His other children are stepdaughter Latoya, and sons Jisun and Lordikim. Another son, Ikim, died in 2001.
{snip}
Dunn found himself energized by the favorable public reaction to his puzzles. He kept creating them—”I spent a lot of time at the New York Public Library and at the Schomburg [Center for Research in Black Culture],” he said.
By 2001, Dunn had a collection of puzzles and was looking for ways to expand his business. He turned to Project Enterprise, a nonprofit with offices in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx that provides advice and seed money to budding entrepreneurs looking to get businesses off the ground.
That group helped Dunn launch “Invision Publications” his puzzle-making company. Last month, Dunn was named Project Enterprise’s 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year.
Public school teachers can order his puzzles from the Education Department’s Web site, www.shopdoe.com.
Others can get it from www.puzzlesforus.com, or by calling (718) 538-6102.
Kevin Dunn |
Original article
(Posted on October 30, 2007)
Comments
As long as these afro-centric puzzles are kept out of the public school system, they are alright with me.But I think that they will become a part of the curriculum.
Posted by Peejay in Frisco at 6:53 PM on October 30
This is all I need to know about his cultural skills:
“his stepdaughter Ebony … [h]is other children are stepdaughter Latoya, and sons Jisun and Lordikim. Another son, Ikim, died in 2001.”
Those cartoonish names don’t sound like the product of a serious culture.
Posted by at 7:11 PM on October 30
And if a white guy did this he’d be branded a racist.
Posted by at 7:45 PM on October 30
This is too funny for words.
I’ll give it a try.
african american crossword puzzle clues:
1 across: 7 letter word for wives, sisters, female friends, rhymes with ditches.
14 down: common appellation, sounds like ‘another trucker’
6 across: Heavyweight rapist role model.
3 down: “Dis hea rock sho is hard to ——-!” (Hint: sounds like smack, goes in yo pipe)
7 across: Framed innocent celebrity in dem ugly as* shoes.
This can go on for hours.
Posted by t at 8:04 PM on October 30
I wonder if he’s written a puzzle where the answers are the many inventions and historical figures that the “Afrocentrists” love to claim as their own.
Posted by ZKR at 9:05 PM on October 30
I just briefly checked out the puzzle page, but what I saw was enough to realize that these so-called learning tools are absolutely great for creating a black kid that is unaware of the rest of the world and anything of importance that will give him an education.
I get the impression that they are also going to be great in creating white haters, fixations on revisionist history that concentrates on victimology, and especially good on propagandizing about black invention myths, plus complete fabrications on the history of Egypt and its people.
In other words it seems to me, from what I can determine so far, that these kinds of “learning tools” for blacks will teach them nothing of value and cause them to fixate so greatly on their race they will continue to fail, and when they do they will add another puzzle that will blame whites for their inabilities and shortcomings.
Blacks create for themselves a never-ending hate factory that will destroy them in the end. The 21st century will be for the most able, not the most hateful.
If John Edwards is worried the black man is becoming extinct, and he is and he will, I wonder if he’s figured out why…….I mean besides blaming white racism and encouraging white self-hate as is his affliction?
Posted by crossbow at 10:43 PM on October 30
“…about African and African-American culture and history.”
Or is it about Afro-centric MYTHS?
http://www33.brinkster.com/iiiii/inventions/
How about Afro-facts:
10 across: “Zebra Killings”
5 down: “Yahweh-Ben-Yahew Killings”
3 across: “Wichita Massacre”
6 down: “Knoxville Horror”
8 across: “Bushmen Genocide”
21 down: “Black African Slave Traders”
15 across: “Crown Heights Pogrom”
…..
Posted by at 11:20 PM on October 30
” ancient Egyptian ethics “
There is a misconception perpetrated by black culture that Egyptian society was black. They could then lay claim to the pyramids, King Tut, etc. I haven’t seen the puzzle, but I hope that isn’t going on with the Egyptian reference.
“And if a white guy did this he’d be branded a racist.”
Well maybe. Ok, for sure. But it maybe well received by white people at large. It could be a great vehicle to teach our children white heritage/history. Let not the deceit and lies of generation completely steer us from telling the truth.
Posted by TeTe at 10:18 AM on October 31
