--- title: ABAR Blog description: ABAR Blog --- - [VIEW ALL POSTS](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar/all) - [ABAR PAGE](https://www.westtown.edu/abar) [![Clean - ABAR - Circle- W](https://blog.westtown.edu/hs-fs/hubfs/Clean%20-%20ABAR%20-%20Circle-%20W.png?width=200&height=100&name=Clean%20-%20ABAR%20-%20Circle-%20W.png) ![Clean - ABAR - Circle- W](https://blog.westtown.edu/hs-fs/hubfs/Clean%20-%20ABAR%20-%20Circle-%20W.png?width=200&height=100&name=Clean%20-%20ABAR%20-%20Circle-%20W.png)](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar) - [Building an Anti-Bias, Anti-Racist Community](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar) ![Westtowns-abar-blog](https://blog.westtown.edu/hs-fs/hubfs/Westtowns-abar-blog.png?width=433&name=Westtowns-abar-blog.png) Follow along as we use this space to communicate myriad aspects of our ABAR community building at Westtown School. You will find personal reflections and experiences from colleagues; professional development overviews; interviews with thought leaders on implicit bias, racial, gender, and other aspects of identity; updates on curriculum and special programming; educational resources;  and a variety of pieces related to racial and social justice. ##### Subscribe for updates ###### 14 min read #### [Westtown School’s Inaugural Ninth Grade BIPOC Summer Camp](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar/westtown-schools-inaugural-ninth-grade-bipoc-summer-camp) Just months before the pandemic, Diversity and Inclusion Specialist Marissa Colston and I had been pondering the need... ###### 2 min read #### ["Score!"](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar/score) As the Dean of Access and Equity and administrator of the Full Access Program, I have the awesome privilege of... ###### 4 min read #### [Motherhood Reimagined.](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar/motherhood-reimagined) I am what you call a Single Mother by Choice. I chose to intentionally have a baby without a partner using an anonymous... ###### 2 min read #### [Learning and Growing in A White Affinity Space](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar/learning-and-growing-in-a-white-affinity-space) In her blog post of June 2, 2020, Marissa Colston, Westtown’s Dean of Diversity of Inclusion, listed “Tools to Help us... ###### 2 min read #### [“If You Build It, They Will Come” Creating Spaces Especially For You](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar/if-you-build-it-they-will-come-creating-spaces-especially-for-you) “If you build it, they will come,” a popular *Field of Dreams* movie reference, was a central theme in my upbringing and... ###### 5 min read #### [DOING THE WORK: Anti-Racist Teaching and Community Building in the Era of Black Lives Matter](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar/doing-the-work) I come from an intellectual tradition that sees scholarship as akin to combat. I was trained to see scholarly jousting... ###### 2 min read #### [Why Affinity Spaces Give Me Life](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar/why-affinity-spaces-give-me-life) When I was in middle and high school, I was often the only black student or student of color in the classroom. I lived... ###### 3 min read #### [We Can't Breathe!](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar/i-cant-breathe) My phone was blowing up. Push notifications and texts from friends and colleagues were letting me know that the... ###### 5 min read #### [Tools to Help Us Heal and Take Action](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar/tools-to-help-us-heal-and-take-action) In response to the violence of systemic racism that we have witnessed these past weeks, I want to offer ways in which... [All posts](https://blog.westtown.edu/en/abar/all) [![Clean - ABAR - Circle- W](https://blog.westtown.edu/hs-fs/hubfs/Clean%20-%20ABAR%20-%20Circle-%20W.png?width=200&height=100&name=Clean%20-%20ABAR%20-%20Circle-%20W.png "Clean - ABAR - Circle- W")](http://www.westtown.edu)