The long-time educator, who has taught students of all ages, says sharing cultural knowledge in community spaces is the key to Black futures.
By Ervin Dyer, Madison Stokes and Obianuju Okoye
This interview is part of a series on Pittsburgh’s Black Women Cultural Leaders
Sheila Carter-Jones grew up in Indianola, a small coal-mining town about 18 miles outside of Pittsburgh. It was a hardscrabble community where diverse ethnic groups created a melting pot of cultures.
Carter-Jones’ parents migrated from southern Illinois to the Pittsburgh area in the late-1930s. Her father worked in the coal mines and her mother did not have a job until the mines closed and she found a job doing domestic work in the nearby upscale community of Fox Chapel.
Carter-Jones was bused to school in Fox Chapel, where she says she got one of the “greatest educations a young Black girl could get at that time.”
When she wasn’t picking berries or playing jacks or basketball, Carter-Jones would pass time by visiting her community’s bookmobile.
She was a high-achieving student and received a full scholarship to and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1972. Later, from Pitt, she received a master’s degree in the late ’80s in curriculum and supervision and, in 2000, a PhD in English Education. In 2005, she earned a Montessori Certification in Early Adolescent English Language Arts; and in 2019, she earned an MFA in creative writing from Carlow University.
At 22, proudly wearing her “thin and wavy in-the-wind Afro,” Carter-Jones began teaching in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. She was there for 35 years (from 1972 to 2007), teaching English and reading to students in middle school and high school. When she left, she taught at Pittsburgh Montessori School and then went on to teach at Chatham University and the University of Pittsburgh.
I teach because I’m concerned about the Black youth who will become the future.
Sheila Carter-Jones
Carter-Jones is a poet, writer, and the author of Three Birds Deep, winner of the 2012 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Book Award. She also authored two chapbooks, Blackberry Cobbler Song and Crooked Star Dream Book, which was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2013 New York Center for Book Arts Chapbook Contest. Her latest collection, Every Hard Sweetness, was published by BOA Editions, Ltd in April 2024. She teaches creative writing to undergraduates and community writers (18-99 years-old) in the Madwomen in the Attic Writing Workshops at Carlow University.
Why do you do this work? What inspired you?
I teach because I’m concerned about the Black youth who will become or are becoming the future.
Why is this work important in a city like Pittsburgh?
This work is important in a city like Pittsburgh because many youths do not have a positive direction due to no fault of their own. It’s not only family but also lack of opportunities.
In recent years, what aspect of your work are you most proud of?
I am most proud of working with a group of students in 2022-2023 through the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Urban Education (CUE) on a curriculum I designed that uses literature and art by authors and artists of the African Diaspora to explore how visual images are purveyors of views, genius, power, history, and traditions [of Black] cultures. The class was offered through the High-Impact Retired Teachers project, which was started to enhance the critical thinking skills of Black and Brown students whose educations were impacted by the COVID crisis.
What is the importance of cultural knowledge?
Cultural knowledge is important for understanding the how, why, when, and where to situate African American people in the history of the United States. And, having situated all of that, how does one navigate life to access opportunities for a secure and happy life.
How did you learn this lesson—in what ways was cultural knowledge passed on to you?
It was passed on to me through family and community gatherings and just listening at the edge of the kitchen where women talked and laughed about working in the rich white women’s homes where they were cleaning, cooking, raising white children, listening with an ear to catch some history from the other side.
What books are on your nightstand?
Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson; The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture by Vincent Woodard; Watch Your Language: Visual and Literary Reflections on a Century of American Poetry by Terrance Hayes; and Jane Alexander Surveys (from the Cape of Good Hope) edited by Pep Subirós.
You’re on your way to your fantasy concert—who are you going to see?
I’m going to see Nina Simone and Paul Simon.
What African American female cultural leader inspired you? What did you learn?
Toni Morrison. [I learned] how to be confident in knowing and understanding that I am writing and teaching for the Black audience and that is just fine and as it should be.
How do we overcome an overlooked, misunderstood, or unappreciated aspect of African American culture in Pittsburgh?
We can begin to overcome this by having regularly held neighborhood dialogues and activities at a community space within the neighborhood.
Outside of your work, what are your passions?
I love writing poetry and reading nonfiction books about history in other countries as told in story form.
What’s next for you?
Next for me is to continue to stay involved with projects and programs that highlight developing the future of Black children and their neighborhoods.
What skills are needed most for the work that you do?
Patience, compassion, care, and insight.
What would you like your cultural legacy to be?
That I told my truths with courage and compassion.
Ervin Dyer is a writer who focuses his storytelling on Africana life and culture.
Madison Stokes and Obianuju Okoye are with the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation’s Chris Moore Internship program.