From the Maplewood Hilton Branch Library, Mayor Frank McGehee, and Maplewood Arts and Culture: The Nickel Boys is set at a fictionalized version of the Dozier School for Boys, dubbed Nickel Academy. Whitehead first heard of the real life Dozier School on Twitter in 2014. The state of Florida ran Dozier as a reform school. The school opened in 1900 and closed in 2011 after decades of allegations against the school for allowing the beatings, rapes, torture, and even murder of students by guards and employees. In conjunction with the publication of The Nickel Boys, Whitehead was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine for the July 8, 2019 edition, alongside the strap-line “America’s Storyteller.” More information.

From TedxMaplewood: Ideas or experiences, perceived as fringe are likely more typical than suggested by social standards. Maplewood is a community which feels normal to those of us who live here but is, in fact a hub for those who are shattering social and racial “norms”. We embrace a diverse cross-section of people and perspectives, but the ideas emerging from the community come from challenging and debating the areas in which we fall short; and as such teasing out unique approaches and directions. Maybe you’re not thinking about normal ‘people’ at all! – maybe you’re thinking about a line of axis at right angles to a plane, standard deviation curves, maybe you’re thinking about geological faulting or the salinity of blood! Maybe your normal has been forever changed today! More information.

From Ethical Culture Society of Essex County and The Village Green Calendar: Jee-Hoon Krska is the founder of Keys 2 Success, a program that seeks to improve the lives of disadvantaged children in Newark through music education. She studied piano in the Juilliard pre-college program and at MIT (Ph.D. EECS). She has performed in concerts including at Boston Symphony Hall, Lincoln Center, and with Yo-Yo Ma. Dr. Krska spent twenty years in the semiconductor industry. During that time, she also actively worked to improve the lives of the youth in Pennington Court, a Newark Housing Authority (NHA) public housing community that is home to many of the poorest minority residents in Newark, through involvement in a series of projects aimed at fostering their intellectual development and social skills . It was through this experience that she saw firsthand the effects of generational poverty and developed a passion for investing in the lives of youth which ultimately led to her decision in 2016 to work full time with the children of Newark by founding Keys 2 Success. More information.