Jonathan Parson Academy
You know that phrase “And the Rocket’s Red Glare!” from the Star-Spangled Banner, right? Suppose I tell you that Francis Scott Key’s poem is only a speck of the story, the tip of the iceberg. Those fireworks didn’t just magically appear over Fort McHenry in the Anglo-American War of 1812.
Would it surprise you to learn that the origins of Key’s ‘Rockets Red Glare’ has ties to a camel caravan carrying Turkish opium to the port of Basra? Or how about the extraction of the exotic poison of the cowbane plant from the Steppes of Russia? But it was years of the British Lion attacking the Mughal Tiger on the Deccan plain of India that fuels our main plot. Catalysts ignite an explosive synthesis in a little known chapter of British Colonial era. The Rocket’s Red Glare was after all, a coveted, yet elemental chemical reaction.
Five students of Parson Academy carefully dissect the clues laid out before them like a forensic team unearthing a two hundred year-old time capsule. They each discover their own unique, personal heritage through a cast of Kings, Queens, Sultans, Presidents, Ambassadors, educators, inventors, and industrialists. Can you just imagine what your ancestors were doing on this earth, seven generations ago? Perhaps they too were part of the coup that turned Britain’s governance upside down.
So take a little time and join Crystal, Kelly, Hussar, Maya, and Chanin as they confront their ancestry and question the purpose of their descendancy. They are not only inspired, they are ‘Parson’s Academons’.
Time Capsule Opening Ceremony
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Chanin & Crystal
Kelly, Hussar, & Maya