A Glossary of Love: Wisdom from our Creating Loving Schools for Black Students Panelists
Hello All,
Thank you to those who tuned into our Creating Loving Schools for Black Students Panel.
So much wisdom was shared from/by/with our panelists, and we want to reflect on the intention of language as the infrastructure of freedom in space.
Community: people with whom “we want the same things” (Fatema Elbakoury); beings who co-create and co-imagine a different world; “happens when I make your problem my problem” (Bobby Morgan)
Family: not just those with whom we share blood, but our relations “anthropologically, in the fictive sense” (Cecil Barnes)
Restorative Practices: “know[ing] that the [busted] floors didn’t come that way themselves…knowing that with the right type of treatment, the right type of care, and the right type of energy, what they could be– if given the chance...to know how to love it, serve it, care for it” (Bobby Morgan)
Rigor: “this is hard; that’s why we keep going” (Fatema Elbakoury)
Democracy: “People who are administrators in schools, as well as teachers, should really do their best to make schools themselves more democratic…actually share the power of the school with the young people who have most of it anyway” (Ajua Kouadio); “If your essential questions are always dealing with justice, you can always bring up current events. Because injustice is always happening” (Fatema Elbakoury)
Cultural Competence: “It’s cute to be competent. That just means you know stuff.” (Keywuan Caulk)
Cultural Proficiency: “Not just see[ing] in the way you want to say them, but being a student of your students.” (Bobby Morgan)
This is freedom dreaming from the words of our panelists. What resonated with you?
This event was a fundraiser for our Create Freedom Artivist Fellowship and our New Summer Learning Academy. Please consider supporting our work here.
And remember, this Thursday is a Leap Day. As Keywuan said, “this year I get to be Black for 366 days!”
