This article theorizes Hip Hop as Black liberatory practice by explicating the links between Hip Hop knowledges, pedagogies, and futures. I draw on multiple research and classroom experiences, including co-teaching a course with pioneering Hip Hop artist Chuck D of Public Enemy. The course examined Hip Hop culture as an extension of Black freedom…

This article puts into conversation publications that exemplify solidarities across movements and communities, with a focus on examples of solidarities of Black and Indigenous scholars and activists with and for Palestine and Palestinians. We argue that it is essential for educators and education researchers to engage in solidarities across…

In the summer of 2020, powerful protests against police brutality took place throughout the United States in response to the unlawful deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the shooting of Jacob Blake. Though the types of protests ranged from local grassroot organizations walking the streets to athletes using their platforms to…

Arts educators are rightly passionate about our work and its liberatory potential. However, we must also grapple with the ways in which ableism and racism circulate in arts education spaces, evading change and sustaining injustice. Through a fictionalized vignette, I explore how ableism and racism circulate in arts classrooms to co-construct…

Over the course of 18 months, I found myself on a journey that began with two research questions based on my wonderings and observations about the lives of the women I witnessed engaging with young Black children in ways that the academic literature had not expounded upon. In this article, I use poetic inquiry to elucidate the liberatory practices…

During a time of racial unrest and attention to social justice, Black communities are developing a deeper understanding of prevailing systemic flaws in policing, policies, and education. There are movements within the Black community toward rebuilding systems constructed to subjugate. While much of the existing research focuses on ways to reform…

This is the creative narrative of two mature social justice-oriented educators' stories to live by, stories to leave by, and stories to return by as we attempt to navigate the newly hooded academic's life in the midst of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter. The purpose of sharing our stories is not just for our own narrative therapy. When stories…

Drawing on Chicana Feminist Epistemologies, we use trenzas as theory and method for unearthing Sonia's activist trajectory on her path towards conocimiento. The trenza, or braid, consists of testimonio, cultural intuition, and confianza to weave together the complexity of Sonia's story from early life to her professional career. Through…

Scholars have utilized the allegory of Reconstruction to trace threads between the historical and contemporary struggles for freedom. In this article, I highlight the ways that abolition has always been a dual project and remains as such in our present time. It calls for the complete destruction of oppressive structures while simultaneously…

Through conceptual framing of "a vibe" and abolitionist teaching, our study explored the self-determining work of Black and other People of the Global Majority (PGM) who have curated "by us, for us" (BUFU) community spaces of belonging, healing, and liberation. We asked where PGM community members were finding refuge and what…

In the wake of Trump's presidency, children of color have been increasingly subjected to overt racism in and outside of educational settings. After seeing "In light of the Trump effect" or the anxiety and fear that has ensued for children of color since Trump's pre-election campaign, we suggest that concerted actions are needed from…

This article highlights the ways justice-oriented activist teachers of Color nurture themselves professionally through their involvement in critical professional development through activist teacher networks. This study conducted narrative inquiries of 26 activist teachers of Color across the United States. The counter-stories told by the teachers…

Increasingly fraught disputes over education have elevated local school boards as key sites of inquiry. In this critical ethnography, we examine how ostensibly neutral school board rules, routines, and relations play out in practice. We asked, How do (queer) youth of color proponents, white opponents, and white allies of an anti-oppressive…

This article insists on a reframe of mourning, away from a period of sadness or weeping alone, to a vision of its merits for discovering and unlocking possibility in Black Education. For example, mourning might be understood as involuntarily surrendered time necessary to properly grieve, concede, and embrace Black people's subject position in the…

This article traces the practices and outcomes of an undergraduate research group that began organically to foster research and activist collaborations in a small group setting and without the rubric of a structured course, formal lab setting, or formal institutional backing. We consider several outcomes of this group: (1) Graduate school entry…