On Saturday, January 21, hundreds of educators gathered virtually to connect, collaborate, and prepare for the 2023 National Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action (February 6–10) and Year of Purpose.

See highlights from the curriculum fair

Schedule

IN EASTERN TIME

11:30 – 12:00 PM ET: [ASL] Welcome and Keynote Speaker
12:05 – 12:55 PM ET: Round 1 of Workshops
- Stitching Memories: Personal Stories, Activism, & the Gee’s Bend Quilters
- [ASL] Liberatory, Anti-Racist Education for Black, Queer and Trans Youth; Yes, Even in Mathematics
- [ASL] Liberating Education During the Schooling Crisis
- Understanding the Anti-CRT Project Through Stories of the McCarthy Era
- Whose Story? Teaching Local Lynching History in the English and History Classrooms
- How We Can Live: An Educator's Guide to the Book
1:00 – 1:50 PM ET: Round 2 of Workshops
- [ASL] Education as an Exercise in Restorative Justice by Black Broad Branch Project
- Critical Race Theory: A Lens to Understand Our Context
- Teaching Wake: the Hidden History of Women-led Slave Revolts
- [ASL] How to Identify White Supremacy and Anti-Black Racism in the U.S. History Curriculum
- Black Lives Matter in Early Childhood Classrooms: Using Children's Literature to Spark Conversation From Toddlers to 3rd Grade
- Understanding the Anti-CRT Project Through Stories of the McCarthy Era
2:00 – 2:30 PM ET: (Optional) Group Discussions by Grade Level

See full workshop descriptions below.

Workshops

Stitching Memories: Personal Stories, Activism, & the Gee’s Bend Quilters

Recommended for all age levels.

This hands-on arts-based workshop invites learners of all levels to step into the world of the Gee’s Bend Quilters. Discover the hand-made quilts from Gee’s Bend and the personal meaning and memories stitched into them. During the second half of the workshop we will engage in a simple art-making activity inspired by the Gee’s Bend Quilts. We will use quilting as a metaphor for discovering our own personal histories. We will view using the power of our own memories as a source of strength towards activism. The workshop encourages participants to consider how pride and power in one’s own life, personal history, and memories can be a source of activism. Participants should join the workshop with the following materials: 5 pieces of paper, Pencil, scissors, glue stick, liquid glue, or tape, newspaper or magazine scraps (optional), coloring materials (crayons, colored pencils, markers, optional)

Presenter Bio

Dena Rapoport is a museum educator and coordinator of family programs at the National Gallery of Art. In this capacity, she helps students and families learn together and connect to creativity and to the process of art making. She holds a B.A. in History of Art from The Ohio State University and an M.A. in Art History from The George Washington University where she worked as a teaching assistant. Previously, Dena held positions at The Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the National Museum of African Art. She previously attended the Harvard Project Zero Classroom Summer Institute and presented at NAEA and WISSIT. Dena enjoys exploring Washington, D.C. by bike, listening to podcasts, and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.

[ASL] Liberatory, Anti-Racist Education for Black, Queer and Trans Youth; Yes, Even in Mathematics

Recommended for Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School, Adult Education.

In this session, teachers will gain an introductory understanding of what it means to engage in an anti-racist, queer, and trans education through the lens of scholars whose research focuses on the lessons we might learn from NYC's Ball Culture, a community of predominantly Black and Brown queer and trans folx, in order to inspire more liberatory spaces for Black, queer and trans youth in PK-16 education. These lessons are centered on building communities of care in our classrooms, as well as the abolition of PK-16 education as we know it. The presenter will share concrete examples of how they have infused these lessons in their own classroom — a mathematics classroom — and participants will be provided with time to brainstorm other ideas of how to apply these lessons to their own classroom contexts.

Presenter Bio

Brandie E. Waid (they/she or elle/ella) is a queer, disabled, Latinx independent math coach and activist-scholar. She is the founder of The Queer Mathematics Teacher (QMT) and co-founder of Radical Pedagogy Institute (RPI). She obtained her PhD in Mathematics Education from Columbia University and formerly served as an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Drew University. She has also taught middle and high school mathematics in both New York City and Central Florida. Waid’s research and work at QMT and RPI centers on using a queer lens to challenge traditional practices in mathematics teaching. To learn more, visit the QMT website or the RPI website.

[ASL] Liberating Education During the Schooling Crisis

Recommended for Middle School, High School.
This workshop centers the teaching of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx educational traditions to highlight the radical and liberatory educators in historical social movements. By expanding participants' knowledge about these traditions, this workshop aims to add to their toolbox of pedagogical and organizing tactics to create a subversive and liberatory education in and outside of the classroom.

Presenter Bio

Jonathan Peraza Campos (he/him/él) is the program specialist for the Teaching Central America project at Teaching for Change. He is also an abolitionist educator and organizer grounded in the Black radical tradition and Central American social movement education. Much of his work aims to build consciousness and power in Latinx, Indigenous, Black and all minoritized communities to exercise our educational liberation through our movement traditions for a world free from oppression.

Understanding the Anti-CRT Project Through Stories of the McCarthy Era

Recommended for Middle School, High School, Adult Education.
In the 2020s, educators who teach for Black lives, who affirm the 13 principles and 4 demands of Black Lives Matter at School, are accused of teaching "CRT" and in many states, face curricular gag rules. These attacks are not new. In this workshop, participants will learn about an earlier era in which educators, among others, became targets of government harassment and repression — the Red Scare. Attendees will engage in a mixer activity involving 27 different targets of McCarthyism: men and women, immigrants and native-born, young and old, racially diverse, in government and outside it, affluent, middle class, and poor, Queer and straight. We will analyze what these targets had in common and bring these insights to bear on today's attacks on racial justice movements.

Presenter Bio

Ursula Wolfe-Rocca taught high school social studies for 20 years. She is an organizer and curriculum writer for the Zinn Education Project and is on the editorial board of Rethinking Schools magazine.

Whose Story? Teaching Local Lynching History in the English and History Classrooms

Recommend for High School.

In this workshop, Lesley Younge and Caitlin Atkins of the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project (MoCoLMP) will highlight educational strategies for introducing local histories of racial terror lynching in the classroom and will facilitate discussion around connections to frequently taught content. Attendees will participate in a student activity of their choosing: either an investigation of historic newspaper reports from the Maryland State Archives or an analysis of contemporary poetry on lynching. Participants will consider the impact of poetry and storytelling as tools for racial reconciliation.

PRESENTERs’ BIOs

Caitlin Atkins is a high school educator with eight years of independent school teaching experience. She earned her BA from Georgetown University, where she studied political philosophy and comparative religion, and her MA from Fordham University, where she studied book history. Prior to teaching, she coordinated volunteers and events at non-profit organizations including Habitat for Humanity and the Appalachia Service Project. She currently works at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School where she has taught courses on world religions, social justice, service learning and literature. She has led sessions on topics including local lynching history and restorative justice and is an active member of the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project's Education Committee.

Lesley Younge has been a progressive educator in independent schools for 16 years. She earned her MSEd from Bank Street College and is currently a middle school English and Math teacher at Maret School in Washington, DC. Lesley previously taught at Whittle School and Studios, Sidwell Friends School, The Dalton School, Horizons DC, and The Central Park Conservancy.

How We Can Live: An Educator's Guide to the Book

Recommended for Early Childhood, Lower Elementary.

How We Can Live: Principles of Black Lives Matter is a book that came together out of solidarity and activism. Join the author (the illustrator will be there in spirit) to learn more about how this book came to be and how to use it in your PK-12 classroom.

PRESENTER BIO

Laleña Garcia: Laleña Garcia (she/her) is a kindergarten teacher living in Brooklyn. A graduate of Yale University (BA, History) and Bank Street College of Education (MS, Early Childhood and Elementary Education), she’s been teaching in NYC since 2000. Laleña also works for the New York State Early Childhood Professional Development Institute as a Gender and Sexuality Trainer, helping early childhood professionals and families to create expansive and supportive understandings of gender, sexuality, relationships, and family structure. A member of the NYC Black Lives Matter at School steering committee since 2018, Laleña also provides professional development for schools and other institutions seeking to deepen their anti racist work. Her online course for adults, Rooted, offers contextual background and concrete strategies for anti bias work in early childhood and elementary settings. Laleña’s first children’s book, What We Believe was published by Lee and Low in 2020. The companion hardcover, How We Can Live, was released to starred reviews in October of 2022.

When she’s not giving young children the tools they need to resolve conflicts and smash binaries, she enjoys reading, surfing, and zooming around Brooklyn on her beloved bicycle (always wearing a helmet!).

[ASL] Education as an Exercise in Restorative Justice by Black Broad Branch Project

Recommended for Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School, Adult Education.

Historical narratives of spaces and places have material impacts on the ways in which they are experienced by different people. The understanding of who has historically had access to a particular space often informs how that space is valued, both economically and socially. Using the story of two historic Black families in Washington, DC, this presentation reflects on the ways in which racially restrictive covenants and the historic weaponization of public policy have shaped the demographic landscape of the city through present-day. The history depicted in Black Broad Branch offers attendees a more nuanced understanding of the founding of the nation's capital, which centers Black place-making after the Civil War and into the twentieth century. This historical context offers attendees a more-complete understanding of how the city of Washington was formed and historic Black figures whose stories should be shared with future generations.

Presenter Bio

Black Broad Branch Project, a local public history and advocacy project that is working to amplify the history of Black-owned land in the 19th and 20th centuries in Washington, DC.

Critical Race Theory: A Lens to Understand Our Context

Recommended for all age levels.

In recent years we've seen a lot of articles, laws, and conversations centered on Critical Race Theory in PK-16. In order to engage in these conversations, teachers need to have a basic understanding of what Critical Race Theory is (and what it is not) and why it is a useful tool in understanding our school contexts. This session will provide teachers with this understanding, as well as provide them with opportunities to discuss specific examples from their own schools and/or districts and analyze those examples through the tenets of Critical Race Theory.

Presenters’ Bios

Brandie E. Waid: See presenter biography above.

Leah Z. Owens is a writer, teacher educator, and teacher-scholar-activist who works through her consulting firm, Just Writing LLC. She credits the many leadership and teaching positions she has held for the development of her anti-racist worldview as well as her commitment to equity and humanization. Her journey includes serving as a high school English teacher for Newark Public Schools; co-founding the Newark Education Workers Caucus (NEW Caucus), a social justice caucus within the Newark Teachers Union; organizing childcare center workers into a union; and serving as a member of the Newark Board of Education (2016-2019). Leah holds a BA in English from Duke University. From Rutgers-Newark, she earned a Master of Public Administration degree as well as her PhD in Urban Systems. As an activist-scholar, her research interests include critical democratic education, teacher leadership, and ontological inquiry. Leah is an active citizen in several community and political organizations, including the Newark Branch of the NAACP where she serves as chair of the education committee. To learn more about Leah and her work, visit blackwomanteacher.net.

Teaching Wake: the Hidden History of Women-led Slave Revolts

Recommended for Middle School, High School.

How do we recover voices of revolt that have been silenced by mainstream historical narratives? How do we honor the legacy of heroic Black women in our classes and community? How do we center resistance, agency and collective power when teaching the painful history of slavery? These are monumental questions facing educators who strive to teach for justice and liberation.

Educators from the Ida B. Wells Education Project will share their framework for teaching about slavery, resistance and the long struggle for Black liberation in the Americas and will introduce participants to their curriculum to accompany Dr. Rebecca Hall’s groundbreaking work, Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts. This powerful graphic novel tells the story of one African American woman scholar’s search to uncover the hidden legacy of women-led resistance to African slavery. NPR describes this work as a “remarkable blend of passion and fact, action and reflection.” Participants will leave this workshop with resources and strategies for centering empowering narratives of African resistance to slavery in their classrooms, as well as tools for helping students investigate hidden histories of resistance in their own communities and create their own graphic novel narratives of resistance.

Presenters’ Bios

Peta Lindsay is a secondary educator, a community organizer and a leader in developing and implementing student-centered, culturally responsive and empowering education for diverse youth. She currently teaches history, Ethnic Studies and African American Studies courses in Los Angeles. Lindsay is also the founder and Director of the Ida B. Wells Education Project, a Black-led multicultural collective of classroom educators, dedicated to bringing empowering learning that centers African American history, culture and life to our schools and communities. Lindsay is able to offer both framework and practical tips for empowering diverse students through social science education in the secondary classroom.

Charla Johnson is an educator, writer and activist from the South. After growing up in the Metro-Atlanta area, she attended Spelman College, where she earned a B.A. in English and Secondary Education. Afterwards, she taught high school English Language Arts in Decatur, Georgia for thirteen years. During that time, she worked inside and outside of the classroom to provide high-quality, inclusive, empowering and identity-affirming educational experiences for all students. Her interests lie in instructional technology and design and curriculum development. She earned a M.S. Instructional Design and Technology from Georgia State University. As a writer and activist, Charla has written and published works of fiction and non-fiction in various outlets, as well as used her pen and keyboard in the service of several social justice organizations. Charla currently resides in New Orleans.

Cyrus Hampton is a classroom educator and the assistant director of the First-Year Writing Program at Howard University. He has been working in the classroom since 2006, teaching a range of levels from Pre-K up to college. A proud alum of both the District of Columbia Public School System and the undergraduate program at Howard University, he has seen, firsthand, the value of diverse, representative education curriculums for both marginalized and privileged students. He joined the Ida B. Wells Education Project because he shares in the vision that education is one of the most important routes through which to fight inequality and oppression and that educators have a duty to be non-neutral to systemic injustice.

[ASL] How to Identify White Supremacy and Anti-Black Racism in the U.S. History Curriculum

Recommended for Upper Elementary, Middle School, High School.

This session will help teachers to understand commonly-used tactics of white supremacy and anti-blackness in the social studies curriculum. Black Americans are both underrepresented and misrepresented, as evidenced in the way that complex social movements are reduced to tales of individual heroes such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass. Other narrative tactics are more subversive, and require a close-reading of the curriculum to understand how they work. Teacher participants will learn how to use the methods from our study by analyzing their own curriculum frameworks.

Presenters’ Bios

Chris Seeger is a social studies teacher, researcher and curriculum designer. His research explores themes of white supremacy and anti-blackness in the U.S. history curriculum. He also creates curriculum resources that emphasize critical historical inquiry and diverse perspectives. He is the creator of historydilemmas.com.

Tiffany Mitchell Patterson is a manager of social studies at District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). Her research interests include racial and social justice in education, education activism, critical civic education, teaching Black and underrepresented narratives in social studies education. Advocacy, activism, intersectionality, anti-racist and anti-oppressive education lie at the core of her work. Education is her revolution.

Black Lives Matter in Early Childhood Classrooms: Using Children's Literature to Spark Conversation From Toddlers to 3rd Grade

Recommended for Early Childhood.

It's never too early to start talking to children about race and anti-biased behavior. Remember, early childhood covers the ages birth through eight! Join an experienced early childhood teacher and hear more about ways to use books to support students' understandings of the Principles of Black Lives Matter at School.

PRESENTER BIO

Laleña Garcia See presenter’s bio above.

More about the Curriculum Fair and Week of Action

The curriculum fair and local week of action will build on the momentum of past years' National Black Lives Matter at School Year of Purpose campaign taking place in cities across the U.S. The campaign promotes a set of national demands based in the Black Lives Matter guiding principles that focus on improving the school experience for students of color.

The Black Lives Matter movement is a powerful, non-violent peace movement that systematically examines injustices that exist at the intersections of race, class, and gender; including mass incarceration, poverty, non-affordable housing, income disparity, homophobia, unfair immigration laws, gender inequality, and poor access to healthcare.

The Uprising for Black lives prompted the Black Lives Matter at School movement to expand activities to a “Year of Purpose.” The centerpiece of the Year of Purpose is asking educators to reflect on their own work in relationship to antiracist pedagogy and abolitionist practice, persistently challenging themselves to center Black lives in their classrooms.

Read about the 2022 curriculum fair.

Learn more and sign up for the Black Lives Matter Week of Action.