By Vanessa Williams
DCAESJ and EmpowerEd DC’s third annual Unapologetically Black Educator Story Lounge was just as powerful, moving, and joyous as the previously held events.

D.C. Area educators for Social Justice co-hosted our second annual story lounge with EmpowerEd DC. Educators shared their stories as teachers and how their experiences as students drove them to education, and DCAESJ program manager Vanessa Williams shared a composite poem with golden lines and messages from storytellers that night.

By Vanessa Williams

Walking into the front office of Hayfield Secondary School (ACPS), you’re greeted warmly by the office assistant and with cold-looking portraits of the past administrative staff at the school. Nestled in a classroom inconspicuously on the second floor, Ms. Ariel Alford is prepared to launch into a lesson on Black Lives Matter from an international perspective, focusing that day on Denmark.