Pro-Black Classrooms and the Promise of Epistolary Practices

• In Event: Centering Blackness: Black Feminisms, Mothering, and Revolutionary Praxis

Abstract

There is currently a dearth of research on pro-Black classrooms, particularly as to the ways in which pro-Black classrooms are theorized, experienced, and taught. This work aims to demystify the creation of pro-Black classrooms by unveiling the Co-Authors co-excavative epistolary exchanges and methods. Through co-excavative epistolary practices, the Co-Authors relationship was deepened, collective sense was made of anti-Blackness, and pro-Black academic theorizing commenced. In the Co-Authors making meaning of their letter-writing data, they were guided by the following research questions: 1, How can epistolary spaces motivate pro-Black classrooms; and 2, How do epistolary spaces foster knowledge production?

Authors

• Jordan Bell, Graduate Center - CUNY

• Sherry L. Deckman, Lehman College - CUNY