Black Joy and Storytelling

• In Event: The Unapologetic Love of Nuanced Black Joy: Our Relationships Sustain Us

Abstract

This comrade and co-presenter is the respected elder of the panel. With over 30 years of teaching, administrative, and coaching experience, she demonstrates long-sustained advocacy goals. She is the product of unapologetic Black educators who invested in the intelligence and gifts of Black students. Thus, her entire career has emulated a mission to facilitate the education Black students need and deserve. She will tell countless stories about how her thousands of students across her career mobilized their knowledge and demonstrated Black joy. For instance, one story she may share comes from one of her Black and queer students who would not accept the stigmas place upon him at his school. This was to a point where he named the forms of oppression he experienced to teachers and school leaders. Although school leader and teacher reception varied, the student articulated how this symposium panelist supported the students’ healing through connecting him with his already-present voice. In another potential story, she may share about how a collective of Black students successfully advocated for free bus passes to redress transportation inequities. This was a student-led and teacher-facilitated effort that yield Black joy in a district-level victory. This symposium panelist contributions reside in her storytelling gifts that turn Black joy from conceptual to educational practice.

Author

• Fawn Harris
  Presenting Author