The Education Underground Railroad

• In Event: Communal Possibilities: Critical Reflections in Three Breaths

Abstract

For generations of people of color, the word legacy conjures up images of misfortune. What legacies are left for them? A legacy of loss of freedom, oppression, or limitation? In many instances, underrepresented folks with marginalized identities have experienced an interruption in the invisibility of our greatness. During this year-long experiential enterprise, participants were provided the opportunity to examine which legacies they wanted to explore in a fugitive space and to imagine the world they would prefer to create rather than the current educational world they may be inhabiting. This collective represents the metaphoric Underground Railroad located within plain sight. Many do not see the sheer potential represented not only within the context of these invisible spaces but also within the people who make the conscious decision to join these spaces to foster liberation, joy and the realization of human potential.

This presentation will examine the ways in which educators who are conductors of education as a form of justice create a revised narrative which asks students and faculty alike to consider ways to produce knowledge that is free of limitations placed on them by white supremacist ways of thinking, knowing, and being within the academy.

Author

• Erica King-Toler, John Jay College - CUNY