Standing On Business: Designing Agentic Futures with Justice-Impacted Black Male Youth

• In Event: Hip Hop, Identity, and Black Educational Futures

Abstract

This paper examines the Youth Juvenile Justice Fellows program, a nine-month, out-of-school diversion initiative designed to center the voices, agency, and aspirations of justice-impacted Black male youth ages 14–18. Grounded in Hip Hop pedagogy, and community cultural wealth, YJJF provides bi-weekly sessions that integrate mentorship, advocacy training, and financial literacy. Anchored by the youth-adopted mantra “Standing on Business,” the program redefines Black masculinity through dignity, purpose, and self-determination. This study draws on testimonies from six youth participants who engaged in critical dialogue, lyrical analysis and workshops led by local entrepreneurs and justice-impacted mentors. The session includes youth presenters, underscoring the centrality of lived experience in educational justice work.

Authors

• Bianca J. Nightengale-Lee, Western Michigan University

• Karika Ann Parker, Western Michigan University

• Gus Calbert, Western Michigan University

• Mariana Montserrat Bringas-Acevedo, Western Michigan University