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Reflections on Toni Jones' "Who Am I Without Work"

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   Full circle story: In my time of reflection of the past 12 years as an educator, I’m having to tell myself some truths. One of these truths is that I have been unable to fully process my accomplishments because I’ve kept my eyes on my greater goal. I’ve been glad but not satisfied. I’ve sat in gratitude but just for a moment before I’m on to the next thing. I was abandoned in this work and my response was to carry it all by myself because I could only control me. How could I let the kids down? How could I let the vision fade away? I’ve been on the spin cycle for too long. And yes, I crashed. It's making challenge even more this grind culture, even when you are serving youth. Today, I had breakfast with one of my Black Student Union (BSU) grads and her mother. They recounted opportunities, events, trips, connections that she participated in and she found a love for game design as a result. They appreciated me for doing so much for them. She is now a lead game designer at a g...
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Reflections on "Finding Your Wings"

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   The   Afrofuturism Discovery Academy , founded by Sherinda Bryant, seeks to help Black youth discover who they truly are using correct history and positive affirmations so they can re-envision themselves and their purpose for the future. In the genre of Afrofuturism, the rules as we know them do not exist. We can use our beautiful imagination to time travel, explore other worlds and we can even fly. We have a new course that expands on this flying concept that is called "This is Why I'm Fly". In this class, students go back to the earliest historical accounts of people who could fly. Yes, there are stories that enslaved Africans took flight and returned to Africa. We go through some of those accounts and students come to their own conclusions about what happened with those Africans. Certainly, the concept of flying has been used in so many mediums since then. We take a look at some of those uses and discuss the metaphor and themes. What does it mean to you to fly? Why ...
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