NBJC x Black Educators

Panel I: Youth Panel

 

This panel focuses on the experiences of Black/Afro-diasporic TQNB+ students in K-12 schools, the ways that schools enabled or get in the way of their thriving, and what can be done to support TQNB+ students during their K12 experience. 

 

Date and Time: January 25, 7:30 pm ET  

 

Registration Link: https://urbanteachers.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wUgsA4ZpQ0iGw6tDbZy1aQ

 

Panelists: 

 

Justin Calhoun, a native of Ruleville, Mississippi, is a recent graduate of Howard University. Justin served as a student leader and queer community student organizer. Through his leadership of the Coalition of Activist Students Celebrating the Acceptance of Diversity and Equality (CASCADE) at Howard, Justin helped to establish Howard University’s first Queer Studies course and was acknowledged for his advocacy leadership while testifying before Congress on behalf of Black Queer Youth.  Justin has interned with the National Black Justice Coalition, the Human Rights Campaign and GLSEN. Currently, he serves on the Youth Action Council for NBJC and as an organizer working on defunding the police on college campuses in the DMV area.    

 

Sage Dolan-Sandrino (@thhrift), 20, is a queer youth leader, Founder and Creative Director of @theteammag and member of The National Black Justice Coalition’s Youth and Young Adult Advisory Council. Since being scouted by Gucci in 2018, for the fashion film ‘The Future is Fluid’, Sage now serves as an advisory board member to the brand’s CHIME FOR CHANGE campaign for global gender equity.  

 

Gabriella “Gabby” Hall is a 3rd-year student at City Polytechnic High School. She is 16 years old, pronouns are she/her and she identifies with the LGBTQ+ community. Her ideal career choice is architecture but she shows interests in the arts and design fields. Her main goal in life is to be happy and well off and at the least live life the way God intended her to. Currently, Gabby has taken an interest in expanding her skill set regarding her field of work as well as in communications. As a black woman, causes closest to her heart include BLM and the women’s rights movement. One of Gabby’s commendable traits is how vocal she is on these issues and the lengths she will go to in order to bring awareness to them. Though this may seem like a great deal of information she is still in her early chapters of life and Gabby continues down a path of self-discovery in order to learn more about herself.

 

Dylan Hughes is a student at San Francisco state. He is a transgender African American male who writes in his free time of spoken word and poetry. Dylan does his best to try and give back as he has had his own fair share of challenges but uses his experiences to help others who have been in his own situations that he has shared. Dylan has had trouble in the past with self-love, self-worth, identity and many more but through the years he has found a way to uplift himself and help others do the same.

Panel II: Practitioner Panel

 

In this panel education practitioners respond to the youth panel’s reflections about what they need in order to thrive, then discuss what TQNB+ educators need to thrive both in and out of schools. 

 

Date and Time: February 1, 7:30 pm ET 

 

Registration Link: https://urbanteachers.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3EYXIXZxREqA8DrRkx5nxg

 

Panelists: 

 

Sharhonda Bossier is the Interim CEO at Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC). In her current role, Sharhonda focuses on identifying, equipping, elevating and sustaining talented Black and Latinx leaders to thrive in the highest-level education roles and lead a more inclusive education reform movement. Prior to joining EdLoC, Sharhonda Bossier worked with a national non-profit that supported and advised city-based education organizations on their efforts to grow great public schools. In addition to core advising work, Sharhonda utilized her experience launching and leading a multi-state education engagement and advocacy organization to help members develop the skills and capacity to engage much more effectively with stakeholders. A graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, Sharhonda started her career in education as a public school teacher and also brings years of legislative and electoral campaign experience in both volunteer and leadership capacities to her work at Education Leaders of Color.

 

Kamal James is a Bronx born – Brooklyn bred teacher and researcher. He teaches Earth science and facilitates the Gender and Sexuality Alliance at City Polytechnic High School. As a gay, black, first-generation American, Kamal uses his experiences to inform his pedagogy and empower his advocacy for LGBTQ+ issues. He is currently pursuing his graduate studies in Science Education at City College. His interests include natural hazard mitigation, climate resiliency, and environmental issues in the context of marginalized populations. Kamal’s most recent research presented at the American Geophysical Union involved the mapping of tectonic features in Lake Azuei, Haiti. He is currently exploring topics in environmental racism with his students. In his free time, Kamal fancies himself an amateur cartographer and enjoys walking the bridges of NYC – taking in the majestic urban jungle.

 

Eric Williamson  is Black Boy Joy! He is the music teacher at P.S. 32 located in Brooklyn, NY and serves as Repertoire & Resources Chair in Diversity & Inclusion for the New York Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. As an educator & performer, he is committed to helping children find their voice in his music class, private voice studio, and on some of New York City’s biggest concert stages with the Grammy award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus. As an out teacher, he prides himself in teaching the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and identity with an emphasis on child centered experiences to children preK-12. As an emerging voice in music education, he has led workshops and sessions centering Black & Brown composers in choral music and beyond. He received his BA in music and minor in African & African-American Studies from Penn State University and his MA in Music Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.  

Panel III: Intersectionality in Praxis 

 

This panel synthesizes the first two of the series with three education leaders using their own experience to offer insight about Black LGBTQ+/SGL thriving in schools, key takeaways, and policy recommendations. 

 

Date and Time: February 8, 7:30 pm ET 

 

Registration Link: https://urbanteachers.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ku2-Vo4jT9W5Q2uUmkblag 

 

Panelist: 

 

Dr. BreAnna Evans-Santiago is an Assistant Professor and Chair of the Teacher Education Department at California State University, Bakersfield. Identifying as a Queer Black Woman, she has immersed herself in examining social justice practices within K-12 schools. Most recently, her research focuses on LGBTQ+ curriculum implementation and teacher experiences as she continues to explore the intersectionalities of Queer People of Color. She taught in the PK-8 sector for 15 years before beginning her journey at the collegiate level in 2011. When asked why she does this work, she states, “If I can reach a few teachers a year, imagine how many students will experience a safer, more equitable education.” Dr. Evans-Santiago recently published an edited book titled, “Mistakes We Have Made: Implications for Social Justice Educators.”

 

Micia Mosely is the founder and director of The Black Teacher Project, a program of The National Equity Project committed to developing a Black teaching force to transform schools into communities of liberated learning. Prior to leading this work, she was a National Training Specialist with The Posse Foundation. Mosely began her career as a high school social studies teacher before earning her Ph.D. in Education from U.C. Berkeley. She is a published researcher whose work focuses on race and professional development. Also a successful theater artist and performer, Mosely tours the nation with her socio-political stand-up comedy. Learn more at www.miciamosely.com & www.blackteacherproject.org.

 

Tim’m West is an educator and multi-discipline performance artist, author, hip hop recording artist, poet, activist, and youth advocate who is a graduate of Duke University (BA), The New School for Social Research (MA), and Stanford University (MA).  West has worked as an educator and activist in K-12 public schools and at the post-secondary level, teaching and serving as department chair in Oakland and DC, and also teaching at Eugene Lang College of The New School, Stanford University, Humboldt State University, and Houston Community College.  Beyond his youth advocacy and work as a public intellectual, he continues to lead in education spaces in Cincinnati, where he currently resides, as Chair of Chase Elementary’s Local School Decision Making Committee (LSDMC), a Board member of Wordplay–Cincy, School Board School, and Cincinnati Black Pride. Initiated to his own AIDS diagnosis in 1999 and resilience thereafter, Tim’m has engaged in a myriad of efforts beyond schools advocating for HIV/AIDS awareness and education, including his leadership at AID Atlanta, St. Hope Foundation’s FUSION Center in Houston, TX, and as Director of Youth Services at Chicago’s