34 minute read
Whose City? Our City
Right to Free Public Education The right to a free public education shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, gender, disability, ethnicity, religion, poverty, actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, place of residency or immigration status.
Right to Study Curriculum that Acknowledges & Addresses Youth’s Material and Cultural Needs Students and youth shall have the right to study curriculum that acknowledges and affirms the ongoing struggle of oppressed peoples for equality and justice, and that addresses the real, material, and cultural needs of their communities.
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Right to Safe & Secure Housing Students and youth shall have the right to safe and secure housing.
Right to Free Public Transportation Students and youth shall have the right to free public transportation for the purposes of education, employment, family and community needs, or recreation.
Right to Physical Activity & Recreation Students and youth shall have the right to physical activity and recreation of high quality regardless of their wealth, poverty, or place of residence.
Right to Safe & Secure Public Schools Students and youth shall have the right to safe and secure public school facilities of equal quality regardless of wealth, poverty, or place of residence.
Right to Free Health Care Students and youth shall have the right to free health and dental care, including quality public health and preventive care.
Right to High Quality Food Students and youth shall have the right to healthy, high quality food regardless of wealth, poverty, or place of residence.
Right to Employment Students and youth shall have the right to employment, to support themselves while they are in school and college.
Right to Free Day Care for Children Students and youth with children of their own shall have the right to free day care for their children.
Right to Free College Education Students and youth shall have the right to free college education
Right to Freedom from Unwarranted Search, Seizure or Arrest Students and youth shall be secure from arbitrary police searches and seizures and from arbitrary arrests and detentions without warrants.
Right to Restorative Justice & Peer Evaluation Students and youth shall have the right to establish systems of restorative justice in schools and communities, shall not be excluded from educational opportunities except by a jury of their peers, and shall not be charged for crimes as adults until the age of 18.
Right to Arts Education Students and youth shall have the right to participation in arts, music, dance, drama, poetry, and technology of high quality regardless of wealth, poverty, or place of residence.
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Afrofuturism speaks to our moment because it alone – not the ahistorical, apolitical corporate precogs at TED talks; not the fatuous Hollywood franchises that have nothing to say about our times–offers a mythology of the future present, an explanatory narrative that recovers the lost data of historical memory, confronts the dystopian reality of black life in America, demands a place for people of color among the monorails and the Hugh Ferris monoliths of our tomorrows, insists that our Visions of Things to Come live up to our pieties about racial equality and social justice.
– Mark Dery These difficult battles are strengthened by a very long view that sees our role as protecting the present, the future, and the 7th
generation. – Tom Goldtooth
Our position from the present create what [the] past and future looks like, what it means at every moment. We determine what meaning and what relationships both dimensions of time have to our present moment.
– Rasheedah Phillips
… the map of the new world is in the imagination …
– Robin D.G. Kelley
Future is already here but it hasn’t been distributed equally.
– William Gibson
We will make our own future text.
– Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo
You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.
– Angela Davis
You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the mad[people] of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.
– Thomas Sankara, former President, Burkino Faso
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Whose City? Our City!
FMFP is unique if for no other reason than its shifting location. Each city lends its flavor to How We Get Free activities, to site visits, to how it builds community, and to what has become an annual tradition–the Thursday night jump-off featuring the artistry of local performers and FMFP participants. Every 2 years a different city has the chance to show out and bring folks into their educational, political and cultural landscape.
growing FMFP Attendance at FMFP has steadily increased since 2007 when about 300 people attended and engaged with 40 workshops, to 2017 when we had 1000 attendees and 100 workshops. Our highest draw, 1200 participants, was at the 2015 conference in the Bay Area. Participants consistently say that they acquire new skills, strategies, and perspectives at FMFP, and find a community in which to share their work and combat feelings of isolation. According to one teacher, “Participation in the [Oakland] conference both helped to rejuvenate/reground me in continuing education for liberation work in a very hostile environment as well as supporting me in connecting to a larger network to accomplish more.” FMFP also helps to sustain participants’ activism over time. In Houston 2009 young people claimed space that sparked the idea for a National Student Bill of Rights, and at subsequent FMFPs (2011, 2013, 2015) galvanized support to more fully develop and organize for the adoption of this statement.
Check out the FMFP website to see photos from past conferences.
23 national impact Beyond the conference space FMFP has played an important role in cultivating and sustaining Ethnic Studies nationally over the last seven years. In Providence 2011, a feature presentation was on the Mexican American Studies (MAS) program in Tucson, AZ, a well-documented struggle that has shined light on the educational power of strong ethnic studies programs. In 2012 educators in California gathered to organize an initial plan to create movement toward the implementation of Ethnic Studies in California and for a National Assembly held at FMFP 2013. And following Chicago 2013, educators in Arizona and California planned for the next national assembly at Oakland 2015, a practice that continued in advance of Baltimore 2017 and which included
educators from Minnesota. Providence 2011 was also significant in helping FMFP to promote the viewpoints of our expansive community through a partnership between ELN and VUE. FMFP has also been introduction to ELN for most of the
current Board members, and their interests and local work is brought into ELN and FMFP.
Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion. – Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Primary organizers The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, Chicago Freedom School, Education for Liberation Network, University of Chicago Center for Urban Improvement
Main Site Little Village/Greater Lawndale High School
Numbers About 300 participants
2007 Chicago context Chicago was chosen as the host city for the first Free Minds Free People since it provided access to a meeting space, funding and local organizers committed to our dream. The New York City team, half of whom were youth, contributed significantly to its planning and facilitation. None of the conference organizers were sure what to expect, but when 300 youth, educators, activists, and organizers showed up, they knew they had created something. The offering of FMFP was connecting those in the struggle for educational justice a space to come together, to learn and teach, to be inspired and rejuvenated, and to find a political home.
ancestral lands of the Potawatomi, Miami & Illinois
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Welcome to Free Minds Free People! Over the next three days you will have the opportunity to talk, share ideas, debate and build alliances with teachers, youth, researchers, community-based educators, college students and parents from around the country. This unique event breaks down many of the barriers that fragment our communities–the barriers of age, if race, of geography, of occupation.
Where else can you find in one place Native and African American educators discussing cultural education? Teenagers presenting research on undocumented students’ access to higher education? 1960s Freedom School teachers and students sharing experiences with contemporary Freedom School educators? High school students teaching teachers math? Our methods and practices are divers, but we share a commitment to educating ourselves and our communities to build a more just world.
The idea of a national conference first took root more than a year ago at a kitchen table in Durham, NC where a group of activists and educators were eating crab cakes (a la Charles Payne) and talking about the recent resurgence of interest Freedom Schools and social justice education. Soon afterwards a planning team emerged with a group of organizations from New York and a group of organizations from Chicago. Chicago, home to a rich variety of Education for Liberation work, seemed like an ideal setting for a national convening.
Free Minds Free People is about more than swapping ideas and experiences. One of our goals is to talk about what comes next–how we can help each other get better at this work and how we can get more people involved. On Sunday you will be able to help us define the future of Education for Liberation. Our success depends on our ability to build longterm relationships and connect work across the barriers that divide us,
As Che Guevara said, “Education is the property of no one. It belongs to the people, they will have to take it.”
This weekend, we take it. Peace, The Conference Organizers
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Primary local organizers
2009 houston
the strengths
Robin Owens & Teffanie Thompson White
Main Site Houston Convention Center
Numbers About 400 participants
Context In Houston in 2009, the organizers worked hard to make sure there was something for everyone. They wanted youth to feel inspired to take their work to the next level, they wanted educators to stay committed to social justice efforts in their classrooms, they wanted activists and organizers to learn from the many generations of leaders who were gathered at the convening. In short, they wanted us to engage, exchange, and experience. Coming off the first conference and going to a new place while honing the plannoing process was a scary, but exciting step. The National Student Bill of Rights was born in Houston 2009 at a youth-only town hall meeting. Highlights of Houston 2009 were the conference’s friendly intergenerational vibe & energy and the diversity of participants, workshops and activities. Some workshops were so popular that participants wanted them to be presented more than once. Having people of color in leadership and grassroots facilitation was recognized and some of the specific activities participants liked were the neighborhood tour, Town Hall meeting for youth, the poetry slam, and art-making. Participants appreciated that there were opportunities to connect researchers with on-the-ground work, to expose youth and staff together to what’s going on in larger social justice world and across the US, and to learn new concrete strategies (mapping, media as a SJ tool, PAR examples, etc.).
I will remember how the students perceive their schools, and give some space for that in my classroom. (teacher,
New Mexico)
The networking aspect—the ability to connect with folks with various resources. The ideas for implantation of social justice curriculum to empower high school students. (teacher, New York)
It was a great conference. I loved it.
ancestral lands of the Karankawa, Sana, Atakapa-Ishak & Coahuilteca
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It was like we all had something in common and we shared our struggles and achievements. Inspiring. (high school
student, Utah)
FMFP was really awesome. I’ve been to a lot of conferences, but this was one of the most positive, diverse, energetic and action oriented. Thank you! [I got outside my usual network—met more diverse folks, especially those who are
organizers. (Community-based educator/ organizer, Mississippi)
It feels like a big family cause everyone is on the same page. [Now I’m] more aware of what’s happening so I’m more considerate about things. (high school
students, Texas)
The professional diversity of the professions of people who attended and presented (students, teachers, professors, community activists) was the greatest strength. (college/university
faculty, Texas) the Womp Womp Lowlights of Houston 2009 were related to logistics (e.g., keeping participants informed of conference activities, poorly organized website, limited lunch options), the location at a conference center, and quality of coordination. There was insufficient local information, hands-on and physical activities, volunteers, and financial support for presenting groups. For some participants there were too many workshops, but there was also a request for more—more people with disabilities represented, more emphasis on movement building, more interaction with the local community, and more research based presentations. Assigning levels to workshops (i.e. intro, in-depth etc.), offering an introductory session for people new to education for liberation, and having a youth a keynote speaker were also suggested by participants.
would we do the same? The death of Michael Jackson took over the news as folks were rolling into Houston. His music was a steady soundtrack throughout the conference and many FMFP participants danced into the night at a club that had an impromptu tribute to him. Had information revealed in the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland been known in 2009, would folks have celebrated MJ?
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Welcome to the 2009 Free Minds, Free People Conference, Texas Edition.
After many months of planning and implementation, we are ready. This conference will have something for youth, for teachers, and for activists and organizers.
For Youth...maybe you're expecting a party and a lot of fun at this year's conference. We are too, but it's more than that. We're going to get together and work on stuff that matters to us. Maybe some of us aren't sure if we even want to show up, but we're coming anyway and who knows, maybe this will be an important turning point for us. Free Minds, Free People has something for you.
For Teachers...maybe you're expecting the same old sessions, speakers, and workshops. We're not. Expect to leave here knowing that you can implement a social justice framework in your classroom and in your community. Free Minds, Free People has something for you.
For Activists and Organizers...there are multiple generations of leaders coming to this conference who are creating solutions to the challenges they're facing, and we're going to connect, create, and share. Free Minds, Free People has something for you.
Get it through your head...we're here to engage. We're here to exchange. We're here to experience. Whether you attend all the workshops, hang out in the film room, or make connections with people via the Late Night DiaLOUNGE, the Poetry Slam, or the Town Hall Meeting, we hope that everyone takes a call to action back to their communities, AND that we all get together again in 2011.
Texas Local Planning Committee: Brandi, Earl, Juan, Michelle, MJ, Robin, Sharee, Teffanie, Valencia.
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2011
Local organizing CBO Youth In Action (YIA)
Main Site The Providence Career & Technical Academy
Numbers About 700 participants
Context providence excerpts from the Vue* Since [YIA’s] inception, youth have played key leadership roles at every level of the organization, making up the majority of YIA’s board of directors and running all of our community programs. [They] re part of every decision, from approving our budget to choosing the color of paint on the walls to hosting the 2011 Free Minds, Free People conference this past summer. (Adeola
The Providence conference saw the most engaged youth planning process to date. Members of Youth In Action were key planning team members throughout the entire process, including Christopher Castro who invited participants to be “ready for real education! For action! For fun!” The first RadPD happened in Providence, as well as organizing spaces that would in later years become assembly spaces. The National Student Bill of Rights began to take real shape at one such youth-only organizing space, and Young Activists workshops were launched.
Oredola)
The most important thing I want our community, the youth, our educators, and all the amazing people who are at this conference today to know is that the work we are doing, it’s already work that has started, and it’s up to us to go on with the work. It’s up to our generation to lay down the foundation and to keep going for the future generations, for our youth to keep going with that work that was started with the Black freedom movement in the South, with Dr. King, Malcolm X, Dr. Harding, and such. It’s our right to be educated, and it’s up to us to use education as a form to liberate
ourselves. (Antonio Albizures)
* Vue featuring ELN & FMFP: http://vue. annenberginstitute.org/issues/34)
ancestral lands of the narragansett
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the strengths & takeaways
the greatest strength was bringing so many diverse and incredible people working with youth who are working for social justice together.
I think that the conference did a better job than any other conference I have been to of being truly inter-generation and not tokenizing youth.
Amazing organizing/justice work. Amazing youth leadership front and center.
it brought together people from many parts of society and allowed me to meet people I wouldnt generally have the chance to meet.
I have matured my connections with colleagues to spread the word, increase the awareness, and deepen the support for our cause in AZ.
The conference made me realize the extent of the power we have in numbers.
The conference has given me a greater understanding of the educational problems in this country along with the tools and hope I need to help solve them. It gave me a sense of new inspiration to spread liberation across my city, state, and nation.
30 Has helped validate my approach and inspire me for my first year of teaching.
It gave me the freedom to say “hegemony” and “oppression” and “colonialization” in public.
I will incorporate what I have learned and experienced into the classroom and community I work in. Thanks for the ideas and the inspiration!
In Lak’ech Tú eres mi otro yo. You are my other me. Si te hago daño a ti, If I do harm to you, Me hago daño a mi mismo. I do harm to myself. Si te amo y respeto, If I love and respect you, Me amo y respeto yo. I love and respect myself.
Curtis Acosta adapted this “timeless Mayan precept” into a larger poem called Pensamiento Serpentino., and used it to celebrate his class’s collective humanity in his Tucson’s MAS courses. Learn more in the Vue.
Free Minds, Free People 2011, Welcome to Providence!
I am so excited to learn, grow, and move forward with all of you. My first experience with this conference was in Houston and it really changed me. I left inspired to be a more active community leader, and committed to bringing FMFP to my hometown. Fast forward two years--after a big retreat, lots of creative ideas, endless fundraising, and a million conference calls---we are READY!
By the way, this is not your typical conference. There is something for everyone at FMFP. All of us on the planning team worked really hard to make it the best conference ever. I hope you are ready for real education! For action! For fun! Most importantly, I hope your experience inspires you to join the Education for Liberation movement so we all can work together to better schools and communities.
Sincerely, Christopher Castro, age 18 Co-Chair, Youth In Action Board of Directors
p.s. A big THANK YOU to the planning team and everyone who helped make FMFP 2011 possible!
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organizing team Tara Mack, Bill Ayers, Mia Henry, Xavier Maatra, Erica Meiners, Njeri Parker, Alex Poeter, Isaura Pulido, Aja Reynolds, Kesh Ross
Main Site Uplift Community High School and The People’s Church
2013 Chicago
Numbers Called to action
About 1,000 participants
Context Salt Lake City, Utah was chosen as the site for FMFP 2013. But after a promising planning retreat there and a few of months of working on the conference, the local team expressed their discomfort about what they perceived as a process that undermined their best efforts. FMFP organizers with a history of planning together were surprised by the critique but took it as an opportunity to improve collaboration. They had to also very quickly find a new host city.
Coming off an exciting and invigorating Chicago Teacher Union (CTU) strike in the fall of 2012, the organizers were thrilled to bring the ever-growing FMFP community back to Chicago. One of the hallmarks of the CTU strike was the involvement of parents and young people in the struggle, which tempered attempts to pit teachers against students and parents. In addition to teacher labor issues, school closings were of primary concern for youth and their families. These issues, and community responses to them, were central to the conference. The first national Ethnic Studies assembly took place in Chicago 2013 and has continued at every FMFP since.
The verdict that found George Zimmerman not guilty of killing Trayvon Martin was announced during FMFP 2013. The decision rocked participants, but in true FMFP fashion, called them to action. From the FMFP blog (Megan Wells, July 14, 2013):
This is not how we thought it would end. A beautiful, inspiring, movement-building gathering has been rocked by last night’s news of the “not guilty” verdict in the murder of Trayvon Martin. Many FMFP-ers joined with local efforts an emergency rally that was held last night in front of Chicago’s City Hall demanding justice. As we close the 2013 Free Minds, Free People today with assemblies, considering next steps on a variety of educational and racial justice issues, people are organizing. What are our next steps given this travesty of justice? How do we turn our rage at the devaluing of black and brown lives into action? There will be a rally today at noon at Daley Plaza (50 W. Washington). Many FMFP attendees will be going there after today’s activities are finished. A town hall for youth will take place at 3 PM at ancestral lands of the Young Chicago Authors (1180 N.
Potawatomi, Miami Milwaukee Ave.). & Illinois
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the strengths & takeaways
FMFP is increasingly becoming an important check-point and destination for education justice activists.
Our youth learned so much and have begun to think critically about issues that affect them yet they didn’t think about, like incarceration
[There was] plenty of inspiration to continue my work as a radical educator.
It inspires me to increase my focus on social justice in all my work and my reading list has grown exponentially.
I can take these ideas back with me and move forward; specifically, i will be able to take back tangible examples and modify them for our area.
[FMFPis a] great opportunity to learn form and share with and meet educators from all over the country and different intersections.
I gained tools to bring to my organization and a strong sense of how much work i need to do to check myself as a profesisonal working with young adults.
From every session I attended, I took away something that I will use in my work. It has given me confidence to speak up.
It galvanized me to taking local actions, not just talking about it.
I was remotivated and recharged to The learnings from the conference will be shared with colleagues in higher education to develop collaborations that impacts public education.
It has given me reason to work harder because I see that there are many driven, intelligent people working on these issues.
It will help me become a stronger activist within my community and work for social justice.
It shaped our students minds on what they could do in their school
[I will] continue the fight for restorative justice in my career. I plan to take what I’ve learned back to my colleagues and (hopefully) build a movement here in Detroit.
The collection of workshop topics and diversity of attendees are what really makes FMFP a special space.
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Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the 2013 Free Minds, Free People conference in my beautiful city of Chicago, Illinois.
We are the home of the Chicago Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Wolves, and Fire. Our city is beautiful and has wonderful neighborhoods, parks, and schools. We have strong communities that come together to fight for justice.
We fight for education justice and peace in our communities. We have some communities with better schools, parks, and more resources. Our communities are divided because some are low in income; some have boarded up houses and litter on the ground as if they’re deserted. Another problem is the schools. Chicago has the most school closings in the history of America. If our schools are closed, teachers will be unemployed and the students will be forced to learn in over-crowded classrooms.
In this conference, you will learn to strengthen the communities and schools. Join us in our fight to stop violence, gain peace in our communities, and to fight for education justice. Welcome all to Chicago!
Asean Johnson, age 9 Marcus Garvey School
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Local organizing CBO People’s Education Movement - Bay Area and a local team whose names are listed in the FMFP Organizers 2007-2019 display.
Main Site
2015 oakland
the strengths
It was organized well and the workshops held covered SO many interesting and engaging topics. I was actually bummed that I couldn’t somehow attend more at the same time!
The people. The centering on the experiences of people of color. The workshops. The spaces for relationship building.
I think the greatest strengths of the conference are the honoring of youth voice and connection between community and traditionally academic/ ivory tower work.
The keynote speaker was amazing. He really pulled everyone together as well as the opening ceremony. It made it feel more like friends all learning together and spreading knowledge cross organizations rather than sitting in a lecture with strangers.
The human and solidarity component. This space feels real, authentic, and raw - characteristics that can get lost in our work as we focus in on one area or get caught up in the system. Its a beautiful and unique place that is a touch stone for why we do what we do for our schools, young people, and communities across the nation.
Laney College
Numbers About 1,200 participants
Context FMFP moved to the West Coast for the first time and participants got to feel that Oakland swag. A home for Third World Organizing, the organizers asked us to take seriously the call for decolonization, starting with the decolonization of our minds. Cultural night was a hit with youth from all across the city performing the night before the conference started. With 1200 attendees the conference was held at a community college, rather than at the high schools in most previous conferences, to accommodate the growing FMFP community.
ancestral lands of the Ohlone
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The conference was so phenomenal!! I love the positive vibes and hopeful vibes of the conference. I really appreciated the emphasis of exploring Oakland!! It was so deep to take a moment of silence for Oscar Grant when we were at Fruitvale. I looooooved the activist art space at the school! Also, the talent night was such a powerful space! The sense of community was incredible! Also, I am not a youth but I was really happy to see a track for young people. I will be bringing younger folks to the next conference!
The art workshop at ARISE was very meaningful to me; it put me on to a new form of art creation-- of spiritual healing-- and I hope there is another aspect of that for the next conference.
the takeaways
The teens from our nonprofit (Give Us The Floor) who attended really enjoyed it and were inspired by it. They want to attend it next year and are eager to be a part of similar events and workshops. It was a great opportunity for them!
I have already reached out to some of the presenters I saw and it also put a fire in my belly to focus my teaching on working towards justice. Innovative ideas on how to manage anti oppressive conversations [for example] bring in Black Lives Matter movement into the Curriculum.
There were some awesome curricular ideas that I will try to implement myself when I begin teaching my own classroom. I will also follow up with a couple connections I made.
The impact it will have is every organization I end up in, I will take my teaching and incorporate what I Learned statistically creatively to create the change my community needs.
wooooo, as a white woman I guess its my main source of knowledge for the work I do. It influences everything I do, every conversation I have, and any direction I think about taking with young people, organizers, friends, allies, etc.
motivation and inspiration for work we have already started around school to prison pipeline and policing in our area
This conference feeds my soul, it helps me realize how important this organizing and work are in my local community. I am glad I met someone from my home state and was able to bring other teachers from my state to the conference too.
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Greetings from Oakland, California! We are excited for Free Minds Free People to find “Home” in the West Coast for the very first time in FMFP history! Oakland has a deep historical legacy of struggle and resistance, which continues to fuel the organized resistance inside and outside of schools here in the San Francisco Bay Area. The focus on ethnic studies, gender and sexuality studies, human trafficking, and the impacts of gentrification are at the forefront of national efforts, and Oakland is an opportune place to see communities reclaiming and resisting in the face of systemic displacement and dispossession. Even more, the SF Bay Area is a model region for education reform across the country – from food justice, environmental justice, restorative justice – Oakland is one of the major hubs of these struggles. By joining us at FMFP Oakland 2015, we can learn from one another and unite the struggles for educational justice in the larger historical struggle for racial, gendered, and classbased humanization and the liberation of oppressed people. We look forward to building and connecting with all of you!
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Local organizing CBO Baltimore Algebra Project (BAP)
Main Site Loyola University
Numbers About 1,000 participants
2017 baltimore
context If FMFP 2015 asked us to think deeper about decolonization, the 2017 conference asked us to get gritty with the theme of Fighting for Our Lives. The murder of Victorious Swift, a FMFP 2015 participant and member of the Baltimore Algebra Project, brought that realness into stark relief. The conference rallied around Victorious and his mother, Mama Victory, with the We Are Victorious frame. Radical healing was not just a plenary session, but a conference value and objective.
the strengths
The keynotes were powerful. When Victory began preaching like the elder she was about her son Victorious and no one took her mic or was trying to get her to calm down. She was seen and honored and she saw and honored others, too. Loved the generous array of workshops. It was so hard to choose! The greatest strengths of this conference was the variety in workshop offerings that appealed to different people in the education justice movement, the various different plenaries and conversations that occurred and the consistent centering of young people of color in all the spaces.
I loved all the youth involvement in planning and the conference itself. I loved that it wasn’t in one the cities conferences always go to. And I thought everyone worked well together. Lots of high energy; lots of amazing workshops; strong plenaries.
Diversity of workshop topics, led by youth, youth presence, loved learning about Baltimore, school and community organization connection, after hours activity especially the culture night and protest, felt like a space that was for and run by people or color -- didn’t feel like a white space, most presenters and speakers were people of color.
The people! The folks who come together, and their voices, are always so inspiring, exhilarating, and life giving and just on time every 2 years.
I think that that the conference provides a strong sense of solidarity for its participants. I really thought the restorative circle and radical healing ideas added
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a welcome balance. I learned a lot about becoming a more effective ally and a better teacher.
It’s a democratic and highly collaborative process that centers youth and people of color. There are few if no conferences that feature facilitators with such an age and sectoral range, and where there is opportunity for learning, joy and reflection. Planning is also designed to echo programming, and more than not achieves this goal.
the Womp Womp
I think an opening that enabled people to land, to agree to some basic agreements, to connect openly, to set intentions, would really help. . . . It was intense for the first thing to be the story of victorious... i’m happy his presence and story were brought in. just suggesting the timing could be different, so people can land first and then receive that info and dedicate the conference to him. even a welcome, an opening, some time to land and connect, and then the story of victorious, would have helped. . . . no time to digest or even pause with those stories. . . . . also would have loved some opportunities to harvest learnings and make more connections postworkshops.
I wondered if the experience could be deepened by having this conference at a Historical Black College/University Perhaps I missed it...but I would have loved to have seen more of the richness of Baltimore/Maryland’s historical role in liberation reflected in the workshops, etc.(ie: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Reginald F, Lewis and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum etc...). It would have been great to have ways to formally connect with participants who are in similar roles and/or other conference presenters in order to make more meaningful connections.
To me, a great conference is one where all of the participants walk away more informed & enlightened on issues that matter to them, and thus better prepared to do their work. My impression is that FMFP may be informative for those new to the ed justice landscape and who are 1st time attendants, but for everyone else I suspect that FMFP is primarily a space to connect with like-minded people and affirm one’s commitment to ed justice. The latter is wonderful & important, but I think we can, and urgently need, to do more.
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Greetings from Baltimore, Maryland. We are enthusiastic and eager for the Free Minds, Free People conference to find its way to Birdland! We are very happy to be this year’s host city. Baltimore has a very deep and rich history of being entrenched in struggle. This is especially true for young people in schools of poverty, particularly students of color. These students are routinely disarmed by the institutional racism of white supremacy. By joining us in Baltimore for the conference, we have an opportunity to learn from one another, build bonds through networking, and connect our efforts on a national level. Us Baltimoreans will expose our guests to the ins and outs of a typical young person in the city of Baltimore.
In 2009 at FMFP, young people from across the nation gathered to draft a document that describes a set of students’ education rights which they believe should be federally protected. This document is the “National Students Bill of Rights” and has served as a banner under which a number of modern social justice victories have been won. Among these rights is the right to safe and secure public school facilities, as well as the right to free college education free childcare for students. It is evident that the system currently in place for the protection of students’ rights within school buildings is not only ineffective, but detrimental to the education and physical safety of the students. In the absence of protection for students’ rights, we allow one for profit industry (school police) to prepare and package students for inherent violations of their rights. Each NSBR violation experienced by a student detracts from their ability to actively engage with their education. Simultaneously funding is pulled from schools and poured into prisons.
As a result the path these youth take is diverted: postsecondary education is replaced with prison. While this issue is well known, there is currently no effective method for communities to intervene in this process. Therefore it is our duty as young people, educators, and community members to publicly denounce these structures. Baltimore youth and our allies have provided, and will continue to provide young people and communities with resources to combat and counteract the constant violation of our rights. We will continue to speak out against these injustices. Through this continued support of our communities, we will produce an equitable educational experience for young people of color in schools of poverty. In doing so we, the youth of Baltimore City, will create an environment where students are not afraid of being assaulted by individuals meant to protect them. We look forward to building, working, learning, and fellowshipping with you with all of you in the name of THE STRUGGLE!
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organizing structure Twin Cities assembled a local group of conference planners whose names are listed in FMFP Organizers 2007-2021.
Main Site
2019 twin cities
From the Underbelly with
Ruha Benjamin, professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab and author of the books People’s Science and Race After Technology, among other publications.
University of Minnesota
Numbers About 1000 participants
context FMFP 2019 conference centered imagination with the theme: Getting Free Imagining Freedom. As 2011 keynote speaker Dr. Vincent Harding liked to say, “I am a citizen of a country that does not yet exist.” The Twin Cities conference asked participants to look back and look forward to imagine education that does not yet exist.
The FMFP Podcast crew helped to set the table for our Twin Cities gathering. Check out these episodes:
with activist scholar Rose Brewer. Rose is a long time member of the FMFP community and a professor of African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota.
Meet Marika Pfefferkorn: Twin Cities
Change Agent and Disruptor - Marika is an interdisciplinary, cross-sector thought leader and change agent.
with Dr. Brian Lozenski - Brian is an activist scholar and Professor Urban and Multicultural Education at Macalester College and ELN Board member.
the takeaways Formal feedback from participants was too low (only 11 people completed the survey) to capture the conference’s impact and lessons. We do know that following FMFP 2019, the local organizers formed ELN Minn, becoming the first official local chapter of Education for Liberation Network (ELN). As host of FMFP, ELN has at least two main goals: 1) to support local liberatory activities and people organizing them and 2) to connect local work to national movement building. The formation of ELN Minn is a realization of both aims.
ancestral lands of the ojibwe, dakota & sioux
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the Womp Womp Historically, FMFP has not given enough time or put in the necessary work to develop authentic bonds with Native American activists, educators, scholars and organizers doing liberatory educational work. With FMFP 2019 taking place where Native American organizing has a long and powerful history, the local organizing team wanted to ensure their voices would be represented at the conference. They also understood that longer term relationships were critical but hoped to use FMFP as a means to begin true collaboration. Unfortunately, this did not come to be. In the aftermath of FMFP 2021, some ELN Board members are working with Indigenous comrades on a Native Educators initiative. As well, one of the themes for FMFP 2021 directly addresses our historical shortcoming by pairing Healing & Decolonization as one of the themed weeks (see page 31).
The visitors list from 12 Years Free!
Part of the mythology that they’ve been teaching you is that you have no power. Power is not brute force and money; power is in your spirit. Power is in your soul. It is what your ancestors, your old people gave you. Power is in the earth; it is in your relationship to the earth. – Winona LaDuke
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