UMOJA(OO-M-JAH) Peer Mentoring Program's
E L B U O R T GOOD
SOCIAL JUSTICE INSTITUTE
20 21
UNLEARNING Conference
MAY 8, 2021 • 10AM •VIRTUAL EVENT
UNLEARNING
20 21
The paradox of education is precisely this--that as one begins to become conscious, one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. (Baldwin, 1963)
What happens when you have to unlearn what you’ve learned before? Based on equity work and compassionate justice, Unlearning is about taking the things that harm us, naming them, and dismantling them to make our world accessible for all. Today we will meet at the intersections of race, gender, and disability and commit to unlearning to move together in solidarity.
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UNLEARNING Our Day Keynote Speaker
Daphne Frias (she/her) is a 23-year-old youth organizer. She is unapologetically Latina. Daphne has Cerebral Palsy and uses a wheelchair to ambulate. She is fiercely proud to be a loud champion for the disabled community. She got her start shortly after the Parkland shooting by busing 100+ students from her college campus to the nearest March For Our Lives (MFOL) event. In July of 2019, she was appointed as the NY State Director for March For Our Lives and completed her one-year tenure there in June of 2020. Soon after, she created her own non-profit, Box the Ballot, which aims to harness the power of the absentee ballot. Her efforts also extend to creating sustainable climate change. Daphne has been featured in publications like Teen Vogue and, most recently, featured on Ms. Magazine's 25 Under 25: Women of Color to Watch list.
10:10 10:15 10:35
Habari Gani Community Libations We Are Here by Raymond Weeden Keynote Speaker: Daphne Frias
Student-Led Workshops 11:10-11:50 AM RED
Why does intersectionality matter?
BLK
Sticks & Stones: Why Language Matters
GRN
Black, Disabled & Disciplined
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UNLEARNING Our Day
Yoga Instructor Rachel Baylor (she/her) was born in Richmond, VA, and attended Hampton University, where she walked on the Lady Pirates Softball team and earned a full scholarship. After graduating, she participated in research at Florida International University with the Center for Children and Families focused on providing cognitive-behavioral treatment to children and adolescents diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. During her graduate school years, Rachel sought out an opportunity to gain credentialing in yoga as a form of self-care physically and mentally. This led to her founding Evolving Lives Body & Mind, a wellness company focused on minimizing affordability and accessibility issues for Black and brown lives.
Lunch (1:00-1:30pm) Our Workshop Facilitators monét cooper (she/her) is a second-year doctoral student, poet, and abolitionist in the Joint Program in English and Education at the University of Michigan. Before joining the academy, she spent 11 joyous years serving students and families in middle and high school English classrooms in Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia. A Georgia Peach, she enjoys naps and eating German chocolate cake and misses live theater and hugging her people back home.
Dr. Torres (he/him) identifies as a cisgender AfroBoricua from the Bronx who is a proud father, husband, social justice educator, spoken word artist, scholar, and workshop facilitator. He has worked as a middle school and high school teacher for the last eight years. Recently, Dr. Torres completed his Ph.D. in Social Justice Education, and his research focused on trauma and performance arts. Dr. Torres currently resides in East Harlem and works as a 10th-grade social justice teacher.
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UNLEARNING Our Day Unlearning Workshops 1:45-3:00pm Little Deaths: Memory as Method of Being and Becoming "I can't lie like I don't rap about killing and dope, but I'm telling my youngins vote/I did what I did 'cause I didn't have no choice or no hope, I was forced to just jump in and go” — Lil Baby, The Bigger Picture. What do you pledge allegiance to? Yourself? Money? Your family? How do these allegiances push us to “jump in and go?" Using Lil Baby’s words as a point of departure, we’ll use him and other musical artists and poets of color to write about: what lies we have been told about ourselves, what we believe, and what we must keep and allow to die in order to survive. Whether you consider yourself a poet or writer, a rapper or musician, or simply someone who is curious about what words do, pull up!
Phoenix in Progress The power of storytelling is one of our greatest tools to propel change. On the path to justice, society has the habit of promoting non-Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) voices to the front. BIPOC voices and stories are often taken advantage of for the overall benefit of gaining mass support, i.e., tokenization. During the first workshop, students will learn to embraces their difference, how their differences make them powerful, and tools to combat tokenization and embrace their voice.
Reimagining School Since compulsory education was required for all students, schools were never really designed to meet the needs of all students they served. The pandemic highlighted the gross inequities everyone in education already knew: students of color are not getting the best education possible, and it doesn't have to be that way. Reimagining school will look at all the things that are not working in our school system. The workshop will focus on ways we can advocate for ourselves while dismantling whiteness and white supremacy.
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UNLEARNING
20 21
Our Day Community Reflection 3:10
Community Sound Board
3:25
Poem: School is in Session by Dr. Torres
3:35
Until Next Time by M.Payton
Ashay. Ashay. Ashay Event Creator/Director Madison Payton is a culturally relevant curriculum specialist, restorative justice practitioner, and diversity, equity, and inclusion enthusiast. He joins the DC Special Education Cooperative as a consultant to develop the UMOJA Peer Mentoring program and The Good Trouble Social Justice Institute. Madison has worked as an English Language Arts instructor for nine years in the New York City Department of Education. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Education Leadership and Policy at Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University.
Special thanks to Mr. David Fridie and the entire DC3C team.
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