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WOODBRIDGE, VA.The plastic sign displayed prominently on DeAna Forbes classroom door is especially fitting this week. In big bold letters: Warning! History Teacher Zone. Your understanding of the past may be corrected at anytime.

Its early in this sleepy suburb 45minutes outside Washington, D.C., and the sun is still rising over Freedom High School as students jog inside from late-arriving buses, backpacks half-hung over shoulders with winter coats swinging. They push through crowded hallways and hurry to firstperiod.

Forbes, 28, who teaches U.S. history and social studies, is one of many teachers across the country participating in the annual Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, held this year February 610. As her students settle in to watch avideo about the history of Black fraternities and sororities, Forbes prepares an interactivelesson.

The work of telling Black stories, celebrating diversity and inclusivity, and making sure that [students] understand that their lives do matter, is important, Forbes says. It naturally fits in the context ofhistory.

The Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action traces its roots to aBlack Lives Matter organizing campaign at John Muir Elementary in Seattle in 2016 and when, later that school year, educators in Philadelphia organized aweek of teaching surrounding the principles of Black Lives Matter. Teachers in Rochester also held aday of action in 2017. Then, in 2018, it exploded, with educators in more than 20 cities participating in the Week of Action, and it has remained popular sincethen.

Black Lives Matter at School is an act of resistance, says Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price, amember of the inaugural steering committee for Black Lives Matter at School. Its arefusal to accept the ways that we are perpetually dehumanized. Its astatement that we exist, that we are here, and that we are going to fightback.

During the week, teachers often share curriculum and host both virtual and in-person events. This year, events included afair about historically Black colleges and universities, an abolitionist poetry workshop, and an Imagination Lab Listening Project for students, teachers, parents and school staff to envision safe schools andfutures.

The week also centers around key movement demands, including ending zero tolerance policies, ending policing in schools and funding counselors instead, reducing the pushout of Black teachers, promoting restorative justice approaches to discipline, and mandating Black history and ethnic studiescourses.

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Go ahead and share with us, out loud, some things that youve learned so far about the Divine Nine, Forbes instructs, referring to her lesson on historically Black fraternities and sororities. She picks astudent sitting toward the back of theroom.

Theyre there to create social change for future generations, the student says eagerly, glancing up from the jotted-down notes in front ofhim.

Forbes classroom is decorated with artwork made by her studentsthose assigned to her classes, and others whove poked their heads in during free periods or after-school club activities. Earlier in the week, Forbes organized aschoolwide paint-and-sip as part of the Week of Action, in which students detailed on small canvases colorful interpretations of the Black power salute, ornate impressions of the Black Lives Matter slogan, and atraditional Sankofa symbol (from the Akan people of Ghana) meaning go back and getit.

This day, other teachers at Freedom High join in midway through the class to support Forbes lesson, answering questions about Delta Sigma Theta, Alpha Kappa Alpha and Zeta Phi Beta, all three of which were founded on the nearby Howard University campus by Black students in the early 1900s to promote public service, community, and politicalaction.

But the Week of Action is about more than classroom lessons. Earlier in the week, teachers throughout D.C. and the surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia met at Creole on 14th, apopular brunch and happy hour spot in the busy, racially diverse neighborhood of Columbia Heights to call each other to action. Vanessa Williams, 31, who works as program manager for Teaching for Changes D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice, organized an unapologetically Black educator story lounge event with Empower Ed to offer teachers amicrophone to share personal narratives to highlight the importance of liberatory teachingpractices.

Oftentimes, were not present at the table when these decisions are being discussed about policy, legislation, et cetera, shared Gabrielle Dubose, an educator at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and aspeaker at the story lounge. They need to hear fromteachers.

The theme of silence and resistance was mentioned repeatedly throughout thenight.

Its harder to do this work on an island or in asilo, Williams says. Its so important to center educators voicesgiving Black educators space where there are no stakes. This is not astaff meeting. Its an opportunity for people to relate to one another and find thatcommunity.

Events like the story lounge, and lessons like Forbes, are exactly what Aryee-Price had hoped for. Revolution stemming from class lessons, spilling out through the hallways and into the streets is exactly what Black Lives Matter Week of Action isabout.

This goes beyond just the week, says Aryee-Price. Its alifetime ofpractice.

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Black Educators Are Reimagining A Better School System - In These Times

Social media is questioning the unity within the Blue Lives Matter movement after a white supremacist filmed himself repeatedly calling a Black cop the N-word while his colleagues watched.

White supremacist Jon Minadeo Jr. recently recorded himself repeatedly calling Black officer Darien Thomas the N-word during a police encounter in West Palm Peach, Florida, Atlanta Black Star reports

While Minadeo appeared to have an issue with all the officers, he took particular aim at Thomas because of his race.

White c*cks like you, I dont give a f*** about any of you fagg*ts, Minadeo says in the video. The only thing that is stopping us is that you have your badges on.

When Thomas made a statement to aid in Minadeo being given a citation for littering, thats when the white supremacist group leader racially targeted the officer.

..This n****r is getting in my face. I will get my ID but away from this n****r, he said.

Minadeo continued to try to get a rise out of Thomas by repeatedly telling him to shut up, n****r and claiming a Nazi science experiment created him.

This is the hard part, huh? When I call you a n****r to your face and you gotta act like a white man and detain yourself, he said.

Huh, n****r? This is hard for you, huh? Your low IQ wants to attack me over a word, n****r. You are a f*****g science experiment from a Jew.

While a white female officer was already writing Minadeo and his groups citation, none of the cops intervened during his racist verbal attacks. One Twitter user called out this while sharing the video on Twitter.

White supremacists dont give a damn if you got on the uniform, they tweeted. They will call you the N-word any Time any Place.

And you noticed the white cops did not do a damn thing to defend him. Florida, he added.

Many others reacted to the disturbing police encounter and applauded Thomas for his restraint during the racist attack.

The restraint is impressive, one viewer wrote. I guess their Blue Brother being racially attacked isnt offensive to them. I wish they couldve summoned similar control when that 14 year old black girl left a pool party.

Another viewer highlighted one white female officers smirk while Minadeo repeatedly called Thomas the N-word.

if youre not part of the solution, youre part of the problem. not one of his coworkers defended those racist attacks, they quipped.

yes, theres free speech but theres also disturbing the peace.. that racist definitely broke that law and shouldve been arrested but hes got the complexion, they added.

Minadeo was cited for littering last month and given a $163 fine, the Press Democrat reports. He has been active in Florida after relocating from California, where he is considered a well-known antisemitic agitator from Sonoma County.

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Blue Lives Matter Called Out After White Supremacist Films Himself Calling Black Cop The N-Word - Black Enterprise

For several years the Philadelphia Commission for Women has partnered with the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Organization for Women on vital programs to elevate the voices and aspirations of women.

In 2016, the Commission hosted its very first program bringing together women from all parts of city government to participate in a national read-out of Chanel Millers Victim Impact Statement. At the time we only knew her as Emily Doe, the young woman who was brutally raped by Stanford University student Brock Turner who left her by a dumpster as if she were trash. In four days, Millers statement went viral and was viewed by eleven million people. Her powerful words were heard on the floor of Congress and in Philadelphias City Hall. A couple of years later along with Philly NOW, the Commission hosted Michele Dauber, the Stanford law professor who spearheaded the successful recall campaign against the judge that gave Turner a light sentence for his horrific attack on Miller.

In the same spirit of collaboration, the Philadelphia Commission for Women pivoted from an in-person 2020 Summit for Women and Girls planned for the Free Library of Philadelphia to a virtual partnership as part of a year-long commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment with a series Suffrage. Race. Power: Making Democracy Work, and a program tie-in with the librarys exhibit, Making Her MarkPhiladelphia Women Fight for the Vote.

And on March 22, 2023, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Commission for Women, and the Philadelphia chapter of NOW present what might be our most ambitious and inspiring collaboration yet a panel discussion with authors of the book, Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party. However, this event is so much more than a discussion.

Well hear from photographer Stephen Shames whose hundreds of remarkable photographs document the women who comprised at least 66 percent of the Party. Comrade Sisters is his third book of photographs featuring the Black Panther Party. His photographs, along with artifacts and materials from Temple Universitys Special Collections Research Center, Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, and the African American Museum in Philadelphia will be on view in the librarys West Gallery One through April 27, 2023. Additional resources are available online including a discussion and resource guide created by Angela D. LeBlanc-Ernest.

Angela Davis wrote in the foreword to Comrade Sisters

we must bear in mind that the new radical linking of anti-racism with anti-capitalism that characterized the Partys approach to Black Liberation was matched by a tenacious dedication to Community Survival Programs. These programs demonstrated that freedom is are more than a checklist of formal rights. Freedom involves free breakfast for children, free groceries, free education, free transportation to visit incarcerated loved ones. Altogether, there were over 60 Community Survival Programs, and they were primarily run by women.

In her own words, we will hear from author Ericka Huggins who describes her comrades as:

The family we choose, a bond that defies location, time and biology, a life well lived.

Philadelphia was a very active and vibrant chapter of the Black Panther Party. Former Party members Dr. Regina Jennings and Ethel Paris will tell their stories of activism then and now and award-winning broadcast journalist and filmmaker Karen Warrington will moderate the panel discussion. Warrington adds another layer of lived experience to an era of Black empowerment. Her own son was a member of the Party.

Woven together these experiences are the fabric of an integral part of the Black Liberation Movement that informs todays Black Lives Matter. It bears mentioning during Womens History Month that Black Lives Matter was founded by Black womenPatrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi. Moreover, they are the women of yesteryear and today who intimately know injustice and whose dynamic work charts a path toward what it means to be truly free.

Register for an evening of conversation with authors of the acclaimed book Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party.

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Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party Panel ... - Philadelphia Water Department

LOS ANGELES At the Charlie James Gallery, in the Chinatown neighborhood here, a surprising exhibition of spiritually reflective and esoteric artwork opened recently. Surprising because the artists, Patrisse Cullors and no olivas, are known for their activism and social engagement, and because the works in the show, Freedom Portals,reject the strident, declamatory tenor of much political art.

Cullors and olivas, the exhibition guide notes, are practitioners of If, a Yoruba religion from West Africa. Cullorss artworks, each made from a framed section of black-and-white patterned cloth embroidered with cowrie shells, are titled after Mejis or Od, sacred If verses used in divination, a central feature of Yoruba religious practice.

Hung high on the walls like church icons, sculptures by olivas consist of garden shears wired onto small puddles of iridescent, dichroic glass. All his pieces are titled as prayers Prayers of Protection or Prayers of Support but prayers to what, or to whom? I met with the artists at the gallery to learn more about what If means to them, and how their political vocations are manifesting in new forms.

In recent years, there has been a conspicuous rise in contemporary art that engages with religious or spiritual ideas. But unlike most historical religious art, whose primary purpose was to deepen or focus the beholders belief, this contemporary work tends toward personal inquiry and private reflection.

Cullors revealed that she was raised a Jehovahs Witness, but later went through phases of atheism and agnosticism. Reading Malidoma Soms book about Indigenous religions, The Healing Wisdom of Africa, was transformative. Soon after, on the recommendation of a friend, she sat for a divination with a babalawo, an If high priest.

It just made sense, she said. The divination wasnt airy-fairy; the clouds didnt open. As much as Im spiritual, Im very pragmatic too. He just gave me very clear advice, clear messages. I said, I think Ive found my tradition. That was in 2003. I was initiated in 2008.

Cullors said that If allows her to reconnect with a lost ancestry sundered by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. If has been a way to reclaim what was stolen from me to begin with.

Olivas, 35, who was raised Roman Catholic, was introduced to If by Cullors and has been practicing for two years. Prayer is a moment for us to ask for something, he said, but its also a moment for us to be present. Im trying to expand that language of prayer into object-making.

Cullors, 39, is best known as a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, which grew from a hashtag coined in 2013 into a global movement. She served as the executive director of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation until 2021. The organization has since restructured after it faced challenging questions over its infrastructure and the allocation of funds.

In 2020, Cullors organized a performance at Frieze Los Angeles in which she interrupted the art fair with a joyful, participatory dance event calling for freedom from white supremacy. Last month, she returned to Frieze Los Angeles, this time to mount an unsanctioned protest in memory of her cousin Keenan Anderson, a 31-year-old teacher who died in January after a police officer repeatedly fired a Taser at him during a traffic stop.

Before she was politicized, Cullors was an artist. In 2017 she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Southern California, where she met olivas, a fellow art student.

In 2018, the two collaborated on a performance, first staged at Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles, part of a program responding to the artist Zoe Leonards trenchant typewritten diatribe I want a president (1992). Cullors and olivas performed ritualistic actions inside a circle of salt, dumped from a wheelbarrow onto the floor. The piece, Its dangerous times. We have to be connected, was a metaphor for interpersonal and communal support.

The two artists further fostered that community support with the Crenshaw Dairy Mart, an art collective, gallery and event space in South Los Angeles that they founded in 2020 with a fellow U.S.C. alum, alexandre dorriz (who, like olivas, styles his name in lowercase).

At the same time, the artists maintained individual studio practices. In 2022, olivas exhibited a sculptural installation, Lets Pray, at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Featuring terra-cotta casts of truck tires and buckets alongside tools that had belonged to his father, the installation was inspired by the toolshed a space, according to the exhibition text, that olivas sees as a spiritual space of creation and community building.

Those truck tires cast from one used on the Olivas familys Ford Ranger truck, which the artist now owns reappear at Charlie James Gallery, this time glazed in mottled shades of celestial purple. One sits in the center, repurposed as a planter nurturing a live cactus. That sculpture is titled Prayers of Longevity. Another, Prayers of Coolness, leans against the wall, cradling a pool of water.

Olivas said that the water is melted snow from Californias recently blanketed mountains. He sees this sculpture as a prayer to cool his Ori the zone of If consciousness where thought and emotion combine in times of anger. The mountain symbolizes the potential for rising above frustrations and minutiae, for taking in the bigger picture.

His wall-mounted works, he said, represent gn, the If god of iron, metal, war and technology. The shears are all well-tarnished; one pair belonged to his father. A lot of my work is about the tools that are passed down to us, he explained. The lustrous iridescent glass, made from melted-together shards, evokes the Egbe the If spiritual community. The sharp edges are protecting the Egbe.

Cullorss works are similarly coded perhaps even more so. In the If tradition, every one of the 256 sacred Od can be represented both by combinations of vertical dashes and by arrangements of cowrie shells or palm nuts on the divination tray. Cullors represents the first 12 Od with cowries some cast in polished gold stitched onto 1950s mud cloth from Mali, bought at a flea market in Pasadena. (Mud cloth is stained using fermented mud, and is revered in Malian tradition.)

A guide offers gallery visitors condensed interpretations of the Mejis, but their deeper significance is largely occluded. Its kind of like, who knows will know, and who wants to know will ask questions, Cullors said. This is not a tradition that believes in going out and spreading the good word. Its the opposite. We believe that if youre meant to practice, If will call you in.

I chose to put my own spiritual convictions (or lack of them) aside. As with many ritual objects, both artists works emanate a mysterious energy, despite their sometimes-prosaic materials and their simple combinations. The history of sacred art and, indeed, the history of modernist abstraction is rich with examples of secret meaning sequestered in captivating aesthetic phenomena. (Those histories overlap in the work of such artists as Hilma af Klint, the Transcendental Painting Group and Emma Kunz.)

For Cullors, the viewers interpretations were not primary concern when she was developing this series. These works come from a place of deep grief for me, of wanting so badly for the world to be different, she said. I kept thinking, what can I make that will help me? If is the practice that I go to when Im in my lowest moments, and I made a decision to make it public.

In the past three years, she acknowledges, many others have faced their own struggles, which have led them toward the spiritual. A lot of people are grasping, she said.

I feel like an Od takes care of me, Cullors went on, but it also takes care of the collective, of the community. In its attention to shared pain, her work remains political.

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For Two Los Angeles Artists, the Spiritual Is Political - The New York Times

When the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum in summer 2020, two Austin residents decided to explore the conversation locally and asked what it meant to be Black and living in Austin.

Almost three years later, they continue to spearhead conversations about the Black experience in Central Texas, uniting the community through storytelling.

Lisa B. Thompson and Richard J. Reddick, Black Austinites and professors at The University of Texas, partnered with radio stations KUT and KUTX last year to create Black Austin Matters, a podcast centered around conversations with different members of the Black Austin community.

With one new episode per month, Black Austin Matters continues to grow in recognition and listeners. The podcast has had 40,315 downloads since its release, according to KUT.

As they navigate the second season of the podcast in March, Thompson and Reddick spoke with Community Impact about their goals for the show and the importance of creating a positive space for Black voices in Austin.

The interview content was edited for length, style and clarity.

You mentioned in the podcast that the idea for Black Austin Matters started in a social media post. How has it evolved into what it is today?

Reddick: It was in June 2020, and I woke up one morning, and I had seen that they had painted Black Austin Matters on Congress Avenue. ... I had no idea who had created it, and it made me sort of think about the more philosophical angle, which was to whom does Black Austin matter? We should talk about that. I tagged a bunch of folks who I know in the community who I thought would be great interlocutors to talk about this, and I posted it [on Twitter].

Thompson: I definitely had a viewpointif anyone knows me, I always have a viewpointbut I wanted it to not be a one-off conversation of, Oh, trauma is happening to Black America at this moment. ... Tell us how you feel. I wanted it to be a more sustained conversation about what Black Austinities think and feel about all kinds of things. Ive been saying this a lot lately, is that African Americans have a very clear viewpoint about racial oppression, but we actually have views about the price of eggs; we have views about the weather; we have views about the way in which power is maintained, whether its electricity or people in the White House.

How did it feel to have that casual thought turn into something so impactful for the community?

Thompson: Its been a burning thought for me [because] Ive always been disappointed with news coverage that comes into a traumatized community and wants to get their take on that moment as opposed to a thoughtful engagement thats thorough, gives the full humanity of their sense of the world. Im a playwright, so narrative is important to me; story is important to me, and Im also a scholar as well in Black studies, and it just feels like there is a piece thats missing in our daily conversation. ... We hear so much about Black Austins disappearance and not enough conversation about who is herewho is Black in Austinand we wanted that to be clearer to our neighbors.

How do you decide which guests youre going to invite on the show and what stories youre going to tell?

Reddick: One thing about this is the diversity of our community, so we didnt want to make it like, Here are Austins top business leaders or top political leaders. We wanted to have a variety of folks coming in, and so that means sometimes people who we actually know ourselves or people we dont know but weve heard of in certain circles. ... [We want] to be mindful about really attending to all the diversitythat mosaic of Black Austinbecause I think sometimes theres this assumption that the community is a monolith. Were always thinking about, Now that weve talked to this person [and] had this representation, who have we not talked to? Thats always a constant conversation. Its good for us too because we get to learn more about the community that we are a part of as well.

What kind of feedback/reactions have you received from the Black Austin community and Austin community in general about the podcast?

Thompson: A big one is like, you should talk to fill in the blank. Its lovely, actually, because its such an engagement with the community but also that folks who know us feel comfortable suggesting people who they think are remarkable, and theyre always people who Id never heard of, which is great. We have a long list [of suggestions], and we actually take those very seriously. People also like the fact that it is diverse. [Black Austin] is very close but we also see the world differently, different things that were interested in. I think we bring in a variety.

Reddick: I think the element of surprise is really important. ... We actually sort of challenge ourselves to go out of our comfort zones and really talk to folks [who] again we have connections to perhaps, but they might not be very strong connections. More importantly, I think I hear a lot of what Lisa described. ... We always follow up on those and think about, Does this person represent a perspective we havent heard from yet? We have lots of ideas and lots of energy, so were not going to stop anytime soon, but Im always thinking about, Gosh, thats a good idea, or We should do this.

What do you want people from outside of the community to know about Black Austin?

Reddick: I think the dimensionality is always a thing. We will talk about everything. ... Its going to be very much grounded in the experiences that people live day to day. We want to understand how they navigate and exist in the city. For me its like, listen for both, Wow, thats really amazing or, Thats really an ordinary thingI do that, or I go to that place, or I like that thing. Its the normalization of our existence. ... We live full lives. We dont just pop up in spaces where we are the only ones. The podcast tries to get at that, like, How are you living and existing and thriving in this space?

What are your goals for the current season of Black Austin Matters?

Reddick: I was actually talking to an older Black Austinite today, and I was like Gosh, we have to start thinking about age diversity. Weve talked to some very senior folks, [and] weve talked to some young adults, but weve really never talked to youth. One of the things thats sort of great about our collaboration is that I have the experience of growing upat least my high school yearshere in Austin, and now both Lisa and I are raising kids of that same vintage in Austin. ... What does it mean to be young and observe the world and the events that have happened in the last several years, and does the city weigh into that?

Thompson: We are definitely going to do some kind of community events sometime this season, and were also taking a big leap and teaching a Signature course at The University of Texas called Black Austin Matters. ... Were excited about having students think about what it would mean for them to create a podcast about their own community ... and how they want to represent particularly the voices that are underrepresented on air and podcasts.

Sarah Brager is a reporting fellow for a Community Impact and University of Texas at Austin partnership with a focus on growing and diverse neighborhoods. The project is supported by the School of Journalism and Medias Dallas Morning News Innovation Endowment.

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6 questions with the creators of the 'Black Austin Matters' podcast - Community Impact Newspaper