Black Gaze

Dr. Porcher & Dr. Bertrand, co-host with Dr. Kelly Allen & Dr. Edmund Adjapong to discuss the celebration of 50 years of Hip Hop and the importance and power of Hip Hop Education. 

Dr. Kelly R. Allen is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies in the College of Education and Human Development at Augusta University. Informed by her experiences as a high school social studies teacher, Kelly’s research explores hip-hop as a Black liberatory praxis. 

Dr. Edmund Adjapong is an Associate Professor of Education at Seton Hall University. He is also a faculty fellow at The Institute for Urban and Multicultural Education at Teachers College, Columbia University and author of #HipHopEd: The Compilation on Hip-Hop Education Volume 1.

Dr. Adjapong is a former middle school science educator at a New York City public school in The Bronx. He is the director of the Science Genius Program, a program that engages urban students in the sciences through Hip-Hop, and the director of The Science Genius Academy, a program that encourages and prepares students to pursue STEM careers while providing mentoring and support.

Dr. Adjapong is a STEM and Urban Education advocate whose work and research addresses issues of race, class, inequities in education and misperceptions of urban youth. He focuses on how to incorporate youth culture into educational spaces. Dr. Adjapong has experience conducting seminars and workshops for businesses and universities.

Dr. Adjapong & Dr. Allen are the co-authors of the upcoming book Teaching for Liberation: On Freedom Dreaming in the Field of Hip-Hop Education. You can pre-order the book right now, here. The book will be available on November 30th, 2023! If you are about this Hip Hop Education life, cop this book now!

Dr. Bertrand and Dr. Porcher, co-host with Rev. Dr. Akosua Lesesne to discuss colorism. They have a critical family conversation about the discrimination and violence that dark skin Black folx experience. Rev. Dr. Akousua Lesesne provides a call to action on how we can show up better for dark skin folx.

Rev. Dr. Akosua Lesesne is an educational design leader and creator of a teacher development framework for Black pedagogical genius she termed the Black Teaching Tradition (BTT)(™). In 2018, she founded The Lesesne Collective Corp (Lesesne Collective) DBA Sisters in Education Circle (SIEC) and Lesesne Legacy Learning Village (Lesesne Learning). Akosua began her educational career as a high school social studies teacher. Prior to founding Lesesne Collective/SIEC and Lesesne Learning, Akosua’s commitment to upholding historical legacies of Black pedagogical genius for social justice and liberation defined fifteen years of work as a teacher and then district leader in the sixth, fourth, and nineteenth-largest school districts in the nation respectively and design consultant serving a wide array of educational organizations and initiatives across the United States--from preschool through higher education, including theological education. Akosua was licensed and ordained by the late and legendary Rev. Dr. Mack King Carter at New Mount Olive Baptist Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL and served under Dr. Carter as Interim Minister of Education. She is also an ordained elder, at Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA). Akosua earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Tufts University, and a Doctorate in Educational and Organizational Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Porcher & Dr. Bertrand co-host with Dawnavyn James to discuss Black Brilliance and the importance of teaching Black History everyday all day! Dawnavyn James is an early childhood, elementary, and Black history educator, adjunct professor, and Black history researcher. She promotes the importance of Black history education in early childhood and elementary classrooms and is the author of Beyond February which will be published in Fall 2023. Dawnavyn is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo and is a fellow at the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education.

She is releasing her debut book, "Beyond February: Teaching Black History Any Day, Every Day, and All Year Long, K–3," which provides a #blackprint on how to center Blackness and teach Black History beyond February in K-3 schools. More specifically, the book "provides a practical guide for elementary educators who seek to teach history in truthful and meaningful ways that help young students understand the past, the present, and the world around them." You can pre-order and the cop the book here.

Dr. Bertrand and Dr. Porcher co-host with Kay Coghill to discuss Black Reproductive Justice. Kay leads us in a critical conversation about how we can truly support Black birthing people not just with our words, but with our actions. Kay Coghill (they/them) is an abortion doula based in Richmond, Virginia, and on the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project board. They are a Ph.D. candidate that studies digital misogynoir, digital Black girlhood studies, and Hip Hop, an adjunct professor who teaches in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies department, and the Digital Director for me too. International (Me Too Movement). They enjoy writing poetry, reading, and making their friends laugh. They are all about service and showing up for their community. Kay founded alongside their sister-friend a sister circle at a local high school called GLOW that focuses on teaching young Black girls and gender-expansive folks about Black Feminism and Hip Hop Feminism.

Dr. Bertrand and Dr. Porcher co-host with Damaris Dunn to define and discuss Black Joy! The future Dr. Dunn taught us that Black joy is the politics of refusal. We all can learn how to embody and hold on to our joy! Get into this episode! Damaris is a doctoral candidate in the department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia's Mary Frances Early College of Education. Her dissertation provides alternatives and possibilities based on the politics of refusal of Black women K-12 educators. She served students and families as a teacher and Community School Director in New York City Public Schools. She also taught at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture's Junior Scholars Program. Black is the color of joy and the birthright of Black women and girls.

Dr. Porcher & Dr. Bertrand, co-host with Dr. Dywanna Smith, to discuss the lack of fat love in the Black community, classrooms, & schools. This episode is a conversation, we are having with Black folx at our kitchen tables, about the harm we have caused to Black folx in fat frames, and how we can show up better for them. We also discuss how to love ourselves in every iteration, regardless of size. Tap into this episode, if you are ready to go deeper in your healing journey.

Dr. Dywanna E. Smith is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Claflin University. She serves as Middle Level Program Coordinator and Advisement Ambassador for the School of Education. Dr. Smith received her doctorate in language and literacy from the University of South Carolina.  Her dissertation interpreted how eighth grade African American girls perceived obesity in their daily lives and analyzed what happened when opportunities were given to create counter-narratives about race, gender, and size.  Informed by Critical Race Theory and Black Feminist Theory, the study centered the body as a textual artifact, broadened notions of what counts as text which can be critically read and provided models for nurturing youth in tackling school and community issues. 

Before entering the academy, Dr. Smith served as a 7th Grade ELA instructor, a Middle-Level Reading Coach, Instructional Coach, and as a District Office ELA Curriculum Consultant.  Her experience in Middle-Level Education spans over 15 years. 

As a scholar-educator-activist, Dywanna’s research focuses on two related interests: 1) examining the intersections of race, literacies, and education and 2) equipping teachers with equity pedagogies to successfully teach linguistically and culturally diverse students. She has presented nationally and internationally on these subjects.  She is a Fulbright Scholar Participant to Cameroon and Ghana to learn about indigenous language and knowledges. Her book project, Transformational Sanctuaries in the Middle Level ELA Classroom (NCTE-Routledge Research Series) is out now! Cop it!

Dr. Bertrand and Dr. Porcher have the privilege of co-hosting with Dr. Farima Pour-Khorshid and Yaribel Mercedes to discuss the multifaceted-ness of grief, and how to begin and/or continue on our journey of healing. We share our transparent experiences of grief personally and professionally, and how we are on our own healing journeys. We hope that you will explore how grief is present and manifesting in your life, accept it and allow it to guide your healing process.

Dr. Farima Pour-Khorshid is a Bay Area educator, organizer, and scholar. She taught at the elementary grade levels in her community for over a decade and spent the latter half of her teaching career also supporting educators locally, nationally, and internationally through her roles as a university professor, teacher supervisor, educational consultant, and community organizer. She is now an assistant professor and teacher supervisor at the University of San Francisco in California. Much of her work is rooted in her grassroots education organizing within the Teachers 4 Social Justice organization, the Abolitionist Teaching Network, and the Education for Liberation Network which organizes the Free Minds Free People conference. She is committed to centering abolitionist teaching and healing-centered engagement within and outside of the field of education. As such, she is one of the editors, authors, and organizers of, "Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for K-12 Educators", a toolkit in collaboration with the Education for Liberation, Critical Resistance, and several other grassroots abolitionist and justice-centered collectives. Follow her @dr.farima_ on Instagram.

Yaribel Mercedes is a doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is also an educator who leads through a social, racial and moral justice leadership disposition to advance racial equity, inclusion, access, and opportunity in education. As a Black woman, she understands the impact of race in education, and her passion and purpose are grounded in her commitment to disrupt racist and oppressive systems, structures, and policies that marginalize and minoritize Black, Indigenous, racialized students of color. Additionally, she is a public scholar who uses social media to center the brilliance and beauty of Black scholars. Follow her @yari.mercedes on Instagram.

Where have the Queens of Black Gaze been? We have been resting and resisting capitalism and non-melanated domination. Dr. Kisha Porcher & Dr. Shamaine Bertrand, lean on the work of Tricia Hersey; specifically her book, Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto. We share our hearts about the ways in which we are resting and renewing our spirits daily, while resisting grind culture. Our ancestors wildest dreams were not to engage in capitalist and grind culture, but to live a life of purpose, love, joy, peace, abundance, ease, luxury, and rest. As Hersey states, rest is our birthright. For more resources on resting, check out the Nap Ministry.

Dr. Porcher has a critical conversation with Dr. Bertrand about her personal experiences as a Black Mother Scholar. As a new Black Mother Scholar, Dr. Porcher gleans wisdom from Dr. Bertrand about her journey of becoming a Black Mother Scholar. We define mothers as all people who identify as mothers. Black Mother Scholars are Black Women working in academia (or any space) as mothers, growing literally and figuratively, and have a choice to “coalesce” our identities of mother and scholar (Matias, 2011). We discuss the beauty and challenges of being a Black Mother Scholar, balancing multiple identities. Even if you are not in academia, when you return to work, you have to find ways to coalesce your multiple identities. From the hood to academia, this episode is for you. We see you and we welcome you to this space. 

Dr. Porcher & Dr. Bertrand, co-host with Chanea Wells Bond and Dr. Courtney Rose to discuss ways to engage with students in classrooms (K-12 and teacher education) after anti-Black violence and shootings. 

Chanea Wells Bond is an educator, a teacher and an eternal student. Her current graduate work focuses on increasing access to dual credit and advanced academic opportunities for Black and Brown students. She is an English teacher at Southwest High School in Fort Worth, Texas, whose professional work focuses on increasing access to diverse texts, affirming Black, Brown, and LGBTQ+ student identities, and “being the teacher she  needed.”

Dr. Courtney E. Rose is a Visiting Professor in the Education Policy Studies Department at Florida International University and the Founder of the educational consulting firm, Ivy Rose Consulting.. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, Dr. Rose taught Math & Science for three years in the Duval County Public School system in Jacksonville, FL (two years of which were completed during her commitment as a Teach for America corps member). Currently, her research and work interests include the development and implementation of innovative approaches to social justice-oriented critical and culturally relevant instructional practices and curricular designs. Her student-driven approach to teacher education and development aims to provide teachers with new tools and understandings on how to incorporate youth culture into curriculum and instruction to better engage students in academic content and facilitate discussions rooted in issues of diversity and social justice. Adopting a culturally relevant/responsive framework, Dr. Rose views curricular designs and instructional practices as powerful tools through which to construct, legitimate and impose messages about what is appropriate, intelligent, and valuable and impacting students' views. Given this, her approach to teacher education/professional development aims to help educators and administrators develop or enhance their practices to bridge students' cultural, academic and social identities and co-create more meaningful learning experiences with and for the increasingly racially, culturally, socially, linguistically diverse students and families of today's schools, which is the focus of her upcoming book set to be released in March 2023.