One of Frederick Douglass’ famous sayings is, “Once you learn to read, you’ll be forever free.”As someone who was explicitly forbidden from reading, there was inherent freedom in learning to read and the access it provided during chattel slavery in America. But what about those who are completely literate but are still psychologically jailed? When it comes to becoming literate in written English, it seems like the purpose matters a LOT. From African Americans like Frederick Douglass, we receive a tradition and purpose called “freedom for literacy, literacy for freedom.” Kimberly N. Parker and I discuss her book Literacy is Liberation: Working Toward Justice Through Culturally Relevant Teaching and nerd out on practical steps to practice “freedom for literacy” and “literacy for freedom.”

UnboundEd's goal is to instill the GLEAM™ (Grade-Level, Engaging, Affirming, and Meaningful) instructional framework into classrooms across the nation with professional development, curated programs, and now with a brand new podcast series, The LP: Literature in Practice. Host Brandon White interviews the authors of today’s thought-provoking educational literature and connects the text to GLEAM.