In this episode, Jazmine Jackson and I get real about the gap between what the education system says it values and what kids actually experience in classrooms shaped by stress, compliance culture, and adult ego.

This conversation digs into the brain science every revolutionary educator needs if they’re serious about building liberatory spaces.

What We Talked About

• How misunderstanding the brain leads to mislabeling Black and Brown students as “defiant,” “unmotivated,” or “low.”

• Why true equity work can’t exist without understanding how stress, safety, and belonging shape learning.

• The failure of data-driven systems that ignore the nervous system.

• What it looks like to shift from control to connection in order to build classrooms where students actually thrive.

Join the Waitlist for the Radical Retreat: Becoming the Educator of Your Dreams

Get on the Waitlist: https://black-on-black-ed.kit.com/5ad078dc86

Stay Connected:

Connect with me (Evalaurene):

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackonblacked/

• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/evalaurenejean-charles

• Join the Liberation Library: https://black-on-black-ed.kit.com/products/liberationlibrarycommunity

Connect with Jazmine Jackson:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gardenfairy_frolicking/

This week on The Resistance: An Underground Educators Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Jamila Lyiscott, a poet, scholar, and truth-teller working to dismantle one of education’s biggest lies: that the way our students speak, think, and move is something that needs to be fixed.

This episode is not for the faint of heart. It’s for the educators ready to count the cost, reclaim the classroom as sacred space, and restore dignity to the voices and cultures schools have tried to erase.

Stay Connected:

• Follow Dr. Jamila Lyiscott – https://www.instagram.com/jamila_lyiscott/
  

• Meet me on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/blackonblacked/
• Join the community – https://black-on-black-ed.kit.com/products/liberationlibrarycommunity

This week on The Resistance: An Underground Educators podcast, I interviewed Akosua Harvey, an educator, author, and my friend, to discuss her journey in education, the importance of community, storytelling, and authenticity in teaching. We explore the challenges educators face, the power of affirmations, and the need for a supportive environment for both teachers and students. This conversation emphasizes the significance of seeing students as whole individuals and the role of educators in shaping the future.

Mentioned in the Episode:

• Big Classroom Energy: The Standard Is You (feat. Eugene Banks): https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/blackonblacked/episodes/Big-Classroom-Energy-The-Standard-Is-You-feat--Eugene-Banks-e346rem

Connect With Our Guest:

• Follow Ms. Ako on IG: https://www.instagram.com/ms.akosroom/
• Pre-order Why the Birds Fly Back: https://www.stirredstories.com/buy/p/why-the-birds-fly-back
• Subscribe to her Newsletter: https://akosuaharvey.substack.com/

Let's Get to Work:

• Join the Liberation Library: https://black-on-black-ed.kit.com/products/liberationlibrarycommunity
• Subscribe to the Liberation Leaflet Monthly Newsletter: https://black-on-black-ed.kit.com/b60f6a97d9

This week on The Resistance, I had the absolute honor of sitting down with Michelle Pianim aka the Olivia Pope of Special Education. We went deep on what it really means to fix broken school systems while empowering parents to reclaim their agency in the special education process. If you’ve ever wrestled with the tension between holding schools accountable and supporting families, this episode is for you.

Connect with Michelle:

• Liberation Leaflet Monthly Newsletter: https://black-on-black-ed.kit.com/b60f6a97d9

• Liberation Library (our educator community): https://black-on-black-ed.kit.com/products/liberationlibrarycommunity

This week I'm just checking in after over a month of missing y'all. This is the break down of what to expect as I come on back to the pod.

If you are ready to work with me, it's time to join the Liberation Library: https://black-on-black-ed.kit.com/products/liberationlibrarycommunity

Follow me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/blackonblacked/

Follow me on Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@blackonblacked

Sign up for the Liberation Leaflet Newsletter: https://black-on-black-ed.kit.com/b60f6a97d9

In this episode of The Resistance: An Underground Educators Podcast, I’m breaking down the three steps to becoming the educator you’ve always dreamed of being, without burning out or selling out. We’ll talk about how to get quiet and connect to your joy, how to build unshakable confidence, and how to get in community so your fire for this work never goes out.

Grab and pen and start defining the educator of your dreams:

• When was the last time you felt alive in your classroom?
• What were you doing?
• What were your students doing?

Write it down. Those are the moments that define the educator of your dreams, keep them close, because we’ll use them next week to build your pedagogy statement (make sure you sign up for the newsletter for a breakdown of how PS help you become the educator of your dreams & the step-by-step of how to write one).

Keep Learning with Me:

• Sign up for the Liberation Leaflet Bi-Weekly Newsletter
• Join the Liberation Library THE Online Community for Educators Fighting the System From the Inside, Without Burning Out

In this episode, I had the absolute honor of sitting down with Dr. Daphne Chamberlain and Benjamin Saulsberry, two freedom fighters whose work is rooted in truth, history, and justice. We went deep on the role young people have always played in liberation movements and what it means for us as educators today. Spoiler alert: Our students aren’t waiting to be empowered, they’ve always had power. It’s on us to stop underestimating them and start making space for them to lead.

We talked about the story of Emmett Till, and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley, the 1946 student-led bus boycott in Jackson, Mississippi, the activism of high schoolers long before the names we usually uplift, and the mindset shift educators must make to truly center student voice. If you’ve ever felt the urge to do school differently, this one is for you.

Resources I Mentioned

• The Emmett Till Interpretive Center Events (August 2025): https://www.emmett-till.org
  

• Book Shoutouts: Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi by John Dittmer & Mississippi, Conflict and Change: A New Edition by James W. Loewen

• Join the Liberation Library: This is where we go beyond inspiration and actually build revolutionary classrooms together. Weekly trainings, monthly live group coaching, and a community to walk in the work with you.

Reflection Prompt: Where in my current practice am I dimming student voice instead of amplifying it?

This episode of The Resistance: An Underground Educators Podcast is your permission slip to use some time this summer to reconnect with the revolutionary that lives inside of you. I’m breaking down what a Radical Retreat really looks like and no, it's not a luxury vacation, but a radical act of reclaiming your joy, creativity, and purpose as an educator. Whether I’m in the park with a book or finally returning to the practices that bring me alive, I’m inviting you to join me in resisting burnout by committing to what truly nourishes your spirit. If you’re tired of just getting by and ready to get free, this episode is your next step.

Links + Resources Mentioned:

• Join the Liberation Library

• Sign up for the Ten Toes Down Summer Mastermind

• Support the show

• Book: Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks

• Book: Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey

• Book: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

• Follow @blackonblacked on Instagram and TikTok

• Subscribe to the Liberation Leaflet bi-weekly newsletter: Subscribe here

This year wasn’t just better than the last one, it was the best one I've had yet. In this episode, I break down exactly how I turned the trauma of getting fired for being “too much” into the most joy-filled, value-aligned, and student-centered school year of my career.

If you’re teaching in a toxic or apathetic system, wondering if joy is even possible in this work, this episode is the reminder that you can create a classroom that feeds your spirit AND your students' minds. And you don’t have to do it alone.

Want to make next year your best one yet?Podcast Episodes mentioned in the episode:→ How I Got Fired for Being an Underground Educator→ How I Planned to Have the Best Year of My Life

Ready to build your plan with me? Join the Ten Toes Down Summer Mastermind before July 1st for $104. Or get it included in your $44/month Liberation Library membership—your revolutionary educator toolkit.

Got questions? Want to connect?Email me at [email protected]

In this episode of The Resistance: An Underground Educators Podcast, I sit down with Eugene Banks, a K-5 math instructional coach, content creator, and author of Young Black Boy and Young Black Girl, to talk about the work behind showing up for kids with excellence and conviction. Eugene drops gem after gem about the discipline, mindset, and intentionality it takes to build student-centered classrooms rooted in joy, identity, and rigor.

Connect with Eugene Banks:IG: @youngblackscholarbookWebsite: www.EugeneBanks.comThis podcast is a tool of resistance for educators fighting the system from the inside, using rigor, joy, and student voice as the tools of resistance.

Join the Liberation Library for weekly tools, trainings, and the support you actually need to do this work without losing yourself.