5 years ago, @peoples_ed & the UCLA GSEIS Graduate Students Association were able to connect #ErickaHuggins with community members and youth to learn about the labor of love that the Black Panther Party cultivated and manifested as the Oakland Community School. It was then that she planted the seed of a dream to create our own school, which led me to my path of going back to grad school to initially learn more deeply about Freedom Schools. That moved me to work with #AntoniaDarder, whose loving mentorship helped me evolve my scholarly studies, which led to my journey of developing the #TransformativeYouthOrganizing framework that I call a #ButterflyPedagogy. How perfect it is that I had one of the most beautiful conversations with Dr. Darder yesterday and had the opportunity to thank Dr. Huggins in person today as I'm preparing to transition out of my doctoral program and share my community's collective labor of love with the world. I'm incredibly moved by the affirmations of the universe at this time in my life. P.S. @peoples_ed Freedom School fam, Ericka remembers our dream, believes we will make it a reality, and says hi to all of us πππ
