kNOw Your History KNOw Yourself: Fugitive Praxes of Black Joy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Set against the backdrop of anti-Blackness and the COVID-19 pandemic, this study explored the context and emergence of Black Joy as a group of Black elders and youth co-designed and implemented a social studies curriculum rooted in the exploration of Black history in their local community. The co-authors utilized kitchen table talk methodologies to illuminate the ideological, pedagogical, curricular, and spatial praxes of several youth and elders who designed and taught the curriculum. Findings from this study reveal the ways that Black Joy functions as ideological rememberance of social movements, pedagogical and curricular praxes rooted in transformation, and spatial contextualizations of education that embody love, community, and the imagination. The co-authors conclude with recommendations for K-12 educators to utilize the conceptualization of Black Joy put forth in this study to (a) learn from and integrate Black social movements into their praxes and (b) develop intergenerational relationships with Black storytellers and their stories.