“The experiences of Toni Cade Bambara, David Henderson, and June Jordan before, during, and after their time at the City College of New York illustrate how such experimental creative teaching methods could blossom from the SEEK Program at this particular juncture (the 1960s) in New York City… Altogether, these three educators illustrate the power of creating liberatory counterinstitutions within and beyond the institutions… Their immersive familiarity with the realities of Black, Latinx, and multiethnic neighborhoods; attention to the strategic relationships between sites of housing, education, and conviviality; and dispositions of radical joy and tough love meant their roles as Black community educators were both earned and embraced.” (Reed, 87-88)

Pedagogical Practices within the SEEK Program

.Emotional support and interpersonal documentation

.Forms of mentorship that are “no bullshit,” strategic, visionary, receptive, and jocular.

.Communal ownership: “our workshop”

.Interviews with family and community members: “our clan”

.”Skills Bank”- learning from our immediate communities and tapping on existing resources

.Non-western literary and musical sources foregrounding Black authors and musicians

.Direct discussions of colonialism, neo-colonialism and liberation

[These teaching practices] “meant upending gendered and racialized disciplinary structures, identifying knowledge credentials outside of the academy, and infusing a partisan liberatory streak to collective study” (74).

On Black teaching practices

Share your reflection with a partner and report back concisely on takeaways.

Strike Reverberations

Read and annotate page 81.

What sections/ ideas/ practices do you consider essential? Why?