PROTECTION AND LOVE FOR ALL THOSE STARTING SCHOOL TODAY, THIS MONTH, THIS YEAR

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUBY BRIDGES!!! AND HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL TO MANY TODAY! SENDING ENERGY TO YOU TODAY AND EVERY DAY!

Commissioned illustrator and dancer, Justin Bowen ( @just.indie_cisive ), re-imagined this photo of six year old Ruby Bridges, being escorted into a White, first-time integrating, Louisiana elementary school, in 1960. This is the first installment of a few re-imaginings by a few different visual artists of iconic, difficult, images/moments/memories portraying schooling for black and brown youth inside of spaces and architectures spelled by white supremacy and colonialism. This was inspired by a knowing of the traumas that accompany so many young people across the world, entering and competing in educational institutions, spelled by white supremacy and colonialism. We feel and are magnifying the growing urge to re-write how we school. We understand that this re-writing will take great imagination, and great re-imaging. Thank you all visual artists involved for your labor.

We’re asking, and imagining:

What does it look like, what does it feel like, for our children to truly be protected, embraced, and activated in their communities, in their schools?

What are the other worlds? What are other versions of our histories, of our stories?

Inside of all of these changes, all of these initiatives, all of the conflict, how are the children?

What would spaces have to look and feel like, for first days, and every day, of school, to be A VIBE? To be healthy? To be loving? To be vibrant? (especially now that schooling is mostly virtual…how are we making home a VIBE, healthy, loving, vibrant? And what kinds of support systems are being called in for these things to be true?)

Would you like a hardcopy of this image (either or both versions) in postcard form? We’ll send it to you, using USPS. Donate what you can, and please send your mailing address in the message section below, with which version you would like, green or magenta, or both. The large majority of the proceeds will go to fundraising for parents/communities choosing to homeschool and practice mutual aid with each other this fall, and the rest of each donation will go to the artist, Justin Bowen, as royalties for their labor/image.

And if you are a parent or community member providing or helping to provide homeschooling for a child, and would like to discuss support and mutual aid, use the contact form at the bottom to be connected into this stream.