Majesty Royale-Jackson

“Black Genius is the collective knowledge we possess in the memory of ourselves.”

Touch & Believe

Interactive sound installation, movement

Mirlesna Azor-Sterlin

“Black Genius is the creativity, resilience, intellectual depth, and innovation that Black people express every day.”

Haiti in a Jar: Epis Making Experience 101

Hands-on cooking, Haitian culture

Alana Smith, Damon Walker, and Charryse Fredrick

“Black Genius is the inherent brilliance, creativity, and wisdom that lives within Black children, families, and communities—long before it is measured, named, or validated by institutions.”

Forest of Wonders

Outdoor sensory game, family adventure

Kala “Maestra” Hinnant

“Black Genius is where our youth experiences the fullness of self-actualization and access the tools to have this at an arm’s reach.”

Therapy Session

Hip-Hop, dance, fashion

Angel S. Brown

“[Black Genius] is unapologetically dignified, wrapped in community, and rooted in love.”

Scented Storytime with Bright Black

Multisensory storytelling, scent

La’Brea Pringle

“Black Genius is the combination of imagination, resilience, cultural knowledge, and intellectual power that shows up in Black communities across generations.”

The District of Black Genius: Designing the Schools We Deserve

Time travel, sensory stations

Andre Sansbury Jr.

“Black Genius is the everyday brilliance found in how we survive, dream, create, and build together.”

Pull Up Poet: The Story Circle Stage

Interactive poetry, storytelling circle

Crystal Ingram

“[Black Genius] is the ability of Black people to explore freely and safely”.

Social Justice Through Storytelling

Collaborative canvas, recording station

Khalisa Rae Thompson

“Black Genius, to me, is collective, embodied, and deeply human.”

Carolina Gold: Black Southern Griots Rooted

Poetry, community story

Roni Carrington

“Black Genius is the ability to remember, imagine, create, and survive with joy, strategy, and spirit, even in the face of oppression.”

Diaspora Scouts

Artmaking, collective map

Assata Nataki Goff

“Black Genius is innate, ancestral, magical, and deeply healing.”

I Am An Ancestor Too: I Am Because We Are

Mirror mosaic portraits, herbalism

Tarish Pipkins (Jeghetto)

“Black Genius to me means our people collectively writing our own history while simultaneously planning our future.”

An Alternate Reality Without Oppression

Puppets, alternate-timeline museum

Kimberly Williams Moore

“Black Genius means validation and confirmation of the resilience that propelled us from our original arrival on American shores to the present.”

Pulling Threads: Weaving Family and Community

Quilting, intergenerational storytelling

Atigré Xia

“Black Genius to me is the innate sense of wisdom that I hold as a Black Being.”

Black Wisdome

Interactive sculpture, self-expression

Victoria Alles

“Black Genius is to make irrelevant the influence of others’ egocentricity and achieve all for which we were made.”

Become A Legend

Gamified storytelling, roleplay

Kristen Hopkins-Vincent

“Black Genius is the everyday brilliance of Black people rooted in emotional wisdom, cultural memory, and self-determination, not just achievement. “

Black SEL Hub

social-emotional liberation, affirmation

Register for Black Genius Fest at www.blackgeniusfest.com.

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Rather than come and sit down in an intimidating group of judges, we used it as an opportunity for Black Parent Leaders to connect and to fully come in contact with Black Wisdom and love.

Thanks to all the Black parents who participated and we look forward to keeping you updated on the Dreamship Fellowship.

Check out some of the highlights!

#BlackExcellence#BlackPower #BlackParents #BlackMommas #BlackDads

The post Dreamship Interview Day appeared first on Village of Wisdom.

We’re excited to see what they dream and build! Stay tuned to learn more!

The 2024 Dreamship Fellows are:

Aisha Caruth (Durham County)

Aisha Williams (Wake County)

Alana Smith (Durham County)

Brittiany Jenkins (Forsyth County)

Camille Brown-Lowery (Durham County)

Cassey Mapp-Ahmed (Guilford County)

Charryse Frederick-Omari (Durham County)

Constance Carter (Guilford County)

Crystal Ingram (Durham County)

Damon Walker (Durham County)

Elsie Duronville (Durham County)

Hannah Steer (Alamance County)

Kamweli Wilson (Durham County)

Phyllis Joyner (Durham County)

Ruben Watson (Alamance County)

Shala Perla (Durham County)

Tamette Farrington (Durham County)

Tiffany Corey (New Hanover County)

Tony Mellon (Alamance County)

Victoria Scott-Miller (Wake County)

#TheDreamship #BlackParents #BlackExcellence #NCParents #NorthCarolinaParents

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In 2010, he moved to Durham, North Carolina to pursue a  doctorate degree in Education at UNC-Chapel Hill. Four years later, he founded Village of Wisdom, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting Black families by eliminating racial injustice in schools.

In his thesis research for his Ph.D program, Jackson focused on figuring out how children developed independent learning skills.

“The more I learned about self-regulated learning, the more I learned about how culture is necessary to the actual learning process,” he said. “The more I learned that this idea of connecting prior knowledge to new information was actually what learning is.”

It became apparent to him that Black students were having such a challenging time in American classrooms because of a cultural disconnect. 

For example, he said, even though there are a lot of activities in Black culture that include counting, such as games of checkers and dominoes, there are limited references to those activities in math classes.

Jackson added that even though his colleagues spoke a lot about trauma-informed care, 一the practice of centering a patient’s life experiences in their healthcare一  they weren’t talking about the trauma of experiencing racism in a learning environment. 

“When you’re pissed off or angry,or upset or sad, it’s not a great time to learn,” he said. “We spend so much time pissing off Black kids, making them angry or making them sad, and then wondering why they’re not learning at the same time.”

Aya Shabu, the director of arts and culture at Village of Wisdom, said that the organization started to help Black families navigate a racist and inequitable school system. 

Evidence suggests that the more Black children hear affirmation from their parents, the better they do in school, Jackson said. 

“The idea was like, ‘okay, how do we get a whole bunch of Black parents together to talk to each other about how they’re going to affirm their kids in school and trying to encourage them to do that as early as possible and as much as possible?’” he said. 

One of the organization’s key values is the idea of Black genius: that all Black children are born as geniuses.

Denise Page, a Black parent reflective partner with Village of Wisdom, said when she thought about Black Genius, she said, it was always about the inventions of the past. 

She said that being a part of Village of Wisdom has changed her parenting. Even though Page had encouraged her children, she said she had never racially encouraged them with the word “genius.”

“It is important for me now, being in Village of Wisdom, that all Black kids see themselves as geniuses, and it doesn’t have to be an academic,” Page said. “ It doesn’t have to be an instrument, it can be anything.”

According to Shabu, Village of Wisdom has expanded its priorities to focus on what liberation looks like and how liberatory spaces can be created for Black youth. She said she works with parents to provide a solution to the lack of Black voices in decision-making, by curating art and events in the community. 

Shabu said the organization has recently created the Black Genius mobile classroom, which is a free-standing accordion door that has been activated with art, history, quotes and affirmations. 

The door can go into any space and affirm the environment with a Black cultural liberatory lens, she said. 

“Our research division develops a lot of the tools,” Shabu said. “We have a Culturally Affirming Climate Survey, we ask students, ‘how culturally affirming is this learning liberatory and loving environment for you?’ And that feedback is able to help a school and a classroom make changes, that would better serve those students.”

Page said parents in the Village of Wisdom can work across the organization’s different departments. 

She said even though she is from Chapel Hill, she’s made friends across county lines through the organization.. The parents of Village of Wisdom go through life together and are there for each other, Page said. 

“Rest is a thing we have to do, because this work is hard,” she said. “ You do as much or as little as you would like to do in the Village of Wisdom. It is not something that is ‘You have to do this all the time or else you’re not a part of it’, it’s whatever works for you.”

Jackson said that Village of Wisdom is creating a parent leadership journey and the whole point of the organization is to put parents in positions of power. 

 Parents often attend school board meetings to advocate and share their research and school board members are asking the parents what they should do, he said. 

“That’s when I always feel like all of this is having an impact, is whenever there’s this moment where parents are being looked to for their expertise, and folks are listening to them,” Jackson said. 
Edited by Dezarae Churchill

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Will Jackson founded Village of Wisdom, a nonprofit seeking to empower Black students and families in Durham, North Carolina. It advocates for more nurturing learning environments in their community. He says the knowledge Black students bring into classrooms is often unrecognized and even punished in some schools. He offers his Brief But Spectacular take on protecting what he calls “Black genius.”

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As we honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, let’s reflect on how far we’ve come and recognize that the journey is not over. Teaching our children how to enact change through social justice is one of Village of Wisdom’s core Black Genius Elements. It’s also a reflection of Dr. King’s tireless dedication to equality in and out of the classroom.

If you’re a Black parent hoping to create a better educational environment for your child, check out our latest resources on Black parent empowerment at villageofwisdom.org

#MLKDay#VillageofWisdom

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The day was filled with dreams, joy, and community. One parent’s words captured it: “This experience is letting me breathe and showing me how to rest.” Their words are a powerful reminder of why the Dreamship exists–to draw from the limitless love and imagination already in our people and communities.

As we move forward, we’re reminded of our community’s wealth. We are what we need. And together, we create spaces where dreaming, learning, and affirmation thrive.

Thanks to all the Black parents who participated! Stay tuned for more updates on the Dreamship Fellowship. 

#BlackExcellence #BlackPower #BlackParents #DreamshipFellowship

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Artwork by Dr. Dawn X. Henderson

Here we do our best to give you a glimpse of the Black Genius who is Joy Spencer.

As it was told by someone who loves her: Joy was born into activism. Standing on her mother’s shoulders, who founded a nonprofit organization to advocate for her children, Joy is involved with several organizations, efforts, and initiatives that empower the Black community through direct service, relationship building, education, and advocacy. 

She is driven by passion and an avid supporter of authentic community engagement and community-based solutions. She serves the community as the Executive Director of Equity Before Birth, a Black maternal health charity organization.

Why don’t you check out a clip we pulled from one of our many sessions during the Dream Assessment process to get a feel for the energy Joy brings to a room?

Joy on Village of Wisdom’s Black parent research experience.

We asked Joy why Black Genius Protection is so important to her and what makes her a Black Genius protector. Joy explains, 

“Our lives and the quality of our lives depend on our ability to embrace our Black Genius. Unapologetic displays of Black Genius threaten white supremacy, thus threatening the fabric of our nation. We must protect Black Genuis because its mere existence threatens the way the world operates. Black Genius is Powerful. We must harness this Power for our Liberation. I am a Black Genius Protector because our legacy and the lives of future generations depend on it.”

We leave you with a quote Joy shared with us to affirm our collective Black Genius.

“There will be people who do not believe in you…don’t you dare be one of them.” — Stephanie Lahart

The post Community Outreach Guru—A Black Genius profile of Joy Spencer appeared first on Village of Wisdom.

Dear Black Genius,

It is with my whole heart that I welcome you Black to school. Behind you is the chaos of school closures, zoom burnout and social isolation from clubs, sports teams, and friends. 

You proved you could learn in ways most adults thought impossible. You showed up in class with your pajamas, headwraps and hoodies, art-walls, music and your whole village beside you.

The best teaching this year has been modeled in your homes, in your neighborhoods, and in protest marches all across America. You and millions of other Black Geniuses have made history and changed the future of learning. 

More than learning, you’ve been teaching us all. It’s a no-brainer that you aced the most basic lesson of our lifetime: Black Lives Matter.

On your first day back in person, Village of Wisdom wants to remind you of all the genius we see when we see you. We invite you to watch this two-and-a-half-minute Dear Black Genius film short made just for you by an entire village of Black Genius Protectors. We got you!

In Love & Liberation,

Aya Shabu (she/her/hers)

Curator of Culturally Organizing Our Liberation

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