Ujima Wednesdays | Leveraging Black Aesthetics for Fugitive Worldmaking with Justin Coles

Liberation Study Hall: 

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Schools of 1964, the Boston Ujima Project proudly presents "Liberation Study Hall," a year-long exploration of historical figures, schools of thought, experiments and sites that have contributed to shaping our contemporary movements and global landscape.

Event Description:

“Fugitivity… is a desire for and a spirit of escape and transgression of the proper and the proposed. It’s a desire for the outside, for a playing or being outside, an outlaw edge proper to the now always already improper voice or instrument.”–Fred Moten

In current discourse, a growing body of narratives has emerged concerning fugitivity and marronage: the actions, organizing, and placemaking we undertake from the shadows, margins, and crevices to free ourselves. Such work is a reclamation of self for Black people and Black communities outside of nation-states that deny us agency. 

These narratives frequently refer to escape from racial violence pre-emancipation: scholars and cultural critics frame these concepts in the past tense. Yet there is a present and ongoing legacy of fugitive practices within education, cooperative infrastructures, migration, and abolition. 

In this series of workshops, we will explore the concept of fugitivity and its intricate relationship with Blackness, liberation, and economic justice. From independent Black placemaking (marronage) and Black self-sustaining communities (maroons), to political prisoner movements, to poetics and planning, we hope to gain insight into recent historical events and current practices of fugitivity and marronage. We will focus on sites of transformation, mobility, and possibility, and we will examine these practices through the lens of fugitivity–a tool for envisioning and creating new worlds from “the outside”.

This workshop wrestles with the im/possibilities of Black worldmaking in an anti-Black world; Justin Coles, an associate professor of social justice education at UMass Amherst, will lead us through an understanding of Black aesthetics as central to authoring ourselves beyond the confines of oppression. 

Viewing fugitive practices as both running away from what chains us and running towards what we cultivate, we will explore Black creative resistance across time and space to culturally sustain ourselves. 

We ask the following core question: what is the knowledge, residing within Blackness, that functions as resistance/resilience to an anti-blackness that dis/organizes Black social realities? We look inward to celebrate and to be guided by a Black gaze—a (re)humanizing orientation that centers the rich existence of Black humanness. 

The workshop–which is part lecture, part dialogic co-creation, and part art-making–will end with a tangible framework for using Black aesthetics as a socio-educational and political tool for fugitive praxis: for refusal and rebuilding. 

Facilitator Bio:

Justin A. Coles, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Social Justice Education in the department of Student Development at the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Education. Within the College, Dr. Coles serves as the Director of Arts, Culture, and Political Engagement at the Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research. His research agenda converges at the intersections of critical race studies, urban (teacher) education, language & literacy, and Black studies. Dr. Coles is published in the Journal of Teacher Education, Urban Education, The Journal of Negro Education, The High School Journal, Curriculum Inquiry, Race Ethnicity and Education, Equity & Excellence in Education, Journal of Language & Literacy in Education, Urban Education Research & Policy Annuals, and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Recently, he was named a William T. Grant Theories of Blackness, Indigeneity, and Racialization in Research to Reduce Inequality in the Lives of Young People Writing Fellow.

In Person Attendees:

Testing: You must test before every in person/hybrid event, and show evidence of your most recent test results upon entry. 

Mask Requirements: We encourage all attendees to wear masks during the event.

Health Check: If you're feeling unwell or have been in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, we kindly ask you to stay home and join us virtually.

Sanitization: Hand sanitizing stations will be available at the venue, along with masks and a restricted supply of COVID-19tests. We strongly encourage you to use them as needed. 

Allergies: Refreshments will be served, please include any allergies and dietary restrictions in the provided space.

Note: Seating is limited, so be sure to arrive early to secure your spot for this enlightening workshop. For inquiries and more information, please contact comms@ujimaboston.com.