Season 2, Episode 5 | We Keep Us Safe

Read our Retraction & Care Note regarding our removal of the Jenny Sazama reference in the original posting of this episode. LINK

In this episode, the second in our series on Undoing Settler Colonialism, we listen with love to Carla Shalaby, author of Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School, a book we discuss often on the podcast. Her current role is one that works with pre-service and inservice teachers in school to ground their work in liberatory teaching and learning. Then, we welcome our high school birders Natasha, Nelly, and Niya to share a favorite bird. Laquesha Sanders has schooled us in the history of student debt this season and now shares her personal story about how she has navigated a mental health journey informed by the weight of school debt. We leave you with our questions: How do the grown folks in the building refuse the internalization of school discipline and compliance-driven relationships in order to instead co-create a community through loving engagement and accountability? What could school community look, feel, and sound like when people are in deep relationship with themselves and each other? Dialogue with us! Send your notes to us@dancingondesks.org or slide into our DMs on IG @dancingondesks. We look forward to hearing your stories!

Transcript (Finalized Friday, April 7, 2023)

INTELLECTUAL INHERITANCE

• Troublemakers, Carla Shalaby
• Lessons in Liberation, Education for Liberation Network & Critical Resistance Editorial Collective
• Planning to Change the World: A Plan Book for Social Justice Educators, edited by Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price, Margaret Kavanagh, Carla Shalaby, and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca
• Saltwater Demands a Psalm, Kweku Abimbola
• The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander
• Matilda, the Musical, directed by Matthew Warchus, Netflix
• We Will Not Cancel Us And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice, adrienne maree brown
• “Uses for the Erotic” (n.d.), an earlier draft “Uses for the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” (1978), Audre Lorde, Audre Lorde Papers, Spelman College Archives

MUSIC

• “New Revolution”, ZXTO
• “Push It Along”, prod. B. Young
• “Tea”, prod. Metz Music
• “Easily”, prod. yogic beats
• “Dust”, prod. Mokart Beats
• "What You Need" prod. JVD
• crows caw free copyright sound, Copyright Free Music
• Dancing on Desks Theme song, composed and arranged by Mara Johnson and Elliott Wilkes