The School of Education — through the Practices of Freedom Project, the Center for Urban Education, and the Kinloch Commons for Critical Pedagogy and Leadership — will begin a year of asking “What is education in the Black Fantastic? What is our educational freedom? Our liberation?” with an event on Sept. 5.

“The Black Fantastic is our freedom. The Black Fantastic is liberation,” says Ekow Eshun, author of “In the Black Fantastic” — an exploration of Black culture at its most wildly imaginative, artistically ambitious, and politically urgent.

The year of discussions begins with a webinar from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 5. It will include a dialogue with Damien Sojoyner, a scholar in the Black radical tradition who is the first scholar to connect the Black Fantastic to experiences of schooling. His ideas will provide the contours of what questions and study come next, according to a post about the event.

Register here: https://bit.ly/BFT-Sept5

The Practices of Freedom project aims to construct and refine a teacher training model that centers Black community educational traditions in order to increase Black teachers and teachers of color and transform curricula and pedagogy in Western Pennsylvania.

The Kinloch Commons is a connector and hub to address current leadership and pedagogy questions through workshops, roundtables, lectures, and other offerings.