I thought: here I am, a high school teaching artist, relating to kids who could very well occupy the classrooms I teach, in an open and unfettered way, unrestricted from the confines of school walls, desks and metal detectors.  I made my way darting between kids rocking stop and frisk pins, in light work circles, and in cyphers rapping to beats banged out on park trash cans-learning from kids about their experiences, and connecting them up with the movement to end mass incarceration.   We are seeing the beginning of a historical moment: where the hoodie has become a badge of honor, and a symbol of resistance.     

Why can’t school be like this? 

“No more generations of our youth, here and around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death, or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined  for oppression and oblivion even before they are born.  I say no more of that.”  -Bob Avakian