Chapter 14: Leadership Is Not A Title, It’s An Action: Using Artmaking to Lead for Social Justice with Young Black Men in K-12 Schools

I became involved in young Black men’s lives immediately after entering the teaching profession. After attending schools with limited racial minority student groups as well as the profession itself, I realized something was wrong, and still is wrong, with this system. Throughout my career, I navigated through these op-pressive systems in an effort to share what I learned about what it takes to make it in predominantly White K-12 schools. The purpose of this chapter is to create an awareness about the inner-workings of an educational system that does not value equity, justice, or the lives of all children and how I utilized a student-led leadership group through the artmaking process to share their experiences with others.