Serving with light and love…
Every time I see him, I think of Mike.
His seriousness cannot hide the smile.
His commitment to children, is matched only by his commitment to his team.
His love of his father, unparalleled in the face of the cameras…
I can’t see him do his thing and not think about him…
I have lost track of him but grateful for the brief friendship.
Let’s Go Knicks!!!
Jason Reynolds is one of my favorite YA writers. He has a “26” tattoo. His explanation for its meaning sits with me everyday because in it is an entire liturgy on life’s meaning. He essentially said in life, we only get 26 letters. We must use them to voice our thoughts and tell our stories.
Life is about thoughts and stories. Meaning is made through living.
As we approach the end of another school year, I think about the Class of 2026 and all the things I wish they could have done…all the living I wish they could have had if we had only been prepared for them. Then I remember that so much of their lives will be marked by 26! As long as we pause to listen to the stories they tell, we (and they) will get fresh starts as they live…
I am fascinated by how fast things change. We used to think evolution was a slow, creeping and barely noticeable thing. That was when we were talking about how human-kind developed. In the age of information, mediated by technology, it almost seems silly to think about evolution at that pace.
From the beginning of the school year in August 2025 to now (April 2026), EVERYTHING has changed. I am thinking about how this time last year, I was working with community others to develop a clear statement about AI culture and norms (because policy in the age of 4-5-7 means nothing)! How could reading Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation and listening to/reading Ethan Mollick’s work on Co-Intelligence be so mind-boggling accurate that a year later, I am in this place?!
Welp, here we are.
I have been thinking about how learning is now so different and what it means to be part of the generative world of AIs. So…I am putting it out there–I am working on a bigger paper (like I have nothing else to do)! I have created a way to think about these shifts and applying it to STEM Education (of course…my bias).
More is coming but here is the skeleton…what a wild ride!
Original. Gracious. Our Guide.
The “O.G.” status you wore was not a badge of the street, but a testament to a soul that stood firm in its foundation. You were the Original, the first of your kind, the blueprint of excellence. You were the Grateful, the Gifted, and the Grand architect of a culture where style met substance. Your “gangsta” was your grit—a fierce, unwavering commitment to the uplift of our people, a bold refusal to let any child’s light be dimmed, and a soulful swagger that demanded respect for the art you carried in your bones.
You reminded us to LIFT E’VRY VOICE
As you
Walked down the halls
Held banners in the streets
Hugged children in the courtyards
Grabbed microphones on the stage…
You, The, O.G., have guided us to ourselves…
So
We
Sing a song
Full of the faith that our dark past has taught us,
With a voice like a cello, resonant, honeyed, and deep;
You walked through the hallways, a queen whom the ancestors brought us,
With a promise to honor and a sacred tradition to keep.
You were our Sweet Honey, a rock in the midst of the weary,
An artist who painted the spirit with every high note.
When the way became shadowed and the outlook was dreary,
You sang of the “Greatness” that every young dreamer once wrote.
Though you have left us, the echo of music is ringing,
Leading us on to the joy that your presence was bringing.
Stony the road that you paved with a passion for learning,
Where the stage became a classroom of history and light;
For the “Month” (28 days most of the time) was not enough to contain all your yearning,
To see every child stand tall in the glory of what is right.
You dressed in the garments of culture, a style so melodic,
Teaching that beauty is power and rhythm is truth.
With a grace that was ancient and a flair that was profound,
You poured out your wisdom into the parched vessels of our youth.
We now stand where the gleam of your bright star is cast,
Honoring the “Original” soul that has anchored our past.
Now, a prayer sung to the tune and timing of a song we sing…
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, we thank you,
For the sister who marched in our circle with laughter and song;
In the harmony of our sisterhood, let her spirit cover us,
Keep us forever in the path where her joyful presence belongs.
May the “O.G.” legacy bloom in the hearts of the singers,
In the minds of the teachers who champion the story that must yet be told.
For as long as the vibration of one soulful melody lingers,
Let her art remain vibrant, her story remain bold.
Lest our feet stray from the places, dear God, where we met her,
Lest, drunk with the wine of the world, we should ever forget her.
Facing the rising sun of a new day begun, this victory is won.
Help us to know peace as we gather and band.
Shadowed beneath your hand, may we forever stand.
Keep us forever in your path, we pray…Amen.
Selah.
For Olive
—April 2026
Kwanzaa Day 2: Kujichagalia means self-determination
Using white text is catching on! I have been using it for years…I always suspected machines were reading what the naked eye could not see. Now I know it is. As I reflect on the principles of Kwanzaa this year, I can’t help but think about artificial intelligence (AI).
The first time I created a resume using “white ink”, I saw it as adding a personal touch that I knew was there even if its human reader could not see it. I couldn’t afford the fancy linen paper that was often circulated in the 90s on those early career interviews–when T2 was still one of the hottest science fiction movies of the day! Were the questions given to destroy or protect the young woman I was learning to become? Unsure, perhaps even afraid to show who I really was, I would turn the background of every resume gray for myself and print my professional life story out for myself in white text while handing my evaluator the white copy…staying somewhere between black and white, unsure about just what to say…my youth seen as arrogance, my being seen as less; I didn’t know who would show up to tell me what they thought I was…it is strange to hear myself say that I used whiteness to assure myself of truths my reviewer could never see. Wearing a digital mask made of text on a page…
Now, it seems hidden text is everywhere.
Fast forward twenty years, AI tools are reading and writing whole life stories for people–machines are defining us and some of us are co-signing on all of it. Contributing data by the second as we scroll endlessly all day, invoke Siri and Alexa to answer what we refuse to look up and expecting our life to be maintained by the apps at our fingertips.
The tools some imagine to help us get ahead are doing so much more to keep us behind. Like a trap set for vulnerable prey, college professors and other power players are changing expectations even as the technologies evolve (and as they use them to do their own work). They are defining students by the tools they use–classical canons and scholarly traditions, modern discussions with other humans, or the technological strategies and AIs they engage. This new school classification is complicated. Some smart, most dumb, few genius and all cheating. Is anything ever that black and white?
I want to stay somewhere in the gray space. We need to know AI’s promise and its problems. We need to always define ourselves based on our own reflection (in mirrors and in minds), our own cultures (of community, language, art and family) and our own voice. We are carrying the spirit of our ancestors when we do this. We must remember this gift…always.
Suggestions from my 2025 reading list: Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom; James by Percival Everett; Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray; Kamau Njama Discovers Secrets of the Vanguard Order by Jomo Mtegi (Youth)
If you know me, you know I am a nerd. I love science and art and the moon…I started to add nature but, I don’t like sweltering heat or arctic cold or hurting animals or crickets but these are part of our natural world so…I will end my list with the seasons.
When I lived in Wyoming, I missed experiencing the beauty of full seasons. The cycles we all experience are worth celebrating.
Today is the Winter Solstice–the shortest day of the year. It is the day when in the Northern hemisphere, we are leaning furthest away from our power source (the sun) as we revolve around it (the sun). This is a metaphor for SO many things.
What is a day? A day is us, spinning on our individual axis. Just like life–all over the place and in the same place at the same time.
What is a season? A season is that part of our experience that will certainly come back again, predictably but later in life.
What is a year? That full revolution around the source of our power. Seeing it up closest in Spring, from furthest away in Winter.
When I think about the sun, as the source of our power, I cannot help but think about THE SON. God made made human, alive and in flesh…phew!
Drawing nearer even when we are naturally furthest away is what I seek to do…always.
Grateful for this season…
Have a MARY CHRISTMAS people (Luke 1:26-38).
Elephants, in all their majesty, do two things that make them remarkable beyond their size and status in folklore and nature…
They protect their young by circling up.
They remember their old and honor that history.
I listened to an outstanding lecture and interview by Nikole Hannah-Jones that is sitting with me like a good cup of tea…I keep feeling the warmth of the words spoken and know I have to finish that book.
I know there is something liberating in subversive education that we must return to and embrace.
I know there is something healing in subversive education that will help us recover from harms done, like surgery for broken bones entire systems (big and small) can be fixed.
She admonished the audience–all of us–to DEFEND INSTITUTIONS as we pursue justice citing Timothy Snyders second proposition he calls lessons “On Tyranny“.
I choose education…subversive education. The veiled education that protects our young but requires others to do it. Our life depends on it…
Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right of every person to be able to live with dignity. – Nelson Mandela
Serving the people with charity is complicated…especially in a system driven by the triple threat braid made by strongholds of capitalism, militarism and racism. These are instruments of oppression that bind us in more ways than can ever be expressed in a few words. Yet, we will try.
The federal decision to cut SNAP benefits to the masses is reprehensible, especially in a social climate where inflation is on the rise, grocery prices are out-of-reach for many and job security is fleeting. According to a January 2025 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report, more than 64% of the people who benefit from SNAP in New Jersey are in families with children. What is the real cost per person for these benefits? For less than $7 per person per day, the federal standard expectation, families are expected to feed families. Even with an imagination, that is challenging. Thankfully, we have school breakfast and lunch, right? Wait! Not so fast. What happens when schools are not in session? What happens when there is a culture of waste and social pressure to eat fast food or fancy-packaged meals?
How do we get back to self-determination and social progress that can be dated back to the days when organizations like the NAACP, Urban League, UNIA-ACL, Divine 9 and many other organizations in and around urban centers embraced community gardens, holistic education and service within our community? We need to leverage the spaces we occupy to teach and reach. We need to tap into our past practices to grow what we need to survive: grow food, grow partnerships, grow our children to respect and value simplicity while creating pathways for all of us to be more than consumers.
Until we get that right, we need SNAP. It is a good thing that some states are picking up the tab on benefits (for this month at least). Be warned however…too much of that, will usher in a new shift in responsibility for the people to the state. It is 2025. Have you seen that tracker about that project? It is no coincidence that we are here in the final days of this monumental year. Chaotic? Yes. Planned? Perhaps. We must resolve to name the myriad of ways that poverty is being sustained by the federal government—both parties. This is a political problem about spending and how we see people as human resources, not a partisan issue. Just like any other complicated challenge we face as a people, we must look to who we are as people—not as Americans or citizens—for a solution. It is an ubuntu thing: I am because WE are.
I love public media…especially public radio. On my way home today, I listened to a new-to-me writer and critic from Baltimore named Lawrence Burney. He spoke about Gil Scott Heron and Frederick Douglass and his words arrested me…
He talked about knowing, even as a kid, when “gravity is pulled from a person”. Gil Scott Heron could do that. He described how Frederick Douglass escaped chattel slavery by embracing his functional knowledge as a person who knows about coastal community…he posed as a seamen and carried a free seaman’s certificate. Knowledge of the language and practices of the Jacks was part of what he needed. Paper in hand, is the other. His story of Escape from Slavery and its connections to the reality that there is ‘no sense in wishing’ is just powerful!
Today is a special day. Today is an ode to the Proverbs 4:7 woman that you are.
WISDOM IS THE PRINCIPAL THING: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding” Proverbs 4:7 KJV.
There is no doubt in my mind that without my sister and God’s grace and mercy, today would not have been possible.
There is something about arrivals to special moments that have always been stormy…the things that characterize your our “I’m here” announcements…uncertain and insecure, safety could only come in communion, cooperation and the creative forces possible through our twinness.
Did you know that on our birthdate, the national tree was making its way to Washington, DC on a train that derailed twice?!
I remember HS graduation (vaguely) and I think it had been raining for days beforehand, threatening the number of tickets we would get. Luckily, we had a pair so…we managed to cross the bridge smiling together anyway. The people who were cheering us on, knew that we would be ok, because we had each other.
Graduation means a lot in our family. The movement from one place to another. From one challenge to another. From one hard reality to another. Nothing has ever really been easy but it has always been characterized by our faith…in God and each other. When no one else believes we can, we do. We believe in each other and support each other to get whatever done.
On your first college graduation day, it rained so hard. It was cold. But as the story goes, Granny sat there with her umbrella until your name was called. You had arrived to a place that many would not.
On the many graduations since, through sunshine, ridiculous heat and storm clouds adrift…you persisted!
I can taste the rainbow in this moment…in a wonderful Skittles kind of way. They give me blisters but are sour and sweet and remind me of childhood joys.
I am so proud of you…
I love you for life.
Congratulations.
Teach.
Dr. JJ!
Joy Barnes-Johnson, Ph.D. 