Taking Inventory: The End of a Year Teaching at My Old Elementary School
I returned to live at home this year for many of the same reasons that so many of my post-grad peers did the same, and was looking for education related […]
Author Archives: Benji Hart
Body Image and Anti-Colonialism
Body image is something I find myself preoccupied with often, and almost always in the contexts of my Black and queer identities. As a queer man, I am bombarded with images […]
Making Our Own Movements: Queer Activism in the Gay Marriage Era
Recently reemerging debates in mainstream media about gay marriage have had me thinking about the state of my own identity in our current political moment. As a queer person of […]
Lesson Plan – Nothing About Us Without Us: Introducing Disabilities Studies
1. Freewrite: At the start of the lesson, the statement “Nothing About Us Without Us” is written up on the board. Ask students to take five minutes and write a […]
Originality for Sale: How Capitalism Erases the Individual in the Name of the Individual
I was watching a sneaker ad on TV the other day, one reminiscent of most ads geared towards young demographics. It featured a montage of different twenty-somethings doing different activities–deejaying, […]
Faltering Allegiances: Or; Why Are So Many Elite Schools in the Hood?
I interviewed at a graduate program for urban education this past week. The program is housed in an elite private university, which I was encouraged to apply to because of […]
Doing It Ourselves: Reclaiming Community Service
One of my best friends lives in a small, post industrial mill town in Western Massachusetts. The city is mostly Black and Latin@, with high unemployment and one of the […]
Traditions of Struggle: Teaching as a Spiritual Practice
Struggling myself don’t mean a whole lot, I’ve come to realize/that teaching others to stand and fight is the only way my struggle survives.” – Bernice Johnson Reagon, Sweet Honey […]
Getting Our Houses in Order: Learning from Political Contradiction
“If your house ain’t in order, you ain’t in order.” – Toni Cade Bambara The recent rounds in the debate over universal healthcare in the US have resparked old arguments […]
Mother Shaming: Poverty, Feminism and Young Pregnancy
I was in eighth grade the first time a close friend of mine got pregnant, and many more of my good friends would become parents before I graduated high school. […]
Radical Faggot 