liberation work with kids
Do you believe racial justice can happen every day?
About Little Uprisings:
Through a multi-faceted, creative approach that centers the beauty and power of Blackness, Little Uprisings endeavors to build long lasting, deep and sustainable relationships in order for change to take root, growing a practice that allows justice to take hold daily.
How can our Black and Brown children thrive in a system that was not set up for them to thrive? And see the richness and beauty in themselves that is so rarely affirmed within our larger institutions? How can white children unlearn deeply rooted bias in order to adopt a lens of racial justice, challenge existing systems, and stand with individuals in fighting oppression?
Little Uprisings will work in partnership with school systems and community partners that have a commitment to making racial justice an everyday occurrence. Our work is grounded in children’s books and includes a variety of creative modalities, including, but not limited to, art, body movement, music, puppetry, imaginative play and performance. Our work is actively anti-racist, brave and Black affirming. Our work is not limited to looking at justice through a lens of oppression, but seeks to broaden one’s lens to center Blackness as a beautiful and endlessly rich source of experience, knowledge, and inspiration.Black and Brown children, our culture is an asset to every space it inhabits, and especially every classroom. Let us capitalize on the beauty and power of Blackness and grow change together.
So, we’re instigating uprising. Why ‘Little’? We certainly do not believe our young people are limited to ‘Little’. Adrienne Maree Brown, author of Emergent Strategy, writes, “Emergence notices the way small actions and connections create complex systems, patterns that become ecosystems and societies. Emergence is our inheritance as a part of this universe; it is how we change.” One uprising must lead into another, and another, and yet another.
About Us
Tanya Nixon-Silberg (she/her) is a Black mother, educator, artist, and radical dreamer. Her work informs the intersection of all these identities. Called a "translator", Tanya has the ability to distill concepts of racial justice to young children in ways that help them imagine and take back a world where with community, they have agency, and can take action for change and has been doing this work for over 7 years. Tanya’s life’s goal is to make sure that Black and Brown children recognize that racism is systemic; that educators not shy away from confronting systemic racism in the classroom and that engaging in this work collectively helps us to heal.
Octavia Nixon (she/her) has 12 years of experience working in different capacities within the field of education. She has served as an ELA and special education teacher, virtual and school-based instructional coach, and curriculum designer. Octavia has experience creating and revising literacy-based curricula in addition to developing standards-aligned curriculum material for the Office of the State Superintendent of Education in Washington, D.C and leading state education agencies in adopting high-quality instructional materials and aligned high-quality professional learning with a focus on equity. Octavia earned a Bachelor's Degree in English with a minor in psychology from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, and an Educational Supervisor Certification from Kean University.