How can our Black and Brown children thrive in a system that was not set up for them to thrive?
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.”
Meet The Humans Making Community!
Tanya Nixon-Silberg (she/her) is a Black mother, educator, artist, and radical dreamer - and it is the beautifully intricate intersection of these identities cultivates the experience that is her art.
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The goal of her oeuvre is to make sure that Black and Brown children recognize that racism is systemic. Such holistic education requires empowering educators to confront systemic racism in the classroom, reminding them that engaging in this work collectively helps us to heal as a community.
Heralded as a "translator", Tanya's unique ability to bring concepts of racial justice to young children stretches her impact across generations. For more than 10 years, she has encouraged youth to both imagine and claim their place in a global community. She reminds them that they have agency and can take action for change.
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The joy of art comes through both the creation and the expression, and Tanya's commitment to liberation shines through her command of both.
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Octavia Nixon has held a variety of positions within the education sector, including roles as a teacher, literacy instructional coach, and curriculum designer. She has assisted educators and school administrators in identifying best practices and devising plans to implement equity-centered learning experiences rooted in reading instruction. Octavia's expertise extends to supporting school, district and state leaders with determining technical and adaptive enabling conditions that need to be in place to provide stakeholders across educational ecosystems with high-quality professional development focused on curriculum adoption and strategic implementation.
Octavia holds a Bachelor's Degree in English with a minor in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Additionally, she earned a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and obtained an Educational Supervisor Certification from Kean University.