In this impact interview, Dominique Drakeford sits with Shani Peters and Joseph Cuillier, co-directors of The Black School in New Orleans, to explore what it truly means to build a Black-led institution rooted in care, love, and collective imagination. Drawing from the wisdom of bell hooks, Malcolm X, Paulo Freire, and the Black radical tradition, they unpack sustainability not as maintenance of broken systems, but as the commitment to making what is good last for our people, our communities, and the land. From their foundational questions “What do you love about your community” and “What do you want to change about your community” to their belief that Black youth are already experts of their own realities, this conversation reframes education as a communal, creative, and liberatory practice

Grounded as a physical schoolhouse in the Seventh Ward, one of the oldest Black neighborhoods in the country, Shani and Joseph speak candidly about generational trauma, Hurricane Katrina, environmental chaos, and the realities young people face stepping into adulthood at this moment in history. They share how The Black School responds with a holistic, constellational approach that connects land, food, art, economics, spirit and joy, alongside tools like the Black School Process Deck that make Black radical frameworks accessible and actionable. This episode is a powerful meditation on building institutions that do not replicate harmful models, but instead protect Black space, honor joy as resistance and invite community ownership as a pathway to true sustainability and self-determination.

https://theblack.school/

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