April Newsletter
In April I can smell the earth warming up, and I feel certain no matter how many years I live in Seattle, there’s no way I will get used to the delicious aroma of spring. The scent of sticky sap and fresh blooms having their moment in the sun. I wrack my brain for the exact combination of elements, thinking maybe I can pick out each one, only to surrender to the mystery of it, reminding myself how important it is to just appreciate it for the brief time it’s here. Thank you for indulging in your senses with me, and for being here with us. This month I’ll leave you with some affirming words I’ve returned to over many seasons:
“to build up a practice of devotion to liberation, i must:
read and read and then go outside and/or online and find some more people to get free with. reject empires and celebrities and corporations. be real honest and self-aware and community-oriented. know that i don't know it all but together we know so much. breathe fire and sharpen like a blade. stay soft and love real hard. know and name and fight our enemies. show up daily to the struggle. believe in and build other worlds. grieve and despair when needed and let deep emotions be fuel. try and try and try again. show up. unlearn. resist. be a flame for freedom. believe, do. fight in this lifetime and for the next generations. never give up, never stop. until we are all free.”
-Karĩmi (IG: @wangamiro)
Intro by Alyx Alcala
In this newsletter:
RJ School Partner Update
Give Big for Freedom Schools 2026
Happy Birthday Septima!
Big Hearted Adventures
Community Events & Resources
RJ School Partner Update
We’ve got a recognition ya'll!
RECOGNIZE: CREATING COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS TAKES TIME!
Establishing and affirming community norms is a foundation of restorative practices. We work together as a classroom community to answer the important question: How do we want to treat each other and why? By building agreements together with students and shifting attention away from negative behaviors (what we don’t want to see), students gain a sense of mutual respect and shared power and we understand what each person needs to feel a sense of belonging and safety within the classroom and school community.
🌱Months into working with this 4th Grade Class at Emerson Elementary, the final version of their classroom agreements is now complete. After many rounds of input, editing and condensing the class officially adopted and signed the following Classroom Agreements:
Pictured: Students signing their class agreements
Say /your boundaries: i.e. 'I don't want people to touch my stuff.’
Respect & Listen to peoples boundaries + Keep hands to self.
Treat Others how you want to be treated.
Work as a team to get from place to place.
Have FUN as a class & play games.
Welcome + respect people's identities > race, culture, language gender, sexuality, learning abilities.
Share what's on your mind > Your voice matters.
Listen to what people share
One mic, one voice.
Kind language> Avoid 'bad' or curse words.
🫀Shout out to Teacher Beth for their labor of love through this process.
THANK YOU BETH! 🫰
Give Big to Freedom Schools 2026
This GIVE BIG help us meet our community where they are.
For the past 10 years our Freedom Schools program has been hosted in school buildings across the Southend. But this summer, due to school closures for construction, we no longer have access to a building. So summer 2026 Freedom Schools is going Back to Its Roots - bringing summer learning, joy, and resources directly into the neighborhoods where our families live.
You can help us raise 15,000 for Freedom Schools 2026!
When the original Freedom Schools began in 1964, learning didn’t happen in traditional classrooms. It happened in parks, churches, basements, and wherever communities could gather. Organizers created joyful, liberatory spaces with whatever they had.
We will be hosting weekly pop-up events across Rainier Beach that center community building, critical literacy and the social action activities that make Freedom Schools so powerful.
Your gift this GIVE BIG will directly fund meals, books, resources, and giveaways for Freedom Schools families in Rainier Beach.
Mark your calendar for Tuesday May 5th or make an early gift today:
Happy Birthday Septima!
This month, in anticipation of her birthday, May 3rd, we want to spotlight Freedom Fighter, Septima Clark! It’s an incredible story that reminds us of the importance of lifelong learning, critical literacy, and the historically forged freedom of summertime.
Born in 1898 Charleston, South Carolina, Clark was part of a family who deeply valued the power of education and resisted the dominant culture of white supremacy. With blatant racial segregation and discrimination the norm for Black folks in Charleston, a quality public education was not an affordance, so Clark’s parents sent her to a neighbor’s home for her primary education. Clark went on to graduate from secondary school and become a community based teacher herself.
Clark saw a real need for adult education as a means of empowering community members to fight for their rights, and started teaching on John’s Island (Black educators were limited in where they could publicly teach). She spent 30 years teaching in South Carolina and, before the age of 50, had obtained her BA and MA– she did so by investing in her education over summers, all while teaching adult literacy in the evenings.
Clark’s civil rights work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was integral to the development of her adult literacy curriculum. With the NAACP, she contributed to a campaign to give Black educators the right to teach in South Carolina public schools. The state ended up prohibiting city and state employers’ membership to civil rights organizations. Although Clark’s refusal to resign from the NAACP cost her her employment, it also launched her into the position of director of workshops at Myles Horton’s Highlander Folk School, a civil rights focused grassroots education center in Tennessee. It was there that she developed her adult literacy curriculum from John’s Island into the Citizenship School. One of Clark’s students, Esau Jenkins, helped expand the reach of Clark’s Citizenship Schools by making them mobile for working class folks. Students of these 37 early Citizenship Schools took their civil education and started community projects like low-income housing, a credit union, and a nursing home. Once again, the State intervened to crack down on civil rights by forcing the closure of Highlander Folk School–but the work was not done. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) created an iteration of Clark’s life work to found the Citizenship Education Program (CEP), and Clark took on leadership within the SCLC, recruiting Citizenship School teachers all over the south.
Pictured: Teaching for Change Cover with a portrait of Septima Clark
Clark’s work inspired countless workshop participants to think critically about their sociopolitical reality and get discussions going to address deep-seated community issues. We have her dedication to adult literacy and civic education to thank in laying the foundation for the 1964 Freedom Schools of Mississippi by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and thereby the foundation for WA-BLOC’s Freedom Schools. May we continue to be guided by her legacy, seeking out collective freedom wherever it might be nurtured and looking to youth to bring about change.
Big Hearted Adventures
Dante Rhodes, a former administrator at a WA-BLOC partner school, is now a published author! His book Big Hearted Adventures is now available for pre-sale.
Dante shared with WA-BLOC, “I learned a lot from working with you all in my time as a principal and having some sort of connection to your (Restorative Justice) work is my dream so educators and kids that read it can know where to go for resources.”
Pictured: Big Hearted Adventures (Hardcover)
'This first series of books introduces my pups as characters who help a boy work through conflict, learn from his mistakes, and spread kindness. I want the message to be clear- all humans make mistakes and should get the chance to make things right. Let’s teach our kids these skills early so they can navigate life better.
Thank you for your support, and I hope you and your kids love it!”
Dante’s book includes a shoutout to WA-BLOC and the restorative justice work we did together in his school community, as well as directing readers to our website to learn more about RJ in schools and access available free resources.
We LOVE hearing about how restorative practices apply in the lives of our community at schools and beyond! Thank you, Dante!
Community Events & Resources
Central District Legacy: Black Power. Black Panthers | Arte Noir
Opening Reception May 16th, 2-4PM | Exhibit May 6 - Aug 2nd, 2026
Join us in celebrating an exhibition that invites viewers to see, imagine and embody Blackness. Power, and the history of the Black Panthers. Individually and Collectively, the works created by Charles Conner, toni Toney, Thadeus Hunnicutt, Tasanee Durrett, Ed LaMar Petion, Xenobia Bailey, and others offer a visual narrative of youth solidarity; activism by any means necessary; the vibrancy of color; the enduring charge of the raised Black Power fist; and the panther itself - an emblem of protection, prowess and uncompromising Blackness. Free and open to the public. Light refreshments served.
Curatorial Statement: Rooted in legacy, endowed with power, and unmistakably Black, Central District Legacy: Black. Power. Black Panthers. honors the Seattle Black Panther Party and the enduring cultural force of Seattle’s Central District (CD). As the first Black Panther Party chapter established outside California, the Seattle chapter—founded in spring 1968—worked to protect, preserve, activate, and sustain revolutionary resolve in the pursuit of resources, dignity, and self-determination for Black people. The chapter endured until 1978, leaving an imprint that continues to shape civic life, cultural memory, and community care in Seattle and beyond. Keep reading HERE
Y-WE Career Day :He(art) | Young Women Empowered
Saturday, May 9 | Bethaday Community Learning Space 605 SW 108 St, Seattle.
It’s a free event for youth focused on exploring values-driven careers, creativity, and real-world skills like resumes, interviewing, and college prep. We’ll also have mentors, creatives, and even free headshots available.
Register HERE.
Celebrate the Camas Bloom & Mother (Earth) Day! | Queer the Land
May 10th 2026 | 2-4 PM | Martha Washington Park
Join us for another sweet Mother's Day gathering for all ages in honor of the camas bloom. Includes: informational garden tours, flower art activities, refreshments made with camas & seed sharing.
RSVP HERE. Questions or Accessibility needs >>> landsteward@queertheland.org
BIPOC & Allies Open Swim | Oshun Swim School
Monthly | 16+ | Saturdays 6 - 7:30 PM | Rainier Beach Pool | $5 USD
A Safer space for BIPOC to explore our relationship with water.
May 30th
June 13th (Pride swim)
July 18th (7:30pm, all ages at Mounger Pool)
August 8th (10-11:30 am, all ages at Colman Pool)
September 19th
October 17th
November 14th
December 12th (All Ages)
Register HERE
Kids to Parks Day | Braided Seeds
Saturday, May 16th, 2026 | 10 am - 2:30 pm
A free family friendly outing on Kids to Parks Day! BIPOC youth of all ages and their caregivers are welcome.
We'll be partnering with the US Forest Service to lead a family-friendly hike on the Denny Creek Trail. Transportation and snacks will be provided, but please bring your own bagged lunch.
Register HERE . Registration closes May 15th.
Outdoor Reclamation Series | Braided Seeds
Do you have 13-18 y/o BIPOC teens in your life? Are they interested in building confidence and community outdoors? Braided Seeds is partnering with Big City Mountaineers for a three part Outdoor Reclamation Series--this series is for them!
We'll start out with a day hike in early May, move on to an overnight camping trip later in May, and end with a three day backpacking expedition at the end of June.
Part 1: Day Hike @ Coal Creek Falls Trail | Saturday, May 9th
Part 2: Overnight Camping Trip @ Kanaskat Palmer State Park | Saturday, May 30th-Sunday, May 31st
Part 3: 3 Day Expedition @ Talapus and Olallie Lake Trail | Friday, June 26th-Sunday, June 28th
Cost: $80 for the full series. Iif this cost is a barrier; there are some scholarships available.
Registration HERE . Registration closes May 1st.
Black Graduation | Art Fair + Cultural Celebration | WA NA WARI
Sat May 30th - Sun May 31st | NW African American Museum-2300 S Massachusetts St
A two-day art fair and cultural gathering celebrating Black artists across the diaspora with artists from local, regional and national locations exhibiting.
Presented by Wa Na Wari in partnership with the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM), the weekend brings together artists, collectors, and community to connect, support, and invest in Black creative futures while enjoying everything it means to be part of a community leading culture. Featuring a curated marketplace, early VIP opening, keynote by Chela Mitchell, live music, film, and conversations on collecting as a pathway to legacy and sustainability.
Space is limited. Grab your spot today. Purchase tickets HERE.
