An Offer of Bearing and Baring Witness as Pedagogy

ABSTRACT

Despite developing curriculum for a youth organization with which I have a long history, it was not until a 7-hour videocall that it occurred to me that “witnessing” might be part of its pedagogy. Something important about bearing witness to the members and their baring witness (confessing their thoughts to us), seemed to be afoot, and I wanted to contemplate with staff what intentional witnessing asks of and offers youth and facilitators. What tools and techniques are being employed? What can we learn from witnessing as pedagogy about nurturing the educational excellence of BIPOC and LGBTQ youth in an out-of-school space? This article lifts up ideas about witnessing as pedagogy explored during gatherings with Black and Latinx women staff working directly with youth through theorizing bearing/baring witness and by describing how educational excellence is cultivated by the organization.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to The Brotherhood/Sister Sol women who made this exploration possible: Wendy DeJesus, Cidra Sebastien, Marsha Jean-Charles, Simone Gamble, Dominique Mitchell, London Arnold, Ashley Hernandez, and Brittany Reyes. I also thank Leigh Patel for reviewing an early draft. All photographs by the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. “Duku” means head wrap in the Ewe language of Ghana and Togo.

2. Like the Dew that Waters the Grass: Words from Haitian Women and Walking on Fire.

3. QTPOC translates to queer and trans people of color.

4. “Conscientizacao” means consciousness-raising in Portuguese.

5. This text accompanies a photograph by Lorna Simpson entitled Waterbearer ©1986.

6. See Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the autobiography of mother and fugitive slave, Harriet Jacobs.

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Notes on contributors

Susan Wilcox

Susan Wilcox collaborates in cultivating liberatory education initiatives across the United States and African Diaspora using a transdisciplinary approach to center the dignity of those involved. Much of her work focuses on youth (particularly Black girls and young women), the arts, and justice. She is recipient of Fulbright Specialist, Fulbright-Hays, and Fulbright Scholar awards, co-founder of Free Minds Free People (social justice education national conference) and an artist.