Intratexturealities: The Poetics of the Freedom Schools

Freedom Schools, which operated during 1964 after the collaborative efforts of several Civil Rights organizations, provided an opportunity to understand how students can drive the curriculum to meet individual and collective needs within a community. The presence and use of poetry throughout the Freedom Schools was mysterious, given that it is virtually absent in the curriculum guide, memos, and documents prepared by the administrative staff members and teachers. Students’ poetry not only revealed the intersections and layers of lived experience, society, and culture, but also their agency in the context of an anti-oppressive education project.