For over five years, Chrissy has developed and facilitated “Morals
Murals Hood Tours” of North and West Philadelphia that revere Black and local counter-narratives. In her presence, I was entrusted with such stories that I otherwise could not access. Since then, 2021, I have returned to Philadelphia (Philly) and taken Black-led tours in other locations. While in New Orleans, I learned from Mama Vera. In my hometown, Detroit, I finally met Baba Jamon Jordan during the Black Scroll Network History and Tour. Most recently, I took a solo trip to Portugal, where I learned from Naky during the African Lisbon Tour. My experiences with Chrissy, Mama Vera, Baba Jamon, and Naky, inspire me to question: How do Black storytellers honor, imagine, and amplify Black curricula, revelatory counter-narratives, and possibilities via curated city-based “street” tours? In doing so, how do they participate in glocal (simultaneously local and global) conversations that speak back to anti-Blackness. These wonderings frame my conceptualizing of curbside pedagogy (CP). Through witnessing, I have noticed these elements of CP:
– Hearing One’s Own Voice
– Summoning Responsibility & Resistance
– Grief and Healing
– Volume (Space-Making and Space-Taking)
– Ujamaa
– Decolonial Cartographies
– Glocal Black Curricula
