EduCon 2027Making Our Praxis Multimodal: A Living Archive of Black Philadelphia
Teachers, youth, university researchers, and a museum partner in this research-practice partnership, convened by a U.S. writing project site, explored tensions around how Black histories are told in and about Philadelphia, often going unrecognized in our schools and museums. We challenge inequitable racial narratives by centering Black youth as they draw links between past, present, and future and become researchers and storytellers of Black Philadelphian histories. Grounded in Black feminisms and using practitioner research and participatory design-based methods, we advanced the notion of a living archive, which brings together archival and artistic literacies to generate, preserve, and share histories. We make this work visible through a “praxhibition” (Rosser, 2026)—an experience that brings praxis, theory and practice, to life through exhibition. During this conversation, participants will experience pieces of our living archive through music, storytelling, poetry, photographs, interviews, and other artifacts created through teacher and youth inquiry. Together, we will consider: What happens when young people and teachers become researchers of the Black histories their schools and communities have overlooked? Whose histories remain hidden in our own communities? And how might we create opportunities for young people to research, (re)story, preserve, and share them? Participants will leave having considered possibilities for creating living archives in their own classrooms, schools, and communities
Conversational Practice
Participants will experience our “praxibition” (Author 1, 2026), which blends music, storytelling, poetry, photography, interviews, essays, and other modalities to make visible the praxis and co-constructed knowledge of our community. We will host a listening party featuring selections from our multimodal Living Archive album that tell the story of our project, including how we worked in collaborative inquiry; how learning about U.S. history influenced teaching practices and advanced youth literacies; and the socio-historical narratives that emerged as youth and teachers engaged with archival documents. Participants will also hear tracks featuring the lines of inquiry of 10 teacher and youth researcher teams, as well as the perspectives of our museum and community partners. Throughout the listening party, we will pause for conversation, inviting participants to respond to what they hear, ask questions, make connections, and engage directly with teacher-researchers about the possibilities and tensions of this work. After listening, participants will be invited to add to the Living Archive and consider what histories, people, places, or stories need to be remembered in their own communities. Together, we will consider how living archives and praxibitions might transcend the boundaries of literacy research and advance teaching, learning, and inquiry in participants’ own contexts.
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