The PractiPel Pedagogue

I’ve been craving something slower, softer, and more intentional, so I’m putting this out there: I would really love a few real pen pals for snail mail correspondence. Shout out to my friends, Caroline and Camesha for wiriting me here and there!

Not just random letters, but thoughtful exchange. Life updates, reflections, poems, prayers, beauty tips, book thoughts, memories, questions, affirmations, little pieces of whatever feels true. I miss the intimacy of taking time with words.

In a world of quick texts and constant scrolling, I want something tangible. Something I can hold in my hands. Something made with care.

If you’d be into writing letters back and forth with me, comment below or message me. I’m serious 💌

Here is the link: https://forms.gle/usfjK6aw8nYrGd3E8

Black children deserve places to gather without death stalking them. Running them down with urgency. Because we needed this corporate clutter.
Our neighborhoods deserve more than corporate clutter masquerading as development.
We deserve public care.

I am not a fan of this redevelopment in the lens of consistently working with youth on the ground. I am writing from inside the wound and from inside the love. This is more than a Black shooting it is an ecosystem of neglect. It is about the collapse of public sanctuary, the disposability of Black youth, and the slow violence of being asked to survive chaos while still calling it community.

Full blog available at: https://www.shapellaborde.com/post/roy-wilkins-park-and-the-failure-of-public-care-the-geography-of-black-precarity

This year’s commencement ceremony for Morris Brown College holds a special place in the HBCU’s history.

This cohort of graduates, deemed the “Restoration Class,” is the first to graduate from Morris Brown since its reaccreditation.

Morris Brown’s journey remains one of determination and resilience, inspiring other HBCUs at risk of losing accreditation. The school fought for decades to restore its status after losing it in 2002, regaining it 20 years later.

https://www.blackenterprise.com/morris-brown-graduation-restoration-class-reaccreditation/

I received a microgrant to share one of my favorite stories and philosophies for living. The kitchen table was my first desk. I am the first in bloodline to be seeking a PhD. I am (possibly) the first Black woman PhD student in Philosophy and Education at Teachers College Columbia and what looks like kenopsia, the kitchen table is my fertile ground. My first classroom. My first site of prayer, nourishment, correction, laughter, storytelling, and becoming.Raised in Grandma Babe’s house, the kitchen table was where I did homework, ate meals after giving thanks to God, listened to the grown folks talk, learned Black expression, absorbed etiquette and mannerisms, and experienced what it meant to be seen across generations. It was one of the first places that taught me that education does not begin in institutions. It begins at home, in ritual. It begins in relationship. Years later, before my grandmother transitioned to ancestor, I felt an urgency to transform that kitchen with my own money. In 2021, I opened the space up, softened it, and reimagined it with pinks and pale tones that felt like both memory and permission. That renovation was about honoring lineage. It was about creating softness in a house that had already held so much life, labor, grief, beauty, and survival. It was about giving my foremothers somewhere to rest inside my imagination too. It was also Grandma Babe approved as she said the pink is nice afterall. And now, as a mother, scholar, storyteller, and keeper of family memory, I understand even more clearly that the kitchen table is a living philosophy. It is where generations meet. It is where conversations get digested alongside food. It is where dreams are spoken aloud. It is where curses are interrupted and gifts are cultivated. It is where Black life rehearses its future.My daughter is growing up in that same ancestral home. She has eaten at this kitchen table. She has also eaten in rooms and moved through spaces her foremothers could only dream of with ease, wonder, and vibrant audacity. My scholarship and my motherhood are deeply intertwined, and this table sits at the center of both. Inspired by my Ancestors & Kitchen Table Press💗

Public trust requires transparency.
S8856 and A9617 would establish County Law Enforcement Civilian Complaint Review Boards to help ensure accountability and fairness in county correctional facilities across New York State.

Independent oversight helps support safer working conditions for correctional officers, protects incarcerated people from harm, and strengthens confidence in public institutions.

Oversight improves systems. Oversight builds trust. Oversight protects communities.

We urge legislators to co-sponsor and advance S8856 and A9617.

Send a message to learn more

‼️‼️⚠️Over one year ago, as a result of the unauthorized work stoppage within NYS prisons, visiting on holidays and weekday visits at all but 3 maximum security prisons (which offer a Wednesday visit), were suspended. Mandatory body scanners were also put into place. These changes have created enormous hardships on visitors, and led to increased isolation inside.

Please sign your Organization, Coalition or Faith-Based group onto this collective letter calling on DOCCS Commissioner Martuscello to restore holiday visits by Memorial Day and weekday visiting by the end of June. The letter also calls for the following: 1). Mandate Prisons Submit Timelines for Reopening by April 15th 2). Protect Visitors from Inclement Weather 3). Revoke and Review Existing Visitor Suspensions Based on Body Scans 4). Prohibit Visit Suspensions Lasting Beyond the Day of the Visit if the Denial is Based Solely on a Scan. 5). Ensure Children Are Never Subjected Body Scanners.

This letter grew out of and has been informed by the experiences of hundreds of visiting family members and friends and the experiences of their loved ones incarcerated in NYS DOCCS Correctional Facilities.
Please sign on by Monday March 30th at 9am. ‼️‼️⚠️

Restore Visiting at DOCCS Prisons Over one year ago, as a result of the unauthorized work stoppage within NYS prisons, visiting on holidays and weekday visits at all but 3 maximum security prisons (which offer a Wednesday visit), were suspended. Mandatory body scanners were also put into place. These changes have created enormous ha...

And baby girl is RIGHT!

“These people did not NEED slaves,” the 10-year-old wrote on her history test, after bubbling in the technically correct answer.

Brilliant! ⭐️

Black women hold the world together. 🌍🙏🏾✨It is a Happy Women’s History month indeed. So much work to do, so little time and sometimes that work begins at home, the homeplace.🏡

I’m honored to share that my paper “I Come from the Woodlands: Black Genealogy, Property, and Reclaiming Inheritance in the Afterlife of Slavery” has been accepted to the 2026 Black Women’s Studies Association Symposium.

In this research I trace my family’s lineage from the (possible)Woodlands of the American South to South Jamaica, Queens, where I now steward my ancestral home.

This paper asks: What does Black inheritance look like in the afterlife of slavery? How do homes become archives of survival? What does it mean for Black women to transform land from a site of violence into a site of care?

Black women don’t just survive history.
We steward it fabulouslyyy✨💕 and with grace.
More information to follow we are a little over a month away. 📣📚🔔🌹
Looking forward to sharing this work with the brilliant community of Black feminist scholars at BWSA 2026.