btp in the news

September 2025: What does it take to create classrooms of liberated learning in a time of compliance and control? In this episode of the Black Teacher Matters podcast titled, “ Teaching Under Trump: Liberating Classrooms in an Authoritarian Era”, host Abdel Shakur is joined by BTP’s Dr. Micia Mosely and together, they dig into the lineage of Black educators, the tension between care and rigor, and what it means to hold students lovingly accountable while disrupting systems that diminish them. Listen to the full episode here.

September 2025: Created by and for Black educators, the Black Teacher Project Podcast was launched as a dedicated space for teachers and leaders to speak truth, share stories, and imagine new possibilities for liberated learning. In our first episode titled, "Hope and Fear in Education,” Dr. Cecelia Gillam, Dr. Lena Hamilton, and Lisa Harton reflect on what it means to hold both hope and fear as Black teachers shaping futures in education for all students. Their conversation names the challenges, honors the brilliance, and affirms the power of community in sustaining resilience, nurturing joy, and envisioning schools where every child can thrive. Listen to the first exchange here.

May 2025: What does learning look like when culture, identity, and lived experience are centered? In Spring 2025, Black teachers across Oakland came together for our Cultivating Culturally Responsive Practices book study—a space to reflect, grow, and root their teaching in love, identity, and liberation. Grounded in Zaretta Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain, the six-session series offered joyful inquiry, healing, and practical tools to transform classroom culture. Held in affinity-based community, this experience affirmed what we’ve always known: when Black teachers lead and learn together, transformation takes root.

Watch this short video highlighting our text study and hear directly from three Black Educators—Drew Watson, Jason Moffitt, and Devynn Taylor— whose reflections show what becomes possible when culturally responsive teaching is paired with care, connection, and trust.

February 2025: The Twi word Sankofa, meaning “go back and get it,” guides everything we do at the Black Teacher Project. It reminds us that in the legacy of Black teachers lies a living truth: with courage and through community, we advance equity in the face of challenge. By returning to our roots, we move closer to liberation. At the NEA Foundation’s 2025 Salute to Excellence in Education Gala, BTP’s Dr. Micia Mosely carried this truth forward as she accepted our Equity Partner Award. Listen to her full speech. 

February 2025: What does liberated learning look like for Black teachers? In this powerful episode of EDUP Xcelerated Excellence, Dr. Micia Mosely, Founder & Director of Black Teacher Project, explores leadership, mentorship, and the importance of community in sustaining Black educators. Tune in!

January 2025: Black teachers are the lifeblood of educational resilience and transformative impact." Black teachers inspire thriving, foster belonging, and equip students to reimagine the future. For Black students, they are life-changing mentors; for all students, they are architects of empathy and leadership. In this piece for the NEA Foundation, BTP’s Founder & Director, Micia Mosely, shares on how Black educators are shaping futures—and how you can support their vital, liberation work.

August 2024: Each of our wellness-supporting workshops, community-driven gatherings, and leadership offerings during the 2023-2024 school year led to stories of growth and transformation. The Black Teacher Project’s Impact Report uplifts those moments. Dive into it to revisit them and explore how you can support our work creating even more spaces where Black teachers are seen, heard, and uplifted.

July 2024: A recap video, shown to the BTP Cohort 4 Fellows on the final day of the experience, is shared with the world, offering just a small glimpse of the love, joy, creativity, communal care, and courage that carried twenty-one brilliant, bold, and beautiful Black teachers through the Black Teacher Project Fellowship, an 18-month impactful exploration of leadership, liberated learning, and quality instruction. Have a watch.

July 2024: “Gathering to organize demands we prioritize our healing journey.” Dr. Christian Greer hands her New York Amsterdam News’ column over to our Founder & Director Dr. Micia Mosely who shares on the communal power and social and emotional support of Black affinity groups in her article, “Racial affinity groups will not end racism…but if done well, they can help”.

June 2024: Black teachers gathered in Oakland, CA for Black Teacher Leadership and Sustainability Institute (BTLSI), a Black affinity space and professional development experience for Black educators in district, charter, private, and independent TK-12 schools. There, they built and shared knowledge, affirmed each other's stories, arrived at new understandings, stepped into new wellness practices, and co-envisioned more conduits for liberated learning together. Take a look at the love and light that filled and flowed throughout the space!

June 2024: BTP is now on Youtube! Follow us there and check out our BTP Events Playlist!

May 2024: Our partners at BlackFemaleProject published a Call-to-Action resource for Educators, Administrators, Educational Leaders, Policy Makers, Researchers, Funders, and Community-Based Organizations who are lookin for ways to support their Black educators.

October 2023: We're proud to spotlight one of our Founding Cohort 1 Fellows, Joya Brandon, for her work developing two different lesson plans through the Apollo Theater's Apollo Stories Fellowship program.

September 2023: In this Mindfulness for the Culture Podcast episode, Dr. Micia Mosely and hosts, King David Walker and Sonia Russel, share ways to combat stress, stand in one’s truth, and bring joy and authenticity to this liberation work

August 2023: BTP was featured in Reflections On: Community Leaders, an article by our long-term Oakland-based funders, Rogers Family Foundation. In this piece are highlights, lessons learned, hopes, and calls to actions from our Founder and Director, Micia Mosely and two other Rogers' grantees, Lakisha Young, Founder and CEO of The Oakland REACH and Daneen Keaton, Executive Director of Lead Liberated.

July 2023: In preparation for Black August, we invite you to return to We Need Black August Now More Than Ever written by our very own, Joseph Edelin. 

June 2023: Ideas exchanged at the “Thank a Black Teacher” celebration during Teacher Appreciation Week apply year round – “The coalition, which includes the Black Teacher Collaborative, Black Teacher Project, Center for Black Educator Development, Education PowerED, Healing Schools Project, Real Men Teach, and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), spearheads a concerted drive to train, recruit, and retain Black teachers.”