I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month
2026-02-02 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
Monday, February 2: I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month
Historian Jarvis Givens joins Rethinking Schools executive director Cierra Kaler-Jones and editor Jesse Hagopian to discuss his latest book, I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month. Drawing on archival research, personal stories involving family and students, and especially the wisdom of Black educators, Givens recovers the legacy of Carter G. Woodson and many others who envisioned Black history as a liberatory force — knowledge that shapes who we are, how we resist, and what we dream.

Main Street: Teaching the History of Redlining and the Power of Community Organizing Book Launch
2026-02-05 18:00 - 19:00 | Zoom
Join Rethinking Schools, Penguin Random House, Defending the Early Years, and Black Lives Matter at School for a virtual launch and celebration of Main Street: A Community Story About Redlining by Britt Hawthorne and Tiffany Jewell. The webinar will feature a conversation with the authors, followed by a panel of early childhood and elementary educators discussing how to teach young learners about the history of redlining and the power of community organizing.
Participants will need access to Zoom. Register for the Zoom link.
Date: Thursday, February 5th
Time: 4 pm PT/ 6 pm CT/ 7 pm ET
The event is free. To make events like this available to more educators and activists, we would greatly appreciate your solidarity donation

“I Didn’t Come Here to Lie” Book Discussion and Celebration
2026-03-12 18:00 - 19:00 | Zoom
Join Rethinking Schools for a virtual discussion and celebration of “I Didn’t Come Here to Lie: My Life and Education,” the memoir of Karen Lewis, the brilliant former president of the Chicago Teachers Union. The webinar will feature Rethinking Schools’ Executive Director Cierra Kaler-Jones and editor Jesse Hagopian in conversation with historian Elizabeth Todd-Breland, who co-authored Lewis’ memoir. Todd-Breland will discuss Karen Lewis’ life and legacy, including leading the Chicago Teachers Union’s historic 2012 strike, her impact as an educator, and what we can learn from Lewis’ teaching and organizing to apply to the struggle for justice today. As part of Rethinking Schools’ Teacher Unions and Social Justice campaign, the conversation will also explore the power of teacher unions in fighting fascism.
Participants will need access to Zoom. Register for the Zoom link.
Date: Thursday, March 12th
Time: 4 pm PT/ 6 pm CT/ 7 pm ET
The event is free. To make events like this available to more educators and activists, we would greatly appreciate your solidarity donation

Teachers for Social Justice and Education Workers for Palestine present The 19th Teaching for Social Justice Curriculum Fair
2026-03-14 10:00 - 16:00 | Social Justice High School – Chicago, IL
Fighting for our Futures: Teaching for Solidarity and Justice in This Crisis
10 AM – 4 PM
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Greater Lawndale High School for Social Justice (SoJo)
3120 S Kostner Ave, Chicago, IL
Speakers, Workshops, Curriculum, Resources, Culture, Food

What is the Curriculum Fair?
The Teaching for Social Justice Curriculum Fair is a day to build community and deepen the solidarity and political understanding essential to confront the multiple crises we face, and to seize this moment to fight for the future we need. The curriculum fair is a day-long popular education and organizing space buzzing with conversations about critical anti-racist teaching, connections across issues, defending our schools and communities, and inspiring the young people we teach. We deepen our knowledge through teachers’ social justice curriculum exhibits, workshops, resources and books, and a thought-provoking keynote program. We nourish and nurture ourselves and each other through culture, childcare and children’s programs, safety and care—and a delicious lunch. Be part of learning and building together for the futures we need!
What is the 2026 Theme?
Fighting for our Futures: Teaching for Solidarity and Justice in this Crisis
This is a dangerous moment of growing right-wing authoritarianism, attacks on racial and gender justice, and US militarized violence from Chicago to Palestine to Latin America. In Chicago, ICE raids terrorize immigrant communities while Black communities face the ongoing violence of anti-Black racist disinvestment, displacement, and policing. While our students and families struggle with the impossible cost of groceries, rent, and healthcare, and the stress of daily life, billions of dollars flow to US militarism and genocide and hedge fund investors and tech billionaires amass the greatest wealth in human history. But a crisis is also an opportunity to unmask the reality of this system of economic exploitation, racism, and violence that has been veiled for some (the power of educators!) and that has clearly failed the 99%. It’s an opportunity to see ourselves in each other, to understand how our struggles are connected, to build solidarity and community in and out of the classroom. We see the power of fighting for our futures in the global movement in solidarity with Palestine, in the ways we have shown up to defend our neighbors against ICE terror, in the historic 2020 Black liberation uprising, in educators who dare to teach truth and who stand up with their students and communities, in our unions organizing against authoritarianism and militarism.

What’s Wrong with AI in Schools
2026-04-09 18:00 - 19:00 | Zoom
In the next 10 years the AI education market is projected to reach between $112 billion and $127 billion — more than double the federal government’s entire K–12 education budget. Tech executives, administrators, and even some teacher union leaders are urging educators to utilize AI for everything from lesson planning to giving feedback, and to teach students how to use AI “ethically.” Join Rethinking Schools contributors and editors in conversation about what’s wrong with AI in schools, and how we can teach and organize for human-centered learning.
Participants will need access to Zoom. Register for the Zoom link.

Date: Thursday, April 9th

Time: 4 pm PT/ 6 pm CT/ 7 pm ET

The event is free. To make events like this available to more educators and activists, we would greatly appreciate your solidarity donation.

Until the Last Gun Is Silent
2026-04-13 18:00 - 19:00 | Zoom
Monday, April 13: Until the Last Gun Is Silent
Historian Matthew Delmont joins Rethinking Schools executive director Cierra Kaler-Jones to discuss his latest book Until the Last Gun Is Silent: A Story of Patriotism, the Vietnam War, and the Fight to Save America’s Soul, which tells the story of the Vietnam War through lives of Coretta Scott King and Dwight “Skip” Johnson and includes the history of schooling in Detroit, SNCC, Winter Soldier events, the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the Fort Hood Three, the massacres at Jackson State and Kent State, racism in the military, the Tet Offensive, Rep. Conyers, PTSD, and much more.

Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea
2026-05-04 18:00 - 19:00 | Zoom
Monday, May 4: Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea
Historian Marcus Rediker, in conversation with Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian, will discuss his books Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea and The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic, and talks about the many enslaved people who fled successfully from the horrors of bondage in the antebellum South not by land but by sea.
