Free public exhibition marking fifty years of Black educators in Philadelphia, with records, images and voices from the field.
Teaching Freedom: Philadelphia's Black Dreamkeepers, 1976-2026 is on view at the Parkway Central Library through November 22. It's a public exhibit that looks at fifty years of Black educators in Philadelphia — the ones who taught, organized, mentored, and refused to let freedom wait. The show brings their records, images, and voices together in one room, and a good deal of it has never been exhibited publicly before.
The exhibit is sponsored and helped organized by the Center for Black Educator Development, and it uses the 'Dreamkeepers' framework developed by Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings to honor generations of Black Philadelphia educators whose work was grounded in cultural pride, collective uplift, and radical care. The narrative runs from figures like Fanny Jackson Coppin and Octavius Catto to the founders of independent Black schools such as Ivy Leaf and Nidhamu Sasa, whose project was to ensure the academic potential and success of Black students through a liberatory education.
It's a partnership between Camika Royal of Morgan State University, Linn Posey-Maddox of Temple University, education journalist Benjamin Herold, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Department of Records, and Mighty Engine. The exhibit has been on view since September 15, and there was a celebration event on November 12 at 5:30 PM.
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You can find it at the Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103-1189. It's free and open to all, and it runs until November 22.
