When Black Is [Queen]: Towards an Endarkened Equity and Excellence in Education

Education elders must engage next generation Black thinkers and doers in addressing the complex global and spiritual issues in education today. Deep listening to the young is absolutely essential to imagining a future that is worthy of Black engagement and brilliance. In this article, I bear witness and honor the righteous version of endarkened feminisms being created by young sister artists and thought leaders. As an Elder in education, I believe that is an important and relevant role in Black struggle, excellence, and education that connects our past to our today and our possible futures. In this article, I put my own recent theorizing of (re)membering into conversation with Beyoncé’s film, Black is King. My goal is to illuminate and articulate what Beyoncé helps us understand about the meanings of equity and excellence in Black education when placed within the historical and contemporary Black creative and cultural spaces of Africa and the Black African diaspora. © 2020 University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Education.