Willful Defiance: Connecting the Arts, Liberatory Education, Research and Movement-Building

Abstract

Patrice and Coco are the creators and performers of the spoken word piece "Willful Defiance," produced in association with the book Willful Defiance: The Movement to Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline, authored by Mark Warren. In this interview, Patrice and Coco discuss the role of spoken word and the arts in empowering young people, dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, and partnering with community-engaged scholarship to engage participants in building a movement for educational justice. this interview that the lines that are often drawn between organizing, artistic Expressions in Urban Educationression and research are false; rather in the hands of organizers like Patrice and Coco, they form an integrated whole, driven by a passion for children and for justice.