The Black American Tree Project: Fostering Critical Dialogues in Communities

The Black American Tree Project (BATP) is a unique, participatory educational experience that seeks to foster understanding, respect, truth, racial healing, and reconciliation about the experience of Black Americans from pre-colonial Africa to the present day. The BAPT was developed in collaboration with Pan-African educators, artists, writers, and non-profit professionals, drawing inspiration from our collective experiences with various community organization. What follows is a first-person account of the experiences and ideas that helped shape the development of this project, an overview of the BAPT experience, and reflection on the impact and challenges of this work in local communities.