A switch flips, static sparks through the electric wires twirling around the words being broadcasted.
âAre we back on the air?â
More static pours in as the controller adjusts the channel to the right frequency.
âShould I tell them?â
A loud, screeching sound pierces the air as the station goes dark.
âŚ.
âCue Athaliah in.â
âMs. Elvis, countdown starting at 3âŚ2âŚ1⌠and⌠youâre on!â
The static draws to a minimum, and an all-familiar voice you know too well comes to life.
âReadersâŚlistenersâŚBucknellians.. Youâve called and Iâve answered. My podcast that does not exist and is contingent on you pretending this text is audible has returned! And Iâve been rebooted for another segment, this time featuring the diligent and dazzling Dr. Stephanie P. Jones of Grinnell College. So, ease on in, grab a snack, and settle down for 60-minutes with Dr. Jones!â
The applause track is cued by the imaginary soundboard controlled by the imaginary sound engineer Iâve employed at my imaginary sound studio/ office.
Welcome back to another episode of the Griot Instituteâs Blog. Today, as per your request and the multiple DMâs (by multiple, I mean one kind message I received from a fan, and by fan I mean a friend), I am back with a special guest on my show. Sitting here with me here on much softer chairs this time, at Hildredth Mirza is Dr. Stephanie P. Jones!
Dr. Stephanie Jones: Thank you for having me!
Athaliah: Youâve probably done this a thousand times before, but Iâm just going to ask you to introduce yourself first to our listeners so they know who Iâm talking to.
Dr. Stephanie Jones: Hello everyone, Iâm Professor Stephanie Jones (sheâs being modest with the Dr. title), Iâm originally from Atlanta, but I live in Iowa now and Iâm an Associate Professor of Education at Grinnell College which is located in Grinnell, Iowa.
Athaliah: *Gasp of city-girl forced to study in the Boondocks of Central Pennsylvania* How is it in Iowa?
Dr. Stephanie Jones: Uh, same here. *We both start chuckling out of both insanity, but comfort* Saaammmeee here. Same kind of vibe as here in Lewisburg. Grinnell is a small liberal arts college that is residential, and we only have undergraduates there. We call them first through fourth-year students, but itâs the same kind of journey where once you land at an airport you gotta drive another hour to get to the institution. Bucknell is a lot larger than Grinnell is, but itâs still geographically situated in what we would call ârural Americaâ. I love the institution and the students that I have there, they fondly keep me on my toes. Iâm able to do a lot of collaborative things like thinking, researching, and writing with the students there, which I love. My primary responsibility is not only teaching education classes across the campus, but I also help people who want to become teachers earn their licenses in the state of Iowa to become teachers.
Athaliah: Thatâs really nice. The first question I have is what prompted you to pursue a career in academia, but more specifically to concentrate on Black children and education? Or even Black women and literature, as I noticed while reading a few of your findings, which I loved by the way.
Dr. Stephanie Jones: Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, I kind of had an untraditional pathway to academia if Iâm being honest. I started off as a high school English teacher in the city of Atlanta where I was kind of rooted there after completing my undergrad at the University of Pittsburgh. My old advisor then contacted me and was like âYo, have you ever thought about going to graduate school?â and Iâm like âbut I have a Masters, what do I need to go to graduate school for?â, then sheâs like âno, think about it. Itâs something a little bit differentâ, so I did not come in with this idea of wanting to go to graduate school and know about what advisors I want to work with, or what institution Iâd want to go to. That wasnât even on my radar and Iâm also the first person in my family to even have a graduate degree and a PhD, so there was no one to bounce ideas off of, that didnât exist to me. Once I was able to formally go in and meet professors who were working with doctoral students I was like ‘Yo, this is a thing people can do? Like study, write, research, and teach for a living? Thatâs a thing?’ Iâve had professors in my life before, but it wasnât something that I envisioned for myself, however, once I started the program at the University of Georgia a couple of breakthroughs happened while I was in the program. We were reading, studying, and thinking about education and critical thinking in regard to whatâs happening to Black and Brown children in the classroom, but I leave them (the children of Black and Brown communities) to come here and be with you (the predominantly white cohort and professionals in higher education), and what they (the fellow academicians) were doing wasnât computing with me. What we were reading was not true and what they were theorizing was even more untrue. That gave me the push to think about Black girls and women who were reading literature that wasnât recognized as being literature. We (educators) want students to go into the classroom and read texts like The Great Gatsby and Wuthering Heights and just be in love, but my students werenât having any of that. My students wanna read about things that entertain them and pertain to what they know; they wanna read about this thug life, âmy man going to jail, I donât know what Iâm gonna doâ, and Iâm clutching my metaphorical pearls like âwhat y’all mean you wanna read this?â *We both laugh as she gestures holding the metaphorical pearls* and theyâre like âwe wanna read about stuff that interests us. This is real life. These books are talking to us about things that nobody wants to talk to us about.â And so that became the inspiration for the dissertation work I completed while I was there. Then, once I became a professor that mutated into me studying the experiences of Black children in schools and what that experience has been like for us, especially since desegregation. I wanted to know what it means to train people to become teachers, but they go into classrooms and still not do what they need to do.
Athaliah: Yeah, that reminds me of my experience in high school when taking English classes, and many of them were primarily centered on White experiences and it wasnât until my senior year that I was able to take an elective titled Afrocentric Theory. In that class, I read a variety of things, both older and modern that I could relate to. One of the first books I read that truly changed the trajectory of my life and made me think âThis is itâ, was Toni Morrisonâs The Bluest Eye.
Dr. Stephanie Jones: *Nods in agreement* Yes!! Mhm! It changed everything!
Athaliah: Exactly! It changed everything, and although there were aspects in the book that werenât completely relatable, such as the physical violence, there were a lot of psychological things that were happening that I completely related to and still do. I remember reading and thinking about all the times Iâve felt similarly to Pecola or experienced the things she has, so I definitely understand the importance of reading literature that reflects you. It also made the class more engaging because I was in tune with what she was saying and felt inclined to show up and do my work.
Dr. Stephanie Jones: I love that! And I wish that it did not take an elective in your fourth year for that type of epiphany to happen to you. Thatâs the kind of imagination I want for people who are teachers and people who want to be teachers to challenge them (students) to do. I want them to know they donât have to be âgiftedâ to access this, or a senior to access this. You are ready, now. To feel things like this.
Athaliah: Yes! And that reminds me of what you said earlier about teachers of different backgrounds entering classrooms to teach children who are often from the local community. My teacher for that class elective was a White woman from Armenia and I loved her dearly, but I picked up on this slight disconnect with the students. She loved what she taught, and she taught it amazingly with such passion, but for me, and the other students, this was the first time we really were engaging with Black literature and narratives that contained high levels of racial violence, sexual violence, and problems that some of us maybe even had to go home and deal with. Weâd learned about Black history with the focus being slavery, but this was the first time we were dealing with navigating these intersections of where blackness pops up in different aspects of identity. And sometimes it felt that our lessons were rushed through for the sake of staying âon boardâ with the curriculum. And sometimes it also felt that she, being a White woman, didnât understand the emotional and psychological burden that came with reading these texts for us Black students. It was informative, but also emotionally exhausting to read these things and sometimes we (the students) need a step back to recollect ourselves and our thoughts before we can continue. These texts werenât just fiction, a lot of them depicted our day-to-day experience, sometimes bringing up things weâd buried deep within ourselves and we need a second to breathe.
Dr. Stephanie Jones: Yes, totally. Iâm glad that you said that (at this point I tried to contain my joy from Dr. Stephanie Jones thinking I was some sort of genius?) because itâs something that I want to delve more into when itâs time to think about interviewing Black students who have been in this classroom environment. That is part of teacher education, especially when youâre working with English Language Arts teachers, to be able to say: âwhat does it mean for you to make the classroom environment a space where we can pause and go back?â because if you donât have the experience of being a Black woman, or Black person, you will rush through The Bluest Eye, not recognizing that there are some people who have experienced the same type of psychological terror and the impact of White supremacy on themselves and on their family. And when you rush through that in order to sustain the closeness to the text youâre also ignoring the people who bring meaning to the text. And that probably wasnât her intention, but the impact of it will impact the way youâve first read The Bluest Eye. Now, as you get older and youâre majoring in this and situating yourself firmly and deeply in the literature you now can re-read it as this older person with more experience and get the kind of reading and nourishing you needed from the first reading. One of my goals is to have teachers think about the humans that are in the room engaging with the text and not so much prioritize the text over every single other thing. So, Iâm glad that youâre able to talk about it in a way that has meaning for you.
Athaliah: Thank you! (thereâs a chunk of audio where I mistakenly bring up the text of another scholar named Dr. Stephanie Jones and Dr. Stephanie P. Jones politely tells me that Iâve read another scholarâs work. Rookie journalistâs mistake, so I apologize for that. Letâs pretend this part of the interview is a technical difficulty before we resume)
âSorry for that technical difficulty, it seems the equipment is a little rusty since weâve last been in the studio. Feel free to grab a drink, or a snack before we get back on the air! You wonât wanna miss whatâs next as we hop into the next part of our conversation centered around Dr. Stephanie P. Jonesâ Ending Curriculum Violence.â
âŚ.
âAthaliah, cameras are rolling again in 3..2..1..â
âMs. Elvis, youâre on.â
Athaliah: Welcome back listeners, to 60-minutes with Dr. Stephanie Jones! This episode is sponsored (yes, Iâm a big shot now, Iâve got sponsors now on my imaginary podcast that does not exist) by Bucknellâs Griot Institute for the Study of Black Lives and Culture, bringing a taste of Black culture to you, right here in Lewisburg. The Griot wants you to know that they work to increase faculty and student intellectual and creative engagement with the interdisciplinary investigation of the cultures, histories, narratives, peoples, geographies, and arts of Africa and the African diaspora. Back to our episode.
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Go back to that first question you have.
Athaliah: Yes, while reading your phenomenal piece, Ending Curriculum Violence, I wanted to know what you want scholars, readers, and learners to take away when they read your work?
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Oh gosh, thatâs a very good question. A very good and simple question. I would say initially I want people to reckon with the idea that we are all complicit in perpetuating and maintaining a form of curriculum violence, even if you are a person of color, even if you are Black. There are things that we havenât necessarily thought through that can be revised. I also want those listening to know that it is okay to do so because where we donât want to be in terms of the field of education is a place where nobody can say anything to us (educators). I donât know of any discipline where I would want that to be the truth. As professional educators, we need to engage in a routine where we are reflective about our practices. Even though it may be challenging, itâs important for us to think about if we did the necessary work to ensure that what Iâm doing here (in the classrooms) is not harming people, and that if I did cause harm, foster harm, or perpetuate harm, how can I repair that? The Ending Curriculum Violence is an indictment of being able to say âI see usâ and âI see youâ, but donât let that be a reason why you stop engaging with the world. I hope that people also recognize that the experiences in particular of Black students, across the country is something that we need to pay attention to because there is a reason why as curious and as beautiful and as genius as we are and will always be, there are some places where we are not because we have been told in so many explicit and implicit ways that we donât belong here. I just want to bring attention to that. I get real prickly with people who try to blame Black students individually for whatever status or outcome they have not knowing there is a system and structure in place that makes sure we donât succeed. Thereâs a little bit that we can be accountable for, but it ainât all on us. The system makes sure of that. So, Iâm just saying before y’all try to come down on what you think the solution is, fix this first. Yeah.
Athaliah: Yeah.
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Yeah.
Athaliah: Thatâs something Iâve thought a lot about since I came to college. Countless times Iâve heard people blame Black people for things such as low enrollment and low employment due to our âlazinessâ, but as someone who is trying and tries every day, it takes a lotttt to be here and leave your home, and Iâm from New york, so itâs very different, and itâs a lot to come to a place where a lot of people donât look like you or speak like you. It sounds funny, but itâs an entirely different world being here and you have to get used to that and for some people it just takes a lot longer to get used to it, whereas for others, rightfully so, they just canât handle that and they end up leaving. Then, they get wrongfully blamed âoh you just werenât strong enough, âyou just werenât tough enoughâ, âyou didnât really want itâ, but you donât understand thereâs a lot of mental things that are happening. Even here at Bucknell, itâs difficult to get acclimated; Black students often have the burden of not only being a student in the classroom, but a Black student in the classroom, and that doesnât end when you leave the academic buildings. It follows you, and thereâs so much psychological harm being a Black student pursuing higher education. I’m a third-year, and I have my I.D., but there are so many times I enter a room or Iâm walking around and people will stare at me as if I am an intruder. They look at me crazy as if I donât deserve to be here. I deserve to be here. Iâm authorized to be here. Iâm a student just like you. Theyâre such minor things, but they add up day by day and year by year, and by the end of it some people have lost their minds. Iâm on the brink of losing my mind! This affects so many people. For some people, fitting in at school might be something super small, but if you go to a PWI that can be a lot. Youâre already isolated just from people ogling your every move as a Black person, and youâre away from home and any sense of familiarity or community. There are so many aspects people donât understand or sympathize with when you are a Black student in higher education. Itâs even harder when youâre here at school, but things are happening at home, and youâre trying to balance both of your lives while everything feels like itâs falling apart and no one has your back. Professors donât understand that things like that can take a toll on students, and Iâm not just a student, Iâm a person.
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Yeah, and these are the things I will talk about tonight at my talk in Hildreth Mirza. Iâm literally talking about all of the small wounds you encounter just from being in a space like this. Or spaces that claim to be one thing, but theyâre really not. In a way I have to prove my existence to you. I have to prove my worthiness to you while trying to maintain a sense of self where Iâm not being reflected. Or when I am reflected itâs some type of deficit narrative and not a fullness of my life, or Black peopleâs lives. I talk really candidly about that to faculty because baby, this is you. This isnât about others, itâs you. You arenât sitting in traffic, you are the traffic. The noise is coming from inside of the house. Okay? And so we canât keep pushing this out to be someone elseâs problem. This is the same at Grinnell where Black students are leaving or being unable to finish for whatever reason because they are struggling and it becomes not only an intrapersonal struggle but becomes a psychological struggle when that problem isnât cared for, or helped. You are not alone in the sense of what is happening to you at Bucknell, because itâs also happening to students at Grinnell and other institutions. And I hate that situation, but I know where my space of influence is, and itâs in that classroom. Your primary role is to be a student so if you come here and you still get that same energy that you are paying for⌠*side-eyes me and we both nod our heads* The irony of that is what gets me, like? Iâm paying to be disrespected today? Okay. I didnât see that in the admissions packet. *We both laugh again* There has to be a way where I can at least say to people that there is another way to honor the people who are in the room. If youâre wondering why Black students are not coming, and not applying, or not stayingâŚ
Athaliah: Yes.
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Yeah. Iâm just saying.
Athaliah: Mhm.
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Itâs notâ Yeah, okay.
Athaliah: Yeah. (The cameras werenât able to pick up on the Black Girl Magic that just happened, but if you know, you know). I also feel that Bucknell is âtryingâ. Theyâre âtryingâ..
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Yeah, I gotchu.
Athaliah: Theyâre âtryingâ to help certain kinds of students, but they donât understand that as a Black student, especially one whose first-gen that itself comes with an entire ballpark that the institution does not know how to cater to. There are other students who are first-gen, both other POC, and non-POC, but itâs an entirely different situation to deal with Black students who are attending these institutions and leaving their homes. I know college was very different from the way I was told it would be and the way I was treated in high school. I had to adjust to that and there is what I feel to be a preconceived notion that all students understand the same things, but we all come from different backgrounds, we donât understand the same things.
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Yeah, we donât. Weâre not all starting from the same place. But this is why we do work on multiple identities and work on intersectionality and things in the Black feminist framework, because if we donât we lose people. And if you donât change, you have to be willing to admit that youâre willing to lose people. And thatâs not what Iâm willing to do as an educator. I believe all people deserve and have a right to be educated and there should be no exceptions to that. At all. At all. *Scoffs* At all. Some people are not really ready to get down to the roots of what that means and how it shows up inside the classroom. Somewhere, somehow we lost either individually or structurally that we believe the right that people should be educated.
Athaliah: Yeah.
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Yeah.
Athaliah: My third question is what are three books you deem important for people to read today amidst the perpetually unpredictable political climate of America over the last few years, decades, or even centuries?
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Yikes, three?!
Athaliah: If you canât do three, then you can just do one.
Dr. Steohanie P. Jones: It ainât even about that, thereâs too many! I would say⌠Of course, Iâm gonna pick three Black women because thatâs just how itâs gonna roll. Iâd say the first would be Bell Hooks Teaching to Transgress because she talks about this idea of understanding what the classroom space is and how itâs probably one of the last spaces where we can enact radical change. That is why theyâre trying, and weâll leave âtheyâ blank, you feel me⌠are trying to control it so much. Iâd say the second one would be Gholdy Muhammadâs Cultivating Genius where the framework is historically responsive to teaching and emphasizes that regardless of grade level and subject matter, you can write curriculum to cultivate the genius of everybody in the room. That then requires intellect and criticality. Students need to know why theyâre learning a thing and why it matters. It also includes joy and that Black stuff doesnât need to be on the periphery of what we are learning. It can be the center of what we are learning. With professional development in schools, especially with White teachers who are teaching Black students, I put up a picture of cornrows, immaculate pictures of like Doechiiâs braids and Iâm like âtake a look at the hair, just take a look at the hairâ and âbefore you say anything about the hair, what lessons or curriculum can you create based on that hair?â Next thing you know weâre getting parallel lines, weâre getting geometry, weâre getting a curriculum around aesthetics and art. Weâre getting a curriculum with science; because how do you lay them edges down, baby? Formula has to be created in them hair gels to be able to lay that hair down. Thatâs science, right? And they go list after list with all these things you can create just from a picture of a Black girlâs hair being braided. Right? But y’all wanna start over here with an apple falling off the tree and then somebody discovering gravity. *I laugh* Okay great, I understand that, but if you wanna think about centering the children who are inside your classroom, start there and work out. So, thatâs what the Cultivating Genius book does. And I will also say Bettina Loveâs We Want to Do More Than Survive; a memoir slash accounting of the narrative about Black children deserving to have an educational space where they do not have to just survive to be in it. Itâs time for us to thrive in it, and what that means is understanding how to recognize people who say that theyâre âalliesâ, but we donât need anymore of those. She talks about the difference between being an ally and an open spirit. She talks about the difference when you go into a room and feel loved by a person whoâs there. And we not talking about romantic love, but the type of love where students know when the person in front of them cares about them and they donât even need to tell them anything about them. Thatâs the type of reciprocity and caretaking that we need to be giving to each other, especially Black children who are coming from homes and communities where they are loved to go right into a space where they are not. And who wants to stay in a place where they are not loved? Hence, ‘Iâm not re enrolling’. So, those three I would assign every semester in some form or fashion.
Athaliah: Thatâs a great answer. I love that. On that topic, what advice do you have for Black students pursuing degrees in English or Education? And Iâm asking that because I know you did your Masters in English Education and your PhD in Language and Literacy Education. Additionally, how have you felt supported, or unsupported in your journey through those fields?
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: You âbout to make me go off with these questions. *I laugh* Let me go back, I actually did my undergrad in Philosophy, which I think is the whitest. Yeah… it is the whitest. I also would challenge the major and the structure of the major because it is quite compartmentalized in what you have to do to obtain a degree in it. I want Black students to choose majors that they are curious about. And, honestly, we come from families that are like âyeo, Iâm not paying all this money for you to go here and major in Philosophy⌠like? *We both laugh as I snap my fingers in complete agreement* Is there a Philosophy factory down the street? What do you wanna do with that?â I had to explain to my parents what it was and then add another major just so they wonât come down on me. I want you to maintain a sense of curiosity and a healthy sense of skepticism because regardless of where you go in here youâre not going to learn everything you need to know. And thatâs why in my Education 101 classes we talk about the difference between education and schooling. Youâre doing your schooling which is that formalized part of understanding how to go through with things, but your education, the stuff that youâre choosing, that life-learning in the streets is going to come regardless. Be curious about stuff and use this opportunity as a 4-year long independent study to figure out what you like. I just want Black students overall to maintain their curiosity about things and do what they want. There will be a lot of nay-sayers, but you should use the 4 years as an answer to a question that you have. I just want to see more of us everywhere.
Athaliah: I relate to what youâre saying. When I came to Bucknell I knew I wanted to major in Creative Writing because I wanted to be a writer. Then, I started taking courses in the Critical Black Studies department and I fell in love. I wanted to study Creative Writing, Literature, Critical Black Studies, and even Classics because I love Greek Mythology. Then, I told my parents and they were like âgirl.. Uh-uhâ. They looked at me and they said, âwhat are you gonna do with that?â I was also 17 at the time and now figuring out what I like. Then they said âweâre not really paying for thatâ, so then, I just added the Political Science major and I was like âokay?â I find thatâs something I have in common with lots of other Black students. They have a passion and their parents tell them theyâre not paying for them to study art, or photography, or whatever it is, and they end up putting their passions on the backburner of their career.
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: I understand the grief of that. And nobody wants that kind of animosity between family members. Like I canât imagine telling my parents âIâm just gonna major in poetryâ, they wouldâve been like No… and no. Do you want this tuition paid? Or do you want that?â *We both laugh* I will say that does not mean that if poetry or classics is your heart, you canât find a space to nerd out on that. You can do research essays for leisure, and read those things as hobbies. You donât need to have permission from anybody to do that, you can just go down to the library that youâre paying for⌠and read things in between classes while you wait. Finding those little pockets of joy will be very beneficial to you. What these institutions are teaching you is to just put your head down and survive in this. By doing that you forget that joy is also a form of survival. Take advantage of all the resources available to you here at Bucknell. You have free subscriptions to big-time journals and access to the greatest educational sources. These things wonât be easily accessible after you graduate. Take advantage of all of that.
Athaliah: Literally why not?
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Why not.
Athaliah: You touched on this earlier, but why did you choose to pursue Education?
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Iâll tell you this. A PhD is not for everybody. For me, the career I wanted to do required more than my Masters. And for many students at Grinnell, they want to pursue a PhD right out of their undergraduate⌠Imma leave that discussion alone. *I laugh* Iâll say that your experience in graduate school will be richer if you have work experience. And you out here working and adulting and living your life while continuing to be curious about things. I challenge people to be very intentional and practical in terms of deciding that a PhD is something you want to do. And once you have decided this is something you want to do, you need to apply to places that are going to do exactly what you need them to do. You need a program advisor who will be dedicated to your promise of being a scholar and whose work youâre invested in. You should want to be in their space for the next 4-5 years, depending on what you get, and feel that it will be worth that time and energy. A PhD does give you access to things you would not normally have, but be prepared for a different kind of life. And go through it with your sense of self intact. I feel that being in the wrong PhD program is like hazing. *I gasp from shock at that* And Iâm not for that. I didnât move to my university and pull all-nighters doing 12-14 hours of work and stay up reading 15,000 books for that. Itâs not exactly healthy to do it that way, but there are healthy ways to do it, and the first step is choosing an advisor who will look out for you and make your time meaningful.
Athaliah: As a junior, Iâm now considering applying for PhD programs straight out of my undergraduate, which is something I didnât know was possible until recently. Bucknell, alongside about 140 other universities, nominates one student from their school to apply to the Beinecke Scholarship, which supplies funding for graduate school programs, and youâre looking at Bucknellâs one and only Beinecke nominee! While drafting my application Iâve been exploring graduate school programs and now Iâm looking into advisors I would potentially want to work with. And what you said about graduate school being completely different, Iâm excited to be able to zero in on the specific things I find most compelling about what I study here at Bucknell.
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: I think thatâs great! Congratulations, thatâs a very big deal. You need to go on and live your life and do what you need to do, especially if someone else is paying for you to do those things. I tell students unless they are doing some type of terminal degree like an M.F.A. or M.P.H., earn it on the way and knock it out through a PhD program. Why go through a Masters program if you know you want to do more? Just earn it on the way!
Athaliah: I know we have to wrap up our show soon, so I have one last question for you. What are the ways that Black students, but specifically Black women can protect themselves while pursuing their right to an education?
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Number One, find your people. Number two, after you find your people, find ways to create joy and meaning with those people. Number three, you ignore people. We donât have time for this and when people try to waste your time, thatâs time theft. That could be taking away from you writing your Beinecke scholarship letter, relaxing and taking yourself to a cafe, or spending time with your people. I am not of the agreement that you need to âmeet people where they areâ, theyâre gonna have you down the street somewhere trying to figure out things you donât have time for. We in the 301 class, if you need introductory help you need to deal with somebody else. Be real protective of your time and your energy. Nothing that you do here is life or death, and especially with the state of the world everything feels serious, but nothing here is life or death. Your life is what it needs to be. Itâs like what Toni Morrison said, âthis is your job. You go there and you leave. Your family is at home.â Prioritize that family, whether it be chosen, biological, or both. Take care of yourself and be radical about it. Whatever it is you want to do, be fully in that. There is no competition because they canât compete with you. *I snap my fingers yet again to the magical words coming out of her mouth*
Athaliah: Yes. Yes. You ate with that.
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: I did?! Ahhh! Iâm gonna tell my niece that someone told me that âI ate todayâ, and see what she says. Ugh, I appreciate your help with this and everything.
Athaliah: No, of course! When Cymone Fourhshey told me you were coming, I was like âI want to interview her! I want to do it, let me do it!â And Iâm so excited for your talk tonight.
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Yes! Please tell folks to come tonight as well. If you need someone to cosign about the reality of what itâs like being here, please come because Iâm showing examples. Like this is how wack yaâll are⌠and you need to stop it.
Athaliah: *Laughing profusely*
Dr. Stephanie P. Jones: Thank you so much!
Athaliah: Thank you so much for joining me today on this fantstic episode of my special podcast series that does not exist!
Thatâs all the time we have for today, everybody, please give a round of applause to my wonderful guest today, Dr. Stephanie P. Jones! *Cue the applause signal* And a special thank you to the sponsors of this episode, The Griot Institute for the Study of Black Lives and Culture!
Everyone, be sure to stay updated on more blog posts, and great interviews like this one by visiting this website and following our Facebook and Instagram pages @bucknellgriotinstitute.
Thank you and have a good night!
âAthaliah Elvis â26