The Kansas City Defender

BREAL Academy: Black Radical Education for Abolition and Liberation

Ryan Sorrell, Melissa Ferrer-Civil

The Kansas City Defender launched B-REAL (Black Radical Education for Abolition & Liberation) Academy, an abolitionist Freedom School, in February. The academy is a way to “go beyond simply reporting on the rising attacks on Black education in Missouri, but to respond — and to intervene,” according to the Defender’s content submission letter. 

Twenty students ranging in age from 11 to 77 graduated from the 14-week intensive, writing- and organizing-centered political education program that included instruction on the history of the radical Black press, community organization, and black studies. 

The academy is “an innovative yet historically and culturally-rooted journalism-centered project that makes it deserving of the INNY Community Champion Award,” one judge wrote. 

Another judge said the academy is a “novel approach to community engagement.” 

“B-REAL reimagines journalism as a tool for trust-building, healing, and collective power,” the judge continued. “The result is a replicable model that transforms students into storytellers and organizers, leaving a lasting impact on both the newsroom and the community it serves.”

Read the Winning Work

KC Defender starts Freedom School, training the next generation of Black activists