Fireproofing Black Futures
Apocalyptic Education Residency At CSU Los Angeles
The Raising Fireproof Children Framework was born from a conversation between Dr. Kenjus Watson and his mother, Terry. After hearing about the devastating findings from his research on cellular erosion among Black college students in Los Angeles, she reflected, “Bringing Black children into this world is like giving birth to pieces of paper in a burning forest. [We are] doing everything [we can] to protect those pieces of paper—who are themselves pieces of the people who came before us—but the whole forest is on fire.”
About the Residency
This initiative aims to build and pilot a Fireproofing Framework that supports collective defense systems against racial trauma within institutions where harm persists. It is grounded in three core components:
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Cultivating and Protecting the Black Body (Culture): Through somatic and ritual practices, critical reflection, and storytelling, this component develops visual and narrative tools to document lived experiences, co-created and remembered wisdom, and pathways forward.
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Fireproof Architecture (Consciousness): This involves creating new frameworks that respond to harm—both metaphorical and literal—by rebuilding what has been lost, including Indigenous practices such as earthen architecture.
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Cross-Institutional Collaboration (Community): This focuses on strengthening relationships across universities to enhance our collective response to racial trauma.
Guiding Questions
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How do we build capacity for wellness and resistance when the institution remains unchanged?
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What does it mean to live with integrity inside an environment structured by anti-Blackness?
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How do we fireproof—beyond survival—but imagine and create from the heat?
Learn About the Sessions
We traced their truth on an egg and in the natural downward pull of falling soil to better understand how an arch becomes a protective force and a foundation that holds against both natural and unnatural.
We examined the inner child by noticing where early control shaped our bodies and choices, to understand how consent can be relearned by reclaiming what was ours and releasing what was not freely chosen.
We brought the work into community and onto the land, beginning with grief and memory, and then built together using earthen architecture to explore how listening & collective action can restore both place and agency.
We deepened the build through deep intention and shared presence, exploring how practicing togetherness creates the conditions for sustained community care.
Our last session took place during the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting week, as scholars across the country gathered to discuss schooling. We gathered to build beyond it.