Reclaiming Our Curiosity: Dr. Lasana Kazembe on Culture, Education, and Black Identity (Part 2)

Thank you for joining us for another episode of The Silk Stocking Sisters Podcast . In Part 2 of our conversation with Dr.

Lasana Kazembe, an Emmy Award-winning poet, educator, and critical Black scholar, we discuss the power of culture-based education, intergenerational learning, and how students can build a new relationship with history. Culture and history shape the way students understand themselves and the world around them.

Dr. Kazembe reflects on the transition from middle school to high school, a pivotal period when students attitudes, curiosity, and sense of self begin to shift.

In this new digital world increasingly influenced by AI, he highlights whats at stake when young people are surrounded by information but have fewer opportunities to understand it critically. Dr.

Kazembe is committed to providing a culture-based education. He shares how connecting students to their cultural roots and communities can spark curiosity and strengthen their understanding of who they are and what they value.

Through his work in Africana Studies, Dr. Kazembe is developing a curriculum inspired by the Federal Writers Project slave narratives, recorded between 1936 and 1938.

Students will explore these firsthand accounts through oral history, oral memory, and digital storytelling, finding connections between the lives of their ancestors and their own. He shares how learning this history can be liberating for us.

He reflects on how we can teach history in a way that helps the next generation understand not only what happened, but why it matters. His goal is to connect students with their cultural roots while supporting their academic growth and well-being.

He says its important to nurture a healthy functioning respect for Black people while helping young people preserve their Black mental health and cultural identity. Dr.

Kazembe also discusses philo-praxis, the marriage of ones philosophy and action, encouraging young people to do more than consume information, but instead question it, reflect on it, and put their ideas into practice. Dr.

Kazembe leaves young people with an important call to action: be curious about your roots, take an interest in the elders in your family, and make time to interview an older relative. His message to young people is to stay curious, read actively, and slow down enough to think deeply about the information that you encounter.

Tune in for a conversation about education, cultural identity, and the responsibility we all share in helping the next generation learn from the past. Be sure to subscribe to The Silk Stocking Sisters Podcast on the ALIVE Podcast Network app for more episodes!