Finding Freedom

J LeShaé is a visionary who is obsessed with freedom. She is the Founding Executive Director of Building Opportunities & Opening Minds (BOOM), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that co-creates spaces of affirmation, decolonization, organization, and innovation with Black and Brown youth committed to liberation. She also heads Ms. J’s Classroom, a creative lab for freedom-based art + education + activism. J has exhibited art at the African American Museum of Dallas, the Goldmark Cultural Center, the Abrons Arts Center of New York, the J. Erik Jonnson Central Library, the Msanii HOUS Gallery, the Pencil on Paper Gallery, and The Black Woman is God Exhibition. This Dallas native is a proud graduate of Clark Atlanta University (HBCU), with a B.A. in History, and National University with a M.A. in Teaching. Her Introzine, Born Again: The Case for Self Study, is featured on Blurb’s Black Voices List; and her social justice teacher education framework, “Education for Justice” – covered in Slate, Education Week, and Vox – is incorporated into study at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. View J in the documentaries Natural Hair the Movie and Building the Bridge; or hear her in conversation on the Positively Gam Podcast by Adrienne Banfield Norris (Red Table Talk).