The Defender’s Abolitionist Freedom School
Ever wondered what it would be like to join the civil rights movement? The Black Panther Party? This is your chance to make history.
THE CRISIS
We are in historic times, and a new generation of Black organizers are emerging. Many are being trained in The Defender’s B-REAL Academy. Defender students & facilitators have written for national publications. They lead protests. They launch mutual aid programs. They speak at conferences alongside PhDs.
B-REAL Academy is a program for visionary Black high schoolers, adolescents, adults and beyond across Missouri and Kansas who are ready to learn skills no classroom is teaching or has taught: organizing/activism, direct action & civil rights, radical Black history, and movement building.
You’ll study the freedom fighters who came before us, and you’ll make history alongside a powerful cohort of intergenerational community members to create a new civil rights and liberation movement. Our students have gone on to become writers, organizers/activists, and powerful leaders. All say it changed their lives.
This October 3rd Black students of all ages will learn to change the world. Organizing. Activism. Media. Movement building. No permission required. Apply now.
The Kansas City Defender is a 5x national award-winning community organization featured in the Washington Post and CNN, recognized nationally as one of the most innovative, radical media organizations in the United States.
Today, B-REAL carries that legacy forward, offering an urgent, revolutionary intervention.
What We Teach: The Curriculum of Liberation
B-REAL Academy equips participants to:
- Build With Black Youth: Join a cohort of Black students from across Missouri and Kansas, forging bonds and building the next generation of visionary leaders.
- Build With Black People: The cohort expands beyond students. We’ve had Black doctors, civil rights elders, and everyday community leaders bring their wisdom to the cohort.
- Experience Black Culture: Engage with award-winning poets, journalists, community organizers, musicians, and more.
- Learn Organizing & Activism: Direct action, protest tactics, mutual aid, campaign strategy
- Study What They Banned: Engage in Black Study, learn and discuss stories of Black history, resistance and liberation movements.
- Build Narrative Power: Employ writing, media literacy & radical journalism.
THE CRISIS
In a world where an already crumbling education system is threatened to extinction, we need fugitive institutions, third spaces, where liberation, agency, and community care are the primary goals.
How It Works
Program Structure:
- 12-week intensive course
- 2 cohorts in 2026, 75 students total
- Weekly 3-hour sessions on Saturdays from 11am-2pm.
- Intergenerational focus: 60% high/middle school, 20% adults, 20% elders
Unique Features:
- The intersection of organizing skills & radical Black curriculum make the program a first of its kind in Kansas City history.
- Real-world organizing experience. Mentorship from community organizers.
- Black community healing space
- Hands-on training in radical journalism, writing & narrative change.
For more information or to enroll, contact: Melissa Ferrer Civil, Director of Political Education and Movement Strategy
📧 melissa@kansascitydefender.com |
APPLICATION DEADLINE: September 12, 2026
COMMUNITY + POWER-BUILD
Who We Are
We are a Black nonprofit community media platform employing innovative digital and community-building strategies to engage Gen Z and Millennials across the midwest. Our primary areas of focus are education, justice, business, arts & culture, and technology.
Reaching over 100 million people and growing our social media audience to over 75,000 followers since we launched in 2021, we’ve created a new model for reaching Black people and Gen Z.
RADICAL ROOTS + SOCIAL-FIRST
Our Commitment
At The Kansas City Defender, we are committed to reimagining and returning to our roots, recognizing that our role is not merely to report but to rebuild—to co-create an organization and community that unapologetically speaks truth to power, amplifies the voices of the oppressed, and engages in grassroots mobilization and community-building, especially among the youth.
