Description: 2020 has been a challenging year for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, especially students of color. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Black and anti-Asian sentiment, police brutality, and the death of community icons, many students of color have experienced endless chaos this year. Amid this pain, it is vital to have culturally relevant resources to help them persist and successfully navigate these unprecedented times. One such resource is Letters To My Sisters and Brothers: Practical Advice to Successfully Navigate Academia as a Student of Color. This workbook contains a collection of online responses from a survey of current undergraduate and graduate students of color across the U.S. They provided culturally relevant advice to incoming students of color on how to navigate higher education. These students offered their insight, experiences, and encouragement to aid others along their academic journey. Accompanying their testimonies, the end of each section contains an activity created to better put their advice into practice and coloring pages for additional self-care. Consistent with the Psychological Framework of Radical Healing (French et al., 2019), Letters To My Sisters and Brothers provided students of color an intentional space to "… sit in a dialectic" that allows for the simultaneous resistance of oppression and movement toward freedom (p. 11). Through this process, the workbook author and book production team have sought to help students of color connect, reflect, heal, and thrive in academia. Subsequently, this panel discussion: 1) informed attendees about the Letters To My Sisters and Brothers workbook, 2) facilitated dialogue about creating intentional space for BIPOC communities to thrive, and 3) discussed how to promote social justice work and elevate and affirm BIPOC voices through book publishing.
Panelist(s): Nelson O. O. Zounlome, Yael Rosenstock Gonzalez, Nine McClain (they/them), Christine Ramkarran, Caroline Rinaldy, Zaire Couloute