Early Childhood Symposium 2025: Kids as Comrades: Wondering Towards a Just Climate Future (CTLE 1.5)

(This session is for early childhood educators and caregivers)

Join us for BPL's 7th Annual Early Childhood Symposium. This year we will explore Climate Justice through a series of virtual and in-person programs for young children, early childhood educators, and parents throughout May 2025. Sign up for our mailing list to stay updated! Follow this link in the calendar to find programs for children and adults: bklynlib.org/ecsymposium.

In this workshop, participants will explore ways to teach into the connections between climate change and climate injustice and learn how to use Woke Kindergarten’s wondering framework to encourage young children to wonder, expand, imagine and create their ways towards solutions for a more just climate future.

Facilitator: Akiea “Ki” Gross (they/them) is an early childhood alchemist, abolitionist, educator and creative practitioner exploring the life-affirming possibilities of political education for little comrades through their innovative pedagogy, Woke Kindergarten, a visionary anti-oppressive early learning ecosystem that supports children & those in community with them in their commitment to liberatory praxis. A former classroom teacher, instructional coach and adjunct professor honored for their unwavering commitment to social justice, Ki was awarded NCTE’s Early Childhood Education Assembly’s 2020 Social Justice Award and has received multiple grants to further develop their resources for young learners. They have served as a keynote speaker, panelist, moderator, workshop facilitator and consultant for a host of universities, companies and organizations, including Harvard University, Teachers College, Bank Street School of Education, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Museum, NJPAC, NY and SF MoMA and more.

Their experiences with the carceral state of schooling inspired the creation of #BlackTeachersMatter, Black Teachers Mentor, and @BlackChildrenPlay, a communal, archival photography project exploring Black children’s play as revolutionary praxis. Additionally, Ki founded Sisters Unsigned, an intimate concert series that amplified the voices of queer, trans, and BIPOC independent artists in Brooklyn, NY. A 2006 graduate of Montgomery County Public Schools, they hold an M.A. in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, an M.S. in Childhood Education/Special Education from Touro College/Deeper Learning Institute, and two B.A.s in Child Development and Psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill. They are currently focused on expanding their offerings through various community projects and literary mediums.