About the bell

From historical perspectives to current realities, inner cities to ivory towers, and classrooms to kitchen tables, the bell explores the lived educational experiences of Black people in the United States. Drawing from the imagery of a school bell, the bell is a call that gathers the community and brings it to attention, a temporal moment rather than a physical space, where the community comes together to address issues in education. The bell is the space that emerges, the community that is created, and the moment of collective attention. The bell is us.  

The bell was created in resistance to the colonized ways of learning, knowing, sharing, and being in community that are embedded in traditional academic institutions. This is evident in courses that curate academic programs, in authors and scholars featured on syllabi, in the theoretical frames introduced, in the publish-or-perish culture that feeds an academic journal cycle of pay-to-play, and in expensive conferences that are largely inaccessible to people outside the ivory tower. Practices of gatekeeping ensure conformity to colonial traditions and quell departures from these accepted norms. Resisting these structures requires both clarity about what we oppose and vision for what we build. 

The work of scholars bell hooks and Derrick Bell intersect at the idea that racism is a condition that must be constantly named, resisted, and navigated. Like these scholars, the bell operates from the perspective that education is never neutral; it either sustains oppression or becomes a site of resistance and re-imagination. Inspired by hooks and Bell, this magazine employs love, storytelling, and structural critique as tools of resistance and reimagination. Love for community. Storytelling to connect with one another and counter enduring racist narratives. Structural critique as a way to call out and move beyond structures that do not serve the community.   

Unlike a traditional academic journal, the bell uses a magazine format to deliver content about, for, and from the community, including and representing scholars from inner cities to ivory towers and all places in between. The bell is for people who recognize the legitimacy and importance of rigorous, reflexive research alongside, and not above, the stories, creative expressions, and opinions of the community. Though the bell may engage individuals across races, ethnicities, and other cultural identities, the focus and intended audience of this magazine are Black Americans.  

The bell features authentic, multimodal contributions that weave together lived experience, scholarly analysis, creative expression, and community dialogue. Readers will encounter research articles, interest pieces, memoirs, poetry, and visual art. Each creates space for different ways of knowing and telling, and offers distinct entry points into the educational experiences and resistance practices of Black communities. 

The bell is free to readers. This is part of the commitment to reduce gatekeeping tactics that create barriers to engagement, like paywalls and article processing charges. The bell is also committed to lifting voices from throughout the community and remaining answerable to that community in the curation and dissemination of content. These commitments are ongoing: as the bell continues to ring.