📖 Reclaiming Our Stories
Literacy as Freedom
September 8 marked International Literacy Day, a reminder that literacy is not simply the ability to read and write, it is the power to name ourselves, to pass down memory, and to shape the futures we dream. At Love Before ALL (LBA), we know literacy is far more than a skill. It is voice, belonging, and freedom.
Across generations, communities have sustained themselves through stories: folktales told around kitchen tables, handwritten letters that carried hope, songs that kept ancestors alive in memory when history tried to erase them. Literacy in this sense is not only about books or classrooms—it is about the way we reclaim who we are, together.
Literacy as Belonging
In our blog “Love, Belonging, and Home,” we reflected on how displaced and diasporic communities use culture, language, and story to create belonging across borders. Literacy is at the heart of that practice. To read and to write is to hold on to identity, to protect memory, and to resist erasure.
For too many, access to literacy is still marked by injustice. Schools in overburdened and under-resourced neighborhoods often lack the resources to sustain robust literacy programs. Families navigating poverty may not have access to books or safe spaces to read. Adults who were denied education as children are left carrying silent stories, often without support to reclaim their voices.
To treat literacy as freedom means to refuse this injustice. It means fighting for access, investing in educators, and creating community-rooted spaces where storytelling thrives.
Healing Through Story
Literacy is also healing. Neuroscience research shows that storytelling activates multiple areas of the brain, sparking empathy, memory, and connection. When children hear stories that reflect their identities, their sense of self grows stronger. When adults write or tell their own narratives, trauma is metabolized into meaning, making space for resilience and hope.
At Love Before ALL, we call this narrative sovereignty: the right of people to tell their own stories, in their own voices, on their own terms. Narrative sovereignty counters a world that too often tells stories about communities instead of with them. It insists: Our stories are ours to tell and through telling them, we heal.
Practices for Reclaiming Stories
In the spirit of International Literacy Day, we invite you to consider literacy as a shared practice of freedom. Here are a few ways to embody it in your family, organization, or community:
🗣️ Intergenerational Story Circles
Gather elders, families, and youth to share stories of resilience and belonging. Stories preserve wisdom and connect generations across time.
📚 Community Reading Gatherings
Organize monthly read-alouds or book clubs where neighbors come together to share books, articles, or poetry. Choose works that highlight diverse voices and histories.
✍🏽 Journaling as Justice
Encourage journaling circles where participants write about their experiences and reflections. Share voluntarily in groups to strengthen empathy and understanding.
🎶 Expanding Literacy Beyond Words
Literacy is not only written, it is sung, painted, and embodied. Invite music, art, and oral traditions into your literacy practices as ways of telling truth.
Toward Freedom
Literacy is not neutral, it is deeply tied to power. The ability to read a ballot means the ability to vote. The ability to write a story means the ability to shape culture. The ability to interpret a contract means the ability to protect one’s rights. Denying literacy has always been a tool of oppression. Reclaiming it is always an act of freedom.
As we honor the spirit of International Literacy Day, may we remember that literacy is both individual and collective. It is a pathway to healing, a practice of belonging, and a tool for freedom.
Let us reclaim our stories together. Let us ensure that every child, every adult, and every elder has the right to read, write, and to speak and be heard.
💛 With power and presence,
Your Curious Cultural Architect
