We are launching the Boggs Freedom School!
For Summer 2026, the James and Grace Lee Boggs Foundation is working with a consortium of Detroit-based organizations, including the Eastside Community Network, Rising Voices, and Talking Dolls Studio, to launch a {r}evolutionary student and youth leadership institute. Selected participants will learn about James and Grace Lee Boggses’ theories and methods of organizing, while they engage with grassroots projects to sustain the community in Detroit. These skills and insights will help nurture a new generation of activists who wish to work in Detroit or help build movements elsewhere.
Rising Voices: https://www.risingvoicesaaf.org/
Eastside Community Network: https://www.ecn-detroit.org/
Talking Dolls: https://talkingdollsdetroit.com/
Background and Inspiration
With America at a crossroads and democracy imperiled, we draw on the best of our nation’s legacy of social justice. In 1964, young activists in Mississippi Freedom Summer joined with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to help deal a decisive blow to Jim Crow. Students from diverse backgrounds supported and learned from grassroots leaders steeped in the organizing tradition of southern Black communities.
With racism, abandonment, and violence devastating Detroit 28 years later, the Boggses helped initiate the call for a new grassroots movement called Detroit Summer to “rebuild, redefine, and respirit Detroit from the ground up.” It became a model of the Boggses’ call to reimagine human relations by centering collective care over domination and exploitation.
Program Features
Core Activity (July 5 to 18, 2026): All participants will join a two-week intensive training program coordinated by scholars and activists who worked directly with the Boggses. Based in Detroit, it will combine study sessions, community dialogs, tours, and practical experience in the field. Community-based teachers, artists, and architects, and organizers will lead workshops on issues like urban farming and food sovereignty, place-based education, radical art and design, civil rights and multiracial solidarity.
Supplemental Activity: For an additional 1-2 additional months, participants may arrange to receive on-the-ground experience through placement with a social justice organization where they will learn while serving a Detroit neighborhood project or community program.
Requirements
This school is for ages 18-25.
Applicants outside of this age range may be considered on a special basis.
If you are not from the local area, you will need to provide your own transportation to and from Detroit. Out-of-town participants will stay in a common location with expenses paid by participants or their sponsors.
To apply, please fill out our pre-application form to start the process. We will follow up with requests for additional information and/or a remote interview. Because participants will be selected on a rolling basis, we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.