A Revolutionary Summer
Black CHILDREN freer faster
A Revolutionary Summer (ARS) is an intensive critical reading and writing program dedicated to shifting harmful narratives about Black people and Blackness. Our mission is to present Black children and youth with authentic, anti-racist images of themselves and to simultaneously remind them that they are more than those images.
Since our founding in 2015, nearly 200 participants from all across Baltimore have read upwards of 50 books by Black authors and published thousands of their own beautifully arranged words in poems, essays, short stories, and articles. They have also consistently indicated positive changes in how they see, regard, and treat themselves.
Summer 2026 will be our eleventh year in existence and our first year offering programming to Black boys.
est. 2015
​​​“When I first started ARS, I was about to begin my freshman year in high school. I was your typical teenage girl trying to figure the world out and where I fit in it. I hadn’t really been exposed to Black women authors and artists. ARS changed that. I didn’t really have much choice in joining ARS. Sol was and is still my best friend. When her mom co-founded ARS, she called my mother and told her about it, and we all know how that phone call went. All these years later, seeing how much ARS has evolved, I am glad that Ms. Andria made that phone call.”​​
-Breyauna
Participant + Youth Leader, 2015-2024
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"I think of ARS as my favorite classroom. Even though it wasn’t a school setting, it felt like there was so much learning that happened there, and it’s also such a safe space."
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-Zawadi
Participant + Youth Leader, 2019-2024
"ARS taught me that you don’t take everything to heart. You can critique it either way. How you interpret it. It’s okay because that just shows you that you're actually thinking and digesting what’s going on in the material and not just accepting it as fact."
–I’yona
Participant + Youth Leader,
2018-2024
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“Each year I look forward to the vulnerable and intimate conversations I get to have with my peers. It is beyond compare because you share these deepest and most intense parts of your lives with people with no fear of judgment or anxiety that they will talk to someone else about you. I think some would liken it to sisterhood, only it’s different. There are some people who I know pretty well and others who I know a little about but we still have an understanding of respect for each other that only grows each time we talk.”
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-Aliyah
Participant, 2021-2024
“ARS taught me to not be afraid to speak up. I feel like it led me to be like okay Kacey, knowing that you fit in somewhere, now you have to be comfortable in that. We talked, had group discussions, check-ins...things like that that made me feel really good and empowered because growing up...we never ever expressed our feelings like that.”
-Kacey
Participant, 2022-2024
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"I feel like ARS has given me the opportunity to look and evaluate texts in a completely different way. I learned a lot, and not just from the mamas but from the daughters also. Our conversations are so meaningful and I learn something every week.
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-Arielle
Participant, 2021-2024