Dr. Skyller Walkes has been all for getting things done in the name of justice throughout her career as an educator and now a social activist. Having taught K-12 to higher education, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility are all the crux of the work she has always focused on.
In the spirit of Juneteenth, Walkes is self-funding three upcoming cultural and free events in Harlem and Brooklyn. She is adamant about all of these events being fully accessible to the community.
“People should not have to pay for exposure or experiences around culture and education in the arts,” she said. “Not everybody’s gonna have a Columbia or NYU ID to get into some of the amazing symposia … they can’t even access the space, which to me, is nonsensical and it advances a colonial agenda.”
The first event on Saturday, June 7, titled “Teach Truth Pop-Up Display,” is a “teach truth” and will have free book giveaways at the National Jazz Museum. Following that on Saturday, June 14 is a film festival, “A Diasporic Showcase – The Souls of Black Storytellers,” showing four distinct films related to Black life and culture, and hearing from the directors at Stuart Cinema & Cafe, a Black owned movie theater in Brooklyn in which food will also be served. Finally, back at the Jazz Museum, “How the Wail of the Blues & the Cacophony of Jazz Culminate in the Healing Afro Communal Ritual of ‘Sinners,’” will feature a discussion and workshop surrounding the new Ryan Coogler film on Tuesday, June 17.
The four films being shown at the festival will all feature discussions with the filmmakers. The films are “A King Like Me,” from Matthew Henderson, about the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club which was the first Black parade by African Americans in Mardi Gras; “Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland,” from Kate Davis and David Heilbroner; “Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom” from Ya’ke Smith; and “The Prof, A Man Rememebred: The Life, Vision and Legacy of Dr. K. A. Busia,” who was the second prime minister of Ghana, with Busia’s daughter and Ambassador of Ghana to Brazil, Abena Busia, who was also a producer for the movie. Citing the gentrification of the Greenpoint neighborhood where Stuart Cafe is, Walkes says she was intentional in the need to support the Black Latina-owned theater.
A Harlem resident, Walkes has invested up to $12,000 of her own money for the three events, in addition to the work in her nonprofit, Roots Ground & Wingz Fly, which she founded in 2023.
“I don’t know if I’m brave or stupid yet,” she said with a laugh.“ “If I could absorb that, even though I’ve lost so much, then I have a responsibility to do so. I just wish there was more community that was actually about helping and not just talking about it.” Being driven by her mission, she is still in the process of learning how to expand the work of her organization, which focuses on providing transformative programs and supporting equity initiatives.
Walkes has been an educator for over 20 years, having taught in New York, New Jersey, her home state of Texas, and even Spain. Providing support for her students who come from underprivileged areas has always been a main objective for her. She likes to identify as an “Eduartivist,” a term some in that space of intersecting education, art, and activism use.
Even though she hasn’t formally taught in K-12 in years, in December, she orchestrated a trip to bring 45 middle school students from the Renaissance School of the Arts in Harlem to the Alvin Ailey Exhibit at the Whitney Museum for a special closed experience, in collaboration with the Roads to Success organization. Multiple trips back to the Whitney, as well as a sustainability workshop in the neighborhood, were also organized in the following months.
“A lot of kids from Washington Heights, Inwood, Harlem do not go downtown unless it’s a field trip,” Walkes explained.
“I don’t get paid for it. There’s no grant funding for it,” she said. “The events where I’m focusing on older folks in the community, I’m paying for it. And that has not been easy at all.”
Walkes comes from a background of education as both of her parents were teachers and principals in Florida and Texas, where she was raised. As her father was from the Bronx, she would stay in New York with her grandmother during the summer and even describes herself as equal parts Houston livestock and rodeo and equal parts just another girl on the IRT as she recalls taking the 2 and 5 train.
It was growing up in Brazoria County, Texas, not far from Galveston, where she saw how significant Juneteenth was for Black folks in the region before it would gain prominence nationally in recent years. Her desire for community up here in New York to engage in learning the history is why she was so intentional about doing the festival event, which features Smith’s film about the celebration, the weekend before, on June 14.
In 2001, after graduating from Rutgers University as a James Dickson Carr Scholar, Walkes was supposed to move abroad for a fellowship in Ghana with her then professor, Abena Busia, yet was unable to because of the halt on travel following the September 11th attacks. She then became a social worker in Newark, where she saw firsthand how systemic racism plays out in many forms, and eventually moved to teaching.
As one of her master’s degrees is in juvenile justice from Prairie View, she created a curriculum for incarcerated youth that resulted in lower recidivism rates in Texas after moving back to care for her father. She would also serve as director for the Office of Disabilities at Texas State University, where she saw how many young people are never identified as needing additional support and resources. She would go on to change the policy to now allow Individual Education Program (IEP) statements for students to request special accommodations.
The work would continue as she established a consultancy company in 2020 and raised thousands of dollars to give away in scholarships.
“If there’s anything that I can do to contribute to money not being a deterrent for kids to stay in school, I want to do that,” she said. “I don’t give out loud, but I give because I see there are opportunities that need to be given, and that’s why I am self-funding all these programs … Even though I grew up middle class, I know that the lack of opportunity often comes from a lack of access.” The company has suffered immensely under the trump administration, losing the majority of her contracts, she says.
She eventually took a position as Inaugural Associate Dean of DEI in 2022 at Columbia and will be teaching next year.
Now firmly in the social activism space, Walkes is still looking to build more relationships in her social justice work, alongside her two business partners in the organization. She gives major praise to institutions like the Jazz Museum and the Whitney, and believes more are out there in supporting a similar mission.
“Even when it feels like communities of care are small and far and few in between, we’re not, though we’re connected.”
I have know Dr. Walkes since 2019; and she is the real deal! If you are able to donate to her non-profit RootzGround & WingzFly it will help her continue her blessings on the community; a time when non-profits are filling in for the support of the community.