In this special episode of The Exit Interview: A Podcast for Black Educators, I share milestone eight years in the making: the podcast's permanent archival at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, the first podcast ever accepted into its collection. I trace the story back to my own 2018 exit interview with the superintendent of a Denver-area school district, the moment of relief that sparked the idea to give other Black educators a chance to tell their truth. Ninety-three episodes later, what began as a search for a simple narrative of racism related stress and racial battle fatigue revealed something far more layered: misogynoir, anti-Blackness, colorism, and the slow, hard-won return to joy and wellness after harm.
Now, with the Schomburg preserving these testimonies as living historical record, I introduce what's next: The Exit Interview Archive Project, an invitation to institutions and individuals to help carry stories further into the world with my organization, Liberated Educators Lab.
