Launching on Madison’s South Side in the 2026-2027 school year, The SoulFolk Saturday School will be a culturally grounded Saturday school for Black high school students in Madison, Wisconsin. Housed within the Center for Black Excellence and Culture and run by The SoulFolk Collective, a research lab in the Department of African American Studies at UW–Madison, creators of the SoulFolk Saturday School radically imagine a space that prioritizes:
- Education—lessons where Black history, literature, and art aren’t the additive, but the foundation.
- Rapport—Students are free to express all facets and dynamisms of Black identity.
- Free food—Families and community members are fed in abundance.
- Health—All students have access to free mental and physical wellness services.
- Organizing within the community—Teachers and students alike strategize and research for social action and change.
Inspired by historic Freedom Schools in the United States and Black Saturday Schools in the United Kingdom, The SoulFolk Saturday School will support Black Madison high school students to revolutionize their learning, ensuring that academic tutoring, advising, and coaching are accessible to all.
The current average score on the ACT for Black students in Madison Metropolitan School District is 14.8. The average ACT score for all students in the state of Wisconsin is 19.4.—a 4.6 point gap.
(Madison 365, ACT.org)
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a Black student population of under 3%, and that number dropped in 2024.
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
The SoulFolk Collective aims to use the Black Freedom School resistance strategies of the past to herald more liberatory futures for all of us, and build a transformative Black community in Wisconsin and beyond.
“As a member of the Madison-area community and an advocate for educational justice, I believe this proposal holds incredible promise for addressing the systemic challenges Black students face in Madison, and will help pave the way for long-term, transformational change. It is precisely the type of initiative that we need to address these educational gaps.”
—Rosa Thompson, Executive Director, Black Girl Magic Educational Services, Inc.
“The Saturday Freedom School provides a comprehensive and unique site to explore the experienced differences of “traditional” American history classrooms and classrooms specifically formulated to encourage Black life. I firmly believe the school would add measurable value to UW–Madison’s relationship with the Madison community and would propel my research as a Ph.D. student.”
—Ziyen Curtis, Curriculum & Instruction Ph.D. student and African American Studies M.A. student
“The Center for Black Excellence and Culture isn’t looking to be just a building. We want it to be a movement that showcases what happens when Black communities collectively dream and create spaces untouched by political erasure or cultural silencing, and The SoulFolk Saturday School is an exemplary model of this. I have every confidence that The SoCo Saturday School will positively impact the Black community in Madison.”
—Rev. Dr. Alex Gee, Founder and CEO,The Center for Black Excellence and Culture
The SoulFolk Saturday School and The SoulFolk Collective were co-designed by Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall and eleven research fellows with the support of the Department of African American Studies at UW–Madison. Stovall taught public school for eleven years before completing her Ph.D. in Race, Inequality, and Language in Education, Curriculum and Teacher Education from Stanford University. The recipient of the 2025 Black Teacher Archive Microgrant from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a subject in the 2018 documentary, America to Me, Stovall hopes The SoulFolk Saturday School will be an embodiment of building a stronger, more connected local community.
The SoulFolk Saturday School needs to raise $150,000 by May 15, 2026. We have received a generous lead gift of $60,000. Consider aiding us in our mission. Gifts can be made by check or online at soulfolkcollective.com. We extend our gratitude to all donors who make our work in Wisconsin possible.