The opening of the New Year brings a good number of educational priorities into focus. One of the most essential of these public-school-focused symposiums is NYU Metro Center’s fourth annual Equity Now Conference to be held on Friday, May 29, 2026.

The 2026 Equity Now Conference issues an expansive "Call to Action," which prompts educators, youth, and community members to reframe educational equity through the refinement of culturally responsive systems. This year’s conference focuses on developing new ways of moving equity to be more responsive to children, families, and communities who exist furthest on the margins. In this moment, when there is an attack on our most marginalized student communities, what will you do, and how can we stand together as a community to support our most harmed and vulnerable children, families, and communities?

Facilitating this pivotal convening is a herculean effort in both word and deed. Equity Now Conference organizers have had to conduct an extensive and thorough search to secure a distinguished, brilliant, and inspirational individual to address this year’s pedagogical conclave. After an exhaustive search, a stellar selection was made.

Meet Our Keynote Speaker

• This educator was awarded the Stowe Prize for Literary Activism.
• This scholar was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize.
• This author was long-listed for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize.
• This educator was awarded the Truth Award for Excellence in Education from Better Brothers Los Angeles and The DIVA Foundation.
• This community advocate received the Black Girl Magic Award at Lincoln Center in New York City.
• The Kennedy Center named this progressive administrator one of the "Next 50" leaders making the world more inspired, inclusive, and compassionate.
• As a co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network (ATN), whose mission is to develop and support teachers and parents fighting injustice within their schools and communities, this equity advocate has granted over $250,000 to abolitionists around the country.
• As a founding member of the task force that launched the program "In Her Hands," this longtime scholar has facilitated the distribution of more than $15 million to Black women living in Georgia.

The Equity Now Conference keynote speaker is a sought-after public speaker on a range of topics, including abolitionist teaching, anti-racism, Hip-Hop education, Black girlhood, queer youth, educational reparations, and arts-based education to foster youth civic engagement.

The keynote speaker’s 2019 book, We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, was the winner of the 2020 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award. The keynote speaker's most recent book, Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal, was both a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.