Hello and welcome to the Current Affairs podcast. This is Leida Gold, your Amusements and Managing Editor.

I have an extremely special guest with me today. It's Jamal Bowman, who is running for the

U.S. House of Representatives in the New York, 16 District. Jamal, thanks for joining me.

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Jamal, you're a member of this really exciting new generation of left candidates we've all been hearing so much about, much like Michaela Wilkes, who we interviewed on a previous episode. And your district,

New York 16, is very close to AOCs. You've been endorsed for the Justice Dems, just like her.

Your background is really interesting, and that's kind of where I want to start today. You are a

professional educator, and for the past 10 years, you've been a middle school principal. And this is a job title, which I imagine might fill a lot of our listeners with anxiety, because we probably all remember these like terrifying disciplinarians. But that's not your speed at all. And I'm really interested in your approach to start off just as a principal. Yeah. I mean, hopefully this doesn't sound too cliche, but first and foremost, I love the children that I serve and I love the community that I serve.

We engage in a pedagogy of love where it's not just about academic performance and academic achievement and one-uping or beating your peer or your colleague.

It's about how do we collectively create the most

ambitious, loving, caring, learning environment for ourselves as individuals and for our peers

and for our parents and for our community. I've always had a community school vision, and I've

always looked at the school as the heartbeat of the community, so the place that kind of can drive, again, not just academic outcomes, but social outcomes, emotional outcomes, and really provide a transformative space to write the wrongs of history.

So I've been very clear from the beginning of my career 20 years ago, in 1999, when I started teaching in the South Bronx. I've been very clear on my

role as a male educator, as a black male educator, particularly for black and brown children. I did not

grow up with a father, so I unfortunately encountered many students who shared similar experiences.

So I knew that I was more than a teacher to them. I knew I was a father figure and I knew that I was someone that my job was more than just providing academic space,

but a social space and emotional space, a spiritual space for us to deal with our shared experiences,

deal with our history very honestly and openly and use the space again to empower to transform and as a space for self-love.

So that's how I've always approached this work as an educator and that's how I continue to approach

it to this day. So you founded your own school 10 years ago. You were the founding principal of

this school. It is CASA, the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action. Can you tell us more about,

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