Lavette Coney

Lavette Coney is an African American woman from Roxbury, MA, a predominantly Black and Brown neighborhood of Boston created by redlining, “urban renewal” and economic divesting. As the neighborhood association president, she recognizes how the trauma of Black people continues through living with hazardous contaminants, gentrification after decades of decay, and political disenfranchisement. Lavette has been a co-facilitator since 2016 and is the current leader of WPCR. After years of anti-racist work, she recognized that racism is a White problem and a burden on our society.

Ms. Coney has given numerous presentations, workshops, and lectures and her writing can be found in a number of scholarly journals, but her most recent work is featured in Social Justice in English Language Teaching, 2016. At present, she is working on an article about critical race pedagogy for TESOL Quarterly.