Alumni, parents, teachers, staff & friends
Complete the Alumni Directory
Help us reconnect generations of the IPE/NCDC community and keep you informed about the documentary and alumni events.
Complete the directoryA documentary in progress
A Chicago
Village: Education for Liberation
The story of a small Black school born on Chicago’s South Side in the 1970s—and how cultural pride, family, and education became a blueprint for liberation.
Two ways to help right now
Reconnect the village.
Help us make the trailer.
Immediate production goal
Support the $4K Trailer Fund
We have raised $650 toward the $4,000 needed to create the documentary trailer.
$650 raised$4,000 goal
Donate by Zelle 01 / The story
It took a village.
The village is still here.
A Chicago Village: Education for Liberation recounts how a small school founded in the 1970s triumphed through endless adversity, grew into a village, and created a legacy that is still standing and thriving today.
Read the project overviewMemories larger than life
James Brown at the annual fundraiser. Maya Angelou and Stevie Wonder dancing at a house party. Gil Scott-Heron stopping by for lunch.
Extraordinary moments, remembered casually alongside the daily work of teaching Black children to know who they were.
Latest from production
The first interview brought four co-founders together.
The team recorded the people who helped build IPE and NCDC, surrounded by photographs, books, artwork, and memories from the village’s earliest years.
See the production updateWhere the film stands
A living project,
still taking shape.
Filming, archival work, and alumni outreach are underway. This first site will grow with the documentary.
Now
Filming & oral histories
Interviews and community stories continue to shape the documentary.
In progressBuilding
Community archive
Photographs, programs, recordings, and memories are being identified.
CollectingNext
Trailer & first showing
A first public-facing trailer and community presentation are planned.
Details to come
At the center
“Teachers felt like family. Classmates became siblings—and lifelong friends.”
Alumni will also reckon with what happened when they left the village for schools and a wider world that looked and felt very different—and the identity struggles that followed.
The alumni experience
Explore the film’s storyHelp tell the story
Every memory adds
to the archive.
Alumni, families, educators, friends, and supporters can help by reconnecting the global alumni network and sharing black-and-white photographs, clippings, school documents, songs, rituals, and artwork that can bring this history into the present. We are also seeking a permanent home for the collection and professional archival guidance.