This session invites participants to embrace inclusivity in music education by (re)membering the cultural and liberatory praxis of music educators across the African Diaspora. Centering the work of Cynthia Dillard (2012), bell hooks (1990), Gholdy Muhammad (2020), this panel encourages music educators in the US and internationally to celebrate Black music pedagogues and how they employ frameworks and liberatory praxis such as Black Girlhood, BlackCrit, and fugitive pedagogy to cultivate an environment where Black students are “coming home to themselves” (Dillard, 2022, p. 145) and are honored “not for who they are as people marginalized” but for “who they will become as presumable citizens in the making” (Brown, 2013, pg 187). In essence, this session aims to achieve the following objectives: discuss the historical significance of Black music and the marginalization of its praxis in music education; present frameworks that work towards empowering the voices of Black students while celebrating the contributions of their cultural heritage; and lastly, facilitate a dialogue that engages participants in freedom dreaming (Kelley, 2002) a future for music education that uplifts the genius and significant contributions of Black Diaspora. Panelist 1 (Chair): In her book The Games Black Girls Play, Dr. Kyra Gaunt (2006) walks us through the ways in which the “embodied gestures of Black girl’s games mirror the timbres of snare, bass drum, and high-hat” and says that these sensibilities are “key in the vocal and dance behavior” of “African American musical expression” (Gaunt, 2006, p. 31). Yet, Black girls are seldom acknowledged as musicians or performers when they engage in these embodied practices of composition in music classrooms, even though they demonstrate a command of polyrhythms, complex meters, syncopated melodies, and scales. Historically, in the United States, some music classrooms have been reflections of institutional racism, consequently perpetuating the belief among Black girls that they, as well as the musical contributions of their culture, are inferior or insufficient (Gustafson, 2008). Interestingly, the racist tropes known to overshadow the stories of Black girls and Black women as creatives, innovators, and leaders are not solely an American problem and have implications for international music and music education spaces. Thus, this presentation uses Black Girlhood, Black Feminism, and Hip Hop Pedagogy as frameworks to provide counter-narratives of Black women and Black girls that support efforts towards pedagogies of inclusivity in music education. Panelist 2: In recent years, music education research has made a concerted effort to interrogate the exclusion of Black students and other students of color within classroom contexts. This body of scholarship has advanced critical conversations by centering culturally responsive pedagogy, social-emotional learning, and the cultivation of belonging as means of bridging diverse musical worlds (McKoy & Lind, 2022; Fiorentino, 2020; Varner, 2022, 2023, 2025). However, the existing research has predominantly been situated in contexts where Black students are a racial minority not only among their peers, but also within the faculty and administration (DeAngelis, 2022). In contrast, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were specifically established to educate and prepare Black students for academic achievement and professional success (Bustamante, 2021; Hamilton, 2008; Williams et al., 2021). Nevertheless, there remains limited scholarship on these distinctive educational environments and the ways in which they support the development of Black music students. As such, this discussion foregrounds the longstanding use of culturally responsive, fugitive, and abolitionist practices in music programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, where these approaches have served as foundational practices in preparing a predominantly Black student population from across the African diaspora to navigate and transform a changing world (Givens, 2021; Love, 2019). Panelist 3: Black Diaspora voices are too often marginalized in US music education, pressured to conform to Eurocentric ideals reinforced by higher education, classrooms, festivals, and national associations (Bradley, 2016; Koza, 2021). These practices, compounded by racial tensions and the histories of Maafa (Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade), widen the divide and may cause Black diasporic voices to lose touch with who we are and whose we are (Cone, 2010). With that loss comes the erasure of Black aural-oral traditions—storytelling, drumming, and emotive song—passed down for generations.This last segment of the panel challenges systems in US music education that marginalize and criminalize Black bodies, epistemologies, and ontologies. Drawing on the Akan word Sankofa—“to go back and get”—it calls for reclaiming what has been lost by naming and honoring these traditions (Dillard, 2012). BlackCrit makes space to center Black Music Identity and Black Music Aesthetics to critique the structures that perpetuate division while affirming the sonic traditions of the Black diaspora (Battiste, 2023; Burnim & Maultsby, 2015; Dumas & ross, 2026). In essence, we (re)member (Dillard & Neal, 2020). This presentation celebrates Black love and joy while creating space in music education where these practices have too often been overlooked and/or forgotten (McCall et al., 2023).