It’s a Different World: #HillmanTok and New Frontiers of Information Sharing in BIPOC Communities
Event Type
Presentation
Start Date
25-7-2025 10:40 AM
End Date
25-7-2025 11:10 AM
Description
HillmanTok is a free online learning community featuring Black educators and experts using TikTok to create video lectures and livestreams that teach a vast array of topics, from practical skills like gardening, cooking, hair care, and wealth building, to humanities, like histories, Black arts and entertainment, and mental health. Beginning, almost accidentally, on Jan. 20, 2025 with a 3-minute TikTok video by Dr. Leah Barlow, welcoming her students to her African American Studies class, HillmanTok rapidly became an educational movement with a massive following in the hundreds of thousands.
Simultaneously, the Trump administration began issuing numerous directives and executive orders, attacking and dismantling DEI initiatives and education. Within days, Black educators and TikTok users recognized both the immediate threat and an opportunity. If educational opportunities and diverse voices were going to be stripped away and invalidated in “official” spaces, then they could be successfully replicated and elevated through innovative strategies in other platforms.
This presentation will provide an overview of HillmanTok, including its strengths, limitations, and controversies. It will also be a call to action for BIPOC education and library professionals to participate in the long tradition of educational self-determination, when official channels fail our communities.
Outcomes
- Participants will develop a deeper understanding of the contemporary grassroots educational movement known as HillmanTok.
- Participants will be able to strategize how to further participate in impactful information sharing, teaching and learning opportunities, despite obstacles at the federal level.
It’s a Different World: #HillmanTok and New Frontiers of Information Sharing in BIPOC Communities
HillmanTok is a free online learning community featuring Black educators and experts using TikTok to create video lectures and livestreams that teach a vast array of topics, from practical skills like gardening, cooking, hair care, and wealth building, to humanities, like histories, Black arts and entertainment, and mental health. Beginning, almost accidentally, on Jan. 20, 2025 with a 3-minute TikTok video by Dr. Leah Barlow, welcoming her students to her African American Studies class, HillmanTok rapidly became an educational movement with a massive following in the hundreds of thousands.
Simultaneously, the Trump administration began issuing numerous directives and executive orders, attacking and dismantling DEI initiatives and education. Within days, Black educators and TikTok users recognized both the immediate threat and an opportunity. If educational opportunities and diverse voices were going to be stripped away and invalidated in “official” spaces, then they could be successfully replicated and elevated through innovative strategies in other platforms.
This presentation will provide an overview of HillmanTok, including its strengths, limitations, and controversies. It will also be a call to action for BIPOC education and library professionals to participate in the long tradition of educational self-determination, when official channels fail our communities.
Outcomes
- Participants will develop a deeper understanding of the contemporary grassroots educational movement known as HillmanTok.
- Participants will be able to strategize how to further participate in impactful information sharing, teaching and learning opportunities, despite obstacles at the federal level.
