by Shanize “Byrd”
It was a cold day in February, back in 2016. My best friend and I were visiting D.C for the 25th anniversary of Teach For America and a job fair was going on in the convention center. I already had both feet out the door at my current school and was anxiously awaiting a sign of what was next for me. We browsed through several booths, received giveaways and gathered business cards. I don’t know what it was about this one booth. It didn’t have all the bells and whistles, but I was drawn to the three Black faces that stood behind the table. One of them had a bright and warm smile, which made me feel invited. She extended her hand to me and said, “Hi, I’m Krystal.”
We began to talk about our philosophies on education and passion for social justice curricula. She talked about a recent trip to Selma, where she brought a group of students to learn more about the Civil Rights Movement and had an opportunity to meet the late Congressman John Lewis. I shared how I was in the middle of a Black Panther Party unit with my seventh and eighth graders. Krystal was a principal at the time and I was in my second year of teaching. I was very unhappy in my position because I felt very misunderstood and undervalued and I knew that I was not receiving equitable support. I had only known Krystal for 10 minutes, yet I felt like she had always known me. At that moment, I knew that with her was going to be my next move. I felt “seen, heard, believed and worthy.”
Krystal Allen is the founder and CEO of K. Allen Consulting, a global education and management consulting firm that supports schools, nonprofits and businesses through professional development, thought leadership and philanthropy. I met her as Principal Allen and could tell from our first interaction that she was someone special; bigger than what met the eyes. Krystal recently sat down with me and graciously told her journey as a Black woman leader and defining moments of resistance met with the status quo. To me, she is a dear sister-friend whom I adore and find inspiration.
“Even though you are my sister-friend, there is a part of me that compartmentalizes a part of my mind, where I look at you as *pauses* shit, I’m going to say it. You are that bitch!” I expressed to Krystal.
We shared a laugh between to Black women, who understood that my remark was a sentiment of love and respect. If you have the pleasure of meeting her, you can see humanity through her humbleness and feel something powerful in her presence. Like you know she was meant to lead, whether you acknowledge it or not. After we settled our laughter, she gave me a modest yet dynamic response.
“We are just Black women, who just want to be free and maintain their freedom.”
Krystal grew up in Selma, Alabama (334, stand up!) and was surrounded by a village of Black women leaders. I asked her when she became aware that she was a leader and who specifically nurtured that sense of leadership in her. She shared with me that experiencing and witnessing Black women educators had a significant influence on her.
“They actively taught racial pride, even before I had the language of what was being instilled in me, I know I just wanted to be them,” said Allen.
I could tell those women were something special to Krystal, just by the way she adjusted her posture and I could see her swoon as she gazed and visualized the memories. She shared how most of them went to historically Black colleges and universities in her home state, had pledged either AKA or Delta and were pillars in the community. Krystal saw magic within them and wanted to come into it for herself. She also mentioned that her grandmother is her “Black Giant”, whose profile and makeup as a woman is her own blueprint.
“She showed me what it meant to understand who you are and to sit in it; to reside in it, even when you have to be by yourself.”
Her and I both exchanged affirmative “hums” with each other, when I talked about the gentle touch of our elders and the ways they speak life over us. I inquired about what Krystal’s grandmother and elders specifically fed her, in regards to mantras, affirmations or values.
“There were four messages that I needed to hear growing up…one is that ‘I see you, I hear you, I believe you and that you are enough’,” expressed Krystal.
When she repeated those affirmations to me, I felt enveloped with warmth. I understood what she meant because that’s exactly how she always made me feel with her. Especially at a time when I needed it the most. Sister-friend and I definitely share something in common and that’s having moments when our Blackness was challenged in predominantly White spaces. Krystal humbly shared about her once seeking validation from the very institutions and people, who uphold ideologies that were never meant to include and honor Black people.
“I constantly found myself going through this internal and external struggle to stay true to myself and determine what authenticity looked like and how to find that in balancing, trying to navigate what ultimately, to me, turned out to be a definition of success that was more aligned to proximity to whiteness than my Black liberation,”
I felt this so deeply when she said it, like she had found the pages of my own thoughts and memories. She continues by saying that she had an epiphany that the validation she thought she needed was really insignificant to her.
“It wasn’t until I got to a point of realizing that everything you have aspired towards, you don’t need that. And you don’t need the validation of those things to be great.”
Allen was the principal of a predominantly Black school in Uptown New Orleans. It was a school that housed generations of Black students. And like many Orleans Parish schools, it was acquired by a charter network after Hurricane Katrina. The school was considerably “underperforming” and was at high risk of shutting down. Krystal was brought in during a very tumultuous and high-stakes period. She was expected to increase performance by two grade levels within two years, which wasn’t much time in the grand scheme of things. And without an entire new staff. (Sounds familiar? A Black woman called upon to produce miracles because of someone else’s numerous tried and failed attempts) In little of two years, Krystal was able to lead in shifting the culture at the school and made strides in academic performance. She wasn’t always happy with perpetuating some of the behavior that you would see in “White dominant” cultures, especially when it came to discipline. She knew that she had to find her healthy medium in her approach to maintaining structure. But, she was proud of infusing her love for social justice education. Krystal talked about taking a group of students to Ferguson, Missouri after the murder of Michael Brown. They all had the opportunity to meet Brown’s family and converse with community activists.
She was overly devoted to her service in that role. Sacrificing and prioritizing time over herself and with her husband, in their early years of marriage. She had a vision and I, along with many others, believed in her vision. We knew what was at stake with the standardized test scores and demanded academic excellence of our students, but our main focus and intention was to teach our children about liberation. We knew that a Black child could find more liberty in knowing themselves than by the measurement of a White-washed exam. You can imagine how her audaciousness was met with resistance by the Powers That Be.
I vividly remember the day when Krystal was let go as the principal. It was a Thursday afternoon and we were only in the first month of the school year (August 2016). The network leadership called the entire staff to the library, announced that she would no longer be the principal and introduced us to her replacement. My spirit was unsettled and my skin was warm because I knew something was wrong. I still carry anger about it till this day. During our conversation, Krystal walked me through the moment that preceded that staff meeting.
“It was very traumatizing for a little Black girl, a Black hero. And then behind closed doors she must be punished for the same things that publicly I’m praised for, right. And that entire experience culminated in me being let go from my position in the midst of a 15-20 minute conversation, in the middle of the school day and being escorted out by an officer like I was a child molester to children, who I poured my entire everything into.”
I could feel my skin getting warmer and the corner of my eyes became full, while listening to her story. I know what it feels like to 1) have all the pressure on you to meet a standard when you’re not positioned for success, 2) have your passion diminished to something insignificant, 3) give something your all and still be told that it wasn’t enough, 4) have your Blackness looked at as problematic. Sister-friend, I know you and know that you are not alone.
My lowest point in my life, thus far, was when I internalized the mistreatment and lack of appreciation from the leadership at a school where I taught prior to joining Krystal’s staff. I felt like I lacked purpose and it fed the notion that I will never be good enough. I wanted to leave everything and everybody behind; just fall off the face of the Earth. But, it was people, specifically Black women like Krystal, who nurtured and guided me back to a healthy sense of self. She allowed space for me to just be and maneuver in my natural way. In our recent conversation, I felt compelled to affirm her for what she did for me and how she honored what her elders instilled in her.
“For the first time in my career, I felt seen, heard, believed and worthy. That experience helped save my life,” I tearfully confessed to her.
There is something that is so distinctive about how Black folks respond to adversity. We either choose to fold ourselves into fire, stand frozen in shock or take our torches and set ablaze our own paths. But, here’s to not glorifying the torch carriers and shaming those sitting in flames or freezing with fright. Because at some point, we all have moments of choosing conforming over resistance. Yet, there came a moment when Krystal grabbed her torch and was reminded of what always was inside of her; what her elders taught her. She created her own space and made her own rules.
Shortly after Krystal was released from her principalship, she created K. Allen Consulting LLC. (Ma’am, I am going to take a moment to brag for you and send all of the flowers.) In four years, KAC has expanded from serving one city to now over five countries, 150 clients globally and over 60,000 students in public education across the U.S. In January 2020, the firm gave $15,000 donations to three rural schools. Legacy Leadership Academy for Girls, in New Orleans, received $500 of programmatic resources to support their development and work with young girls & women. During COVID-19, KAC pulled up on public school teachers across the U.S. and gave them monetary gifts. “One additional way of exercising our commitment to philanthropic giving as a Black owned, POC operated education & management consulting firm!” And in October 2020, KAC granted $3,000 to 5 Black and Brown female entrepreneurs to support their business development needs. If you’re reading this, then go ahead and give a round of applause for this Black woman.
Towards the end of the discussion, I asked Krystal about what is at stake with her liberation, as a Black woman business owner.
“It’s necessary for me to be free in this world because my family’s liberation is entwined with my own. I’m at a point in my life and my service, in which I’m ready to begin my own family and I look forward to being a mother that my Black children can look to and be so affirmed and proud of.”
Krystal, you are a gem and your presence is necessary in this world. I know that it wasn’t, and still isn’t, easy to push past fears, cancel out the noise and learn to trust yourself and others again. Your success is a testament of the resilience, power and wonder that lives in all Black women. It also shows what happens when you are removed from what is not best serving you, whether by force or voluntarily. May you continue to transform lives and take flight, Black bird.
Learn more about Krystal Allen and her business K. Allen Consulting by visiting the website at https://www.kallenconsulting.org/ and following the social media accounts.
