Shot By: Thomas Gonzalez

Among all of the live performances, must-have merch, and surprise celebrity appearances, it might have been easy to forget that ComplexCon was going to have some very educational panels.

Taking place on the 2nd floor at the Long Beach Convention Center, the first panel of the day started out with the faces behind the topic that most of us needed to be aware of, “The Future of Our Schools: An Urgency for Change.”

The panel featured Marc Ecko, Pusha T, Russlynn Ali, Laurene Powell Jobs, Jesse Williams, and Hill Harper, who spoke about the realities of American classrooms, how they need to evolve, and why our schools aren’t changing their educational system.

The teacher turned actor and activist Jesse Williams lead the discussion about the unchanging history of high school education and why a movement is needed in the system. He described his experience as a student in Chicago and then his time as a teacher.

Hip-hop rapper Pusha T also expressed his feelings of growing up as a student in Virginia Beach, where he was forced to pursue music without the help of public education. “No one tried to nurture what we were doing,” he said.

Then, Powell Jobs and Ali made the announcement of their upcoming project, XQ Institute’s Super School Project, where they explained that they are working with 10 schools across the country to rethink how the classroom works.