Freedom makes for great education. That’s the foundational principle of the Hamtramck Free School, a groundbreaking educational organization that has been offering materials and learning opportunities to anyone who shows up with a desire to learn, or teach. Co-founded by Michael Brown, a philosopher and Michigan State University Ph.D candidate; unstoppable culture magnet Steve Panton of 2739 Edwin Gallery; and groundbreaking artist Jonathan Rajewski, HFS utilizes a pedagoglogical model and free educational principles that became popular in America in the 1960s—a cultural response to the sense that conventional education had become a means to oppress young minds and drives them into the industrial/office complex. The HFS offers classes free of charge, and employs a non-hierarchical learning structure that encourages anyone who attends regularly to create and implement curriculum.

Free School attendees (including class moderator Michael Brown, far left) at one of the Black Feminist Thought discussion sections.

Offerings have grown from once-weekly courses held at local Hamtramck establishments, including Café 1923, to a diverse courseload, with new teachers and students joining the mix all the time. In current rotation is a 15-week ongoing Black Feminist Thought/Postcolonial Feminism, which runs from 4-6 p.m. on Saturdays at Klinger Street Studios, the official locus of the HFS; History from the Ground Up, a look at neighborhood history that is being held Mondays in April and May (April 14, 21 and 28, and May 5 and 12) from 6:30-8 p.m. at Hamtramck Historical Museum; and Neighborhood Alley Basketball, from 12-1:30 p.m. on April 19, also at Klinger.

“This is Joseph Campau just south of where the viaduct is today. Dodge Main is on the left. This dates from about 1920,” says local historian Greg Kowalski, one of the “History from the Ground Up” facilitators.

Past classes have included practical skill shares and reading groups, with selected readings usually to be found posted for free on the website. You can also sign up on the mailing list, which will keep you up-to-date on upcoming classes. Your education is what you make of it! The Hamtramck Free School is ready to facilitate anything that’s on your mind.

Hamtramck Free School at Klinger Street Studios: 11627 Klinger St., Hamtramck; hamtramckfreeschool.org Hamtramck Historical Museum: 9525 Joseph Campau, Hamtramck; 313-893-5027; www.hamtramckhistory.org