This qualitative study examined the complexities of mutually engaging across differing positionalities (students and students, students and teacher) while intentionally working in spaces of distress (e.g. push and pull between oppression and liberation). The findings demonstrated the ways in which building a beloved community while situated within an oppressive U.S. schooling system, supported students and teacher toward cultivating pedagogy rooted in love and agency, with a collective commitment toward social justice. As a result, this study contributed toward expanding the possibilities for utilizing the process of teacher and student participatory action research (tsPAR) (Author, 2015) and Critical Race Praxis for Educational Research (CRP-Ed) (Jayakumar & Author, 2015) that honors students and teachers' relationships while working in constricting institutional contexts.