In this collaboratively written piece, a team of researchers and high school students reflect on their participatory ethnography work in a literacy-focused space within a Philadelphia public high school. The authors collectively explore the critical components of their still-unfolding research: participatory space-building, which entails creating safety in learning and writing-focused spaces and productively managing tensions that emerge, and participatory knowledge building, which involves expanding forms of knowing and expression while centering relationships. They discuss participatory ethnography as the practice of working together toward shared goals in reciprocal, mutual fashion.