Culturally Conscious Mindsets
May 5, 2021
BY ANDRÉ SOLOMON | CREATIVE GENERATION
How to be a Dream Facilitator was a part of the Teaching Artists Guild’s (TAG) program Youth Right Now = Truth Right Now, a series of BIPOC Youth Led Professional Development Workshops that give insight into what helps build creative, nurturing and thriving environments for young artists.
How do teaching artists convey the importance of identity? What identities does our society embrace and reject? In order to evoke the characteristics (i.e. empathy, multi-perspective, transparent, consistent, etc.) of a culturally responsive teacher, meaningful check-ins with oneself is necessary.
As there are very few opportunities for teaching artists to learn from young people, showcasing BIPOC youth leaders demonstrates that centering the work means recognizing the injustices that have been built into our system.
This particular workshop facilitated by Erica Merritt of Arts Corps with youth lead Jessica Price used activities (i.e. jeopardy) to illuminate BIPOC pioneers and the notion that our BIPOC counterparts are often neglected across the past, present and future due to white dominance in the media. Both provided lightheartedness that was well-received by participants who acknowledged that continued efforts by practitioners must happen towards designing brave spaces in the arts and education sectors.
Here is a video of the How to be a Dream Facilitator workshop
This series was made possible by collaboration between the Teaching Artists Guild, Memphis Music Initiative and Arts Corp with funding of Panta Rhea Fund and the Fenwick Foundation.
Additional resources compiled by TAG
Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond
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Youth Leads
Jessica Price Is a native of Seattle Washington who grew up in the Central District. She is currently a senior at Garfield High School. Jessica has been singing since the age 4 and dancing since the age of 10. Jessica has been involved in numerous Music and Theatre Programs like Griot Girlz, Alvin Ailey, and Garfield High School performing arts programs. Jessica has stayed engaged in performing arts because it makes her feel as though she can do anything. A fun fact about Jessica is that she is named after Jessica Rabbit from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”
Adult Facilitators
Erica Merritt
Erica Merritt began singing and performing at 5. In middle school, she was featured in a band called “Starlighters,” which consisted of three student vocalists and a few members of the faculty. At 14, she joined theatre and music performance groups at Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center. She studied voice and music in college, and began teaching choir through Northwest Folklife in 1998. She has continued to teach voice, songwriting and choir intermittently through various art organizations over the last 10 years. Erica has also worked in the field of social and human services for over 20 years and has enjoyed the amazing opportunity to combine her passions of social well-being and music through the art of teaching.
Teaching Artists Guild (TAG), is a member-driven organization committed to the professionalization and visibility of artists who teach. We are the voice of the teaching artist, communicating the depth and breadth of work that teaching artists provide our educational systems and communities.
