“The teacher is of course an artist, but being an artist does not mean that [they] can make the profile, can shape the students. What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.”
― Paulo Freire and Miles Horton, “We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change”, 1990Values:
I ground my teaching practice in the ethics of storytelling. Through stories shared on identity, culture, place, and belonging, students witness with awe our intersections and distinctions. We build community through story in order to create a climate of openness, shared commitment, and intellectual rigor applicable to any context.
I often teach living history classes. We divide our course of study, evenly, between the scrutiny of published works, and the development of new storytelling works made by group. Together, we discover what stories we are called upon to tell about ourselves, our community, and our future.
We endeavor to respect and encourage each other to feel safe enough to attempt the building of a community of trust in which all may be truthful and deeply serious in the messages we craft for each other and the world.
My teaching practice is built on the belief that the art of telling the truth is a necessary and a healthy way to create powerful and positive connections among people who, otherwise, remain (unknown and unaware) strangers.
Background:
Since 2013, I’ve worked with people of all ages to imagine just and joyful futures through arts inquiry and collaborative arts practices. I partner with organizations to develop and fund initiatives, create curriculum, and facilitate programs. I am a teaching artist with the award-winning theater Ping Chong + Company and the Center for Architecture.
As a teaching artist with Ping Chong + Company, I develop verbatim theater projects, adapting real people’s stories into collaborative performances that explore cross-cultural connection. With the Center for Architecture, I teach Social Architecture, leading explorations of design and urbanism that places people, our environments, and our collective histories at the center.
I have facilitated courses and community-based workshops in the U.S., UK, Canada and Norway for youth, adults, older adults, and intergenerational communities in Applied and Devised Theater, Art and Social Change, Community Cultural Development, Community Engagement and Civic Practice, Documentary Theater, Mind-Body Practices, and Theater of the Oppressed.
Past Work Highlights:
As a teaching artist with Ping Chong + Company, I develop verbatim theater projects, adapting real people’s stories into collaborative performances that explore cross-cultural connection. With the Center for Architecture, I teach Social Architecture, leading explorations of design and urbanism that places people, our environments, and our collective histories at the center.
I have facilitated courses and community-based workshops in the U.S., UK, Canada and Norway for youth, adults, older adults, and intergenerational communities in Applied and Devised Theater, Art and Social Change, Community Cultural Development, Community Engagement and Civic Practice, Documentary Theater, Mind-Body Practices, and Theater of the Oppressed.
Past Work Highlights:
I have facilitated courses and community-based workshops in the U.S., UK, Canada and Norway for youth, adults, older adults, and intergenerational communities in Applied and Devised Theater, Art and Social Change, Community Cultural Development, Community Engagement and Civic Practice, Documentary Theater, Mind-Body Practices, and Theater of the Oppressed.
Past Work Highlights: