Episode 81: Stories From The Field: A Curated Selection of Conversations Around Equity In The Art Classroom

This episode is a special one and will be the last one of 2021. This is a longer version of the presentation I gave at the California Art Education Association conference last month. I prefaced the presentation by saying that I am not an expert here, but have been learning and listening and working to share the advice of those who know more than I do, to share the experiences of those who experience racism firsthand, to share the voices of those who are too often silenced.

It was a daunting task to select clips from over 80 hours of conversation to fit into 30 minutes. What’s shared here is my longer cut, which is closer to 45 minutes. While there’s obviously so much cut from the many conversations these clips were pulled from, it is also still a lot to process. 

This episode includes clips from the following artists:

Here is the Google document where I shared the transcript and artist bios for the final CAEA presentation, which was a shortened version of this episode. Feel free to make a copy and add notes if that’s helpful.

I ended with the song Nisa Floyd recommended, Come Back As A Flower by Stevie Wonder featuring Syreeta Wright. I can’t include it in the episode for copyright reasons, but you can listen to it below, thinking about Nisa’s words of redemption and hope and growth.

As I feel our country (maybe the world? I don’t know if it feels this way outside of America)… As I feel our country sink further into dogma over democracy, hatred over humanity, it’s easy to feel defeated and hopeless, but I do see so much hope in our children. We’re on the front lines in more ways than one right now as educators. Hold on to that hope. Nurture empathy and love. Trust your students and yourself.