Artists and Systems of Education Panelists
JANUARY 26th, 1:00pm
Beaubourg Theatre
Alicia square
Alicia Square is a Director of MTSS ( Multi-Tier System of Support) who works with children and fellow educators to help support the needs of all students at Bricolage Academy. Alicia worked at KIPP Central City Primary for 8 years and Renew for 1 year. She believes in nurturing the whole child starting with their social and emotional needs first. She holds a Master's degree in Special Education from the University of Grand Canyon.
Rashida govan
Rashida Govan is an educator, activist and writer who has worked for almost 20 years in education and youth development. Rashida is a 2011 graduate of the University of New Orleans where she earned her Ph.D. in educational administration. She completed a postdoctoral position as project director of the International Study on Youth Community Organizing. Her other research interests include African American girls’ adolescent development and college readiness, access and success. Rashida is deeply engaged in the New Orleans community and is credited with facilitating a number of community education programs including parent leadership trainings with the Fatherhood Consortium and the PRIDE Parent Leadership Academy, the Trayvon Martin Teach-In and the Assata Shakur Teach-In. Govan is the founder and executive director of Project Butterfly New Orleans, an African-centered girls rites of passage program that has served nearly 250 high school girls since its inception in 2009. Govan has extensive experience in policy and advocacy and has served as the policy and development consultant for the Urban League of Louisiana and has authored numerous publications including a family engagement toolkit, numerous policy briefings on education, criminal and juvenile justice, civic engagement, housing and other related topics. She is best known for her work on educational justice and has published several research reports including Advancing Educational Equity in New Orleans Public Schools and Parent Perspectives: Parental Engagement in Education Reform. She is also an editor and author of The State of Black New Orleans: 10 Years Post-Katrina. She has spoken widely on issues concerning girls and women and is a proud alumna of Morgan State University. Govan is currently the Executive Director of the New Orleans Youth Alliance, a youth intermediary that supports youth serving organizations in improving their quality, centering youth voice and racial equity in youth development practice.
Marta rodriguez maleck
Marta Rodriguez Maleck is an artist and organizer who uses her practice to spark challenging and important conversations. Through filmed interviews, recorded dialogues, and in person conversations, Marta uses her practice to breakdown barriers to communication and understanding. She's shown her work locally at the Ogden, CAC, and NOMA, as well as galleries along St. Claude. She's held residencies at FUTURA, the Contemporary Art Center in Prague, Popps Packing in Detroit, and Acre in Wisconsin. Her 2019 solo show 'WRANGLER' communicated struggles within the New Orleans education system at Baby Blue Gallery in Chicago. Marta has been a featured artist in New American Paintings, Bust, OnCurating, Burnaway, and Hiss magazine.
Déja Jones is a New Orleans native and activist artist. She shares her perspective as both a creative and a former student of the Louisiana educational system. Before graduating from McKinley Sr. High School in 2014, she studied at New Orleans Charter of Science & Mathematics and New Orleans Conservatory of Creative Arts. Déja is a self-taught artist, who creates whimsical multi-media sculptures. She combines found objects, paper machete, and bold designs to tell the stories of disenfranchised communities. Her work is used as a catalyst to encourage conversation around equity and intersectionality.
Maria-Alejandra (Ale) is a Nicaraguan born, Nola bred educator working as an ELL Program Coordinator and Educator at Schaumburg Elementary and Middle School. She has worked with the New Orleans immigrant community for the past ten years both within Jefferson Parish Public Schools and, for the past three years, the New Orleans Charter School System, as an ELL instructor but also a community liaison. Her experience ranges from elementary to high school age. She hopes to continue to work for equal opportunity within the education system.
SOUTHERN Regional theatre panelists
Saturday January 25th, 1:00pm
Beaubourg Theatre
Yolanda Williams
Producing Artistic Director of Blue Light Underground Ensemble - Jackson, MS
Ed "Tiger" Verdin is the Executive Director of Soulful Productions, Inc. that promotes "Diversity in Theatre" and "Theatre is more than just Black or White". Tiger also serves as the Public Relations Director for Mayor Eugene Foulcard and the City of Franklin. He is also in his 4th year/season with the New Orleans Saints Entertainment Division.
He currently serves on the following Boards of Directors:
Teche Theatre for the Performing Arts (17 years)
President of Fit, Fun and Fabulous-Louisiana's First Health and Wellness Festival;
Co-chair City of Franklin's Bicentennial Committee;
St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce;
St. Mary Parish Tourist Commission;
St. Mary Parish Council on Aging.
Ed "Tiger" Verdin is also a nationally recognized playwright member of the Dramatist Guild of America in New York City; Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Gulf Coast Playwrights in New Orleans. His historical fiction play about 9/11 "Undying Love" was recognized in the Samuel French Off Broadway Festival in New York and more recently in the publication "The Dramatist". Ed was commissioned by the Iberia African American Historical Society to write "The Forgotten Healer" about the life and struggles of Dr. Emma Wakefield-Paillet-Louisiana's First African American Female Doctor (1897). He has a total of 29 years of total theatrical experience from Front of House to Back of House. His other plays written are Deception, Prodigal, A Strong, Black Woman, Fedslave and Functional Dysfunction. He recently finished writing his first musical, The Quarters with hopes to stage it in Fall 2020.
He is married to his wife Stacey of 20 years and they have 4 children-Tyler, Connor, Ethan & Raleigh. His entire family works to further the Arts in Franklin, St. Mary Parish and Louisiana.
His passion for the Arts allows him to touch many lives in Acadiana through emceeing, acting, directing and mentoring through theatre at the Teche Theatre for the Performing Arts and beyond.
Gregory G. Williams Jr. is a native of Baton Rouge and the Founding Artistic Director for New Venture Theatre. He is a graduate of Northwestern State University with a BA in Theatre and New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) with a MBA in Marketing. His professional theatre background includes working with Don Holder (Tony Award Winning Lighting Designer for Disney’s The Lion King,) The Negro Ensemble Theatre Company (NYC), The Little Black Box Theatre Company (New Jersey), and American Family Theatre (Philadelphia.) He is also a playwright and has written over ten plays including, Colored, Step Off!, Sweet Georgia Brown, and is currently working on his next piece – Talbert Beacon Presents His Latest’s Greatest Gospel Stage Play. After speaking with one of his mentors, Charles Weldon, at the Negro Ensemble Theatre Company, he returned to Louisiana to cultivate more support for the arts through a refreshing new theatre company that focused on innovation and diversity- hence New Venture Theatre was created. Professionally, Greg has been the Instructor of Theatre Arts for Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School, is a theatre consultant helping to launch diversity based theatre companies all over the country, and has developed and collaborated with over twenty programs to help bring the arts to underserved areas of our community. In June 2011, the Louisiana Senate recognized Greg for his contributions to the arts in the African American Community.
Lauren E. Turner is a performer/director/ producer and community facilitator. She is driven by her interest in equitable, place-based, culturally relevant theatre especially as it pertains to the global south. Her work lives where storytelling, community building, and politics intersect. Lauren is an artEquity trained Equity, Diversity and Inclusion facilitator. She is a Round 4 recipient in the Leadership U: One-on-One grant program, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group, designed to further develop prominent emerging leaders and change agents in the American Theatre. Lauren has also served as a Mellon Fellow through Tulane University’s Community Engaged Graduate Program, mentoring Tulane University graduate students who wish to implement community engaged practices into their work. Lauren received her Master of Fine Arts in Performance from The University of Southern Mississippi and her B.A. from North Carolina Central University. When not devising, directing or producing, Lauren is the ringmaster of her very own home circus that she shares with her partner Jason and their three children, Austyn 7, Elijah 4, and Nia 4.
Maryam Fatima Foye
With over thirteen years of experience as an arts integration specialist, close to twenty years as a theater professional and nine years as a trusted community organizer Maryam has developed programs ranging from literacy and practical living training, entrepreneurship and art for social impact for the Department of Employment Services, DC Public Schools Capital Guardian Youth Challenge Academy, Paxen Learning Corporation, YMCA Youth and Family Services, the Covenant House and a variant of grassroots organizations.
In 2014, Foye founded the first of over sixty active Playback Theatre companies in the country to be comprised of all women of color. Only second in the world to their elder ensemble Breathing Fire in Bristol, United Kingdom. This ensemble was designed as a creative response to the lack of diversity in drama therapy and psychodrama spaces. The ensemble has operated as a catalyst for social impact by working with local government and organizing groups, turning stories and reflections from the community into qualitative data that can support policy and organizational culture shifts. To date HBC, under Maryam's leadership and through its many initiatives has served over 14,000 people.
New School Panel
January 26, 2020
Beaubourg Theatre
A conversation on new ways of learning and new ideas in education with local educator panelists
1. What are your thoughts around school as a physical space? Do you think it is possible to have a school that is not attached to a physical building? What would/could that look like?2. How would you define innovation? Share a creative approach/tool/or idea you have introduced to your learning space and what the impact it has had on learning. 3. There are a number of innovative ideas that are shaping education right now. Have you tried any of these? (Project-based learning, The Genius Hour, Flexible Seating, STEAM, and Personalized Learning). If so, what is your experience with them?4. How did you begin implementing new ideas? What factors determine your ability to be innovative?5. What are some small steps a person can take to being more innovative in their teaching/learning space?
Community Educator, artist, and mother Charmisha Baker has served New Orleans children and families for more than a decade. Charm studied Critical Theory Social Justice, and Sociology at Occidental College in Los Angeles and Secondary Social Studies Education at the University of New Orleans. A native of St. Louis, Mo. Charm relocated to New Orleans following undergraduate studies at Occidental College and service with Common Ground Collective led by Malik Rahim. Charm acquired dual certification in Mind Body Yoga & Kemetic Yoga and founded of Rising Sun Mindbody Wellness, an organization that facilitates wellness experiences for youth and adults. Charm is the former youth internship and outreach coordinator for the Backyard Gardener’s Network, founded by Jenga Mwendo , and founding lead teacher of Travis Hill School-YSC, Charm believes in the transformative power of art and cultural activism.
Charm has performed original music and facilitated workshops on transformative art at College of Charleston, Girls Rock Charleston, and Lawrence University. She was a feature performer at 2016 Amnesty International Art for Rights, a presenter at the 2017 New Orleans Early Childhood Educator’s Conference, and a commissioned artist for the 2018 Southern Sonic Music Festival presented by the Contemporary Art Center, and a co- facilitator at the 2018 Alternate Roots Conference. Charm believes that when you teach a child , you teach the world. Her professional praxis is at the intersection of creativity, love, healing, community, culture, and social justice .
She has dedicated her energy to youth development and restorative justice, as an English Language Arts instructional leader and Summer Arts Coordinator at Travis Hill School- OJC. She is pursuing a Masters Degree of Public Health with a graduate degree focus in Restorative Sciences and Community Health. Currently, Charm serves as the founding Director of Student Life at Living School, a public equity driven high school located in New Orleans East.
Andrea is a native New Orleanian who has taught here for the past 10 years. Beginning in elementary, then moving forward to high school, and now teaching collegiately at Southern University at New Orleans and also Delgado Community College. Once leaving teaching in the charter school movement in 2017, she began a blog called Ask Miss Heard. It began with writings to help support parents and also novice teachers navigate our current education system. From there, she continued with weekly LIVE shows via social media sites. All of those pieces have led up to her recent work and docuseries project. Here she fuses her background in film with her experiences in education. She has 10 shows total that will air later this year.
A native of northeastern Louisiana, Christopher Givens has been living and working in New Orleans for the past 12 years. Along with a fellow University of New Orleans film studies colleague, he ran a film, theatre, and arts venue out of a hollowed-out shotgun house for four years, facilitating the production of 21 plays and screening more than 200 films. He is currently a fellow of the Mellon Program for Community Engagement and an MFA candidate in Theatre Design at Tulane, where he recently adapted and directed a theater piece inspired by Frankenstein in the Newcomb Sculpture Studio. He was recently an artist-in-residence at the Aquarium Gallery and collaborated on a new installation for the Lucky Art Fair in June. He is excited to be a part of Beaubourg and the growing community there.
India Mack is an educator and teaching artist with 17 years of experience. She is the Creative Director of No Dream Deferred, a theatre production company, where she is responsible for the design and implementation of educational programming. Her approach to teaching centers around student-led activities and combines art integration with project-based learning and small group instruction. India also teaches English III and African American Literature at Benjamin Franklin High School.
India is a native of New Orleans and recently received her MFA in Arts Administration from Southern Utah University. She is excited about hosting the NEW SCHOOL panel and looks forward to hearing what innovative ideas the panelists are bringing to their organizations.
Rachel Nelson (she/her) is a queer educator and playwright who currently works at Bard College and lives in New Orleans. She specializes in the intersections of identity and performance, and her works have been performed all over the country, most recently at Lincoln Center's Director's Lab and at The Seven Devils Playwright's Festival. She works locally with Mondo Bizarro and New Noise, and is currently collaborating on a new television series called "Unmanned" about a transman navigating the dating world in Brooklyn. She lives in the 7th Ward with her partner and their two dogs.