Nowruz Mubarak Azizams!
Wishing you the sweetest spring, and the happiest new year. I’m writing to share a few updates.
The National Art Education Association’s 2022 Conference in NYC was amazing. I was incredibly honored to receive the inaugural Agent of Change in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Award. I don’t often feel ‘imposter syndrome,’ but hearing Wanda B. Knight and James H. Rolling deliver this award had me lowkey panicking.
NAEA22 also unknowingly hosted the first in person meeting of the Adding Voices 2022 Conference planning committee. Adding Voices is a national event that “explicitly centers the experiences and expertise of art educators who identify as Black, Brown, Indigenous, or part of the Global Majority” and prioritizes anti-racist, culturally responsive arts teaching at all levels. I hope you’ll join us at Moore College in October!
The California Art Education Association’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Commission has been incredibly action-focused this year, and we are gearing up to host a town hall to reveal our calls to action and a draft of our strategic plan. Stay tuned.
Have you participated in #k12ArtChat on twitter? The Creativity Department recently invited me to host a twitter chat for arts educators, and I of course mainly asked questions about whiteness in art education :) The Grundlers and I then had a very courageous conversation about my work for their #k12ArtChat Podcast. Release date tbd.
This month’s substack resource is almost done - it focuses on how we might use the characteristics of white supremacy culture as a reflection tool for our own school cultures and teaching practices. If this is a new concept for you, please check out Tema Okun’s original article first. I’m currently adding images, formatting, and trying to make a very dense article feel light and hopeful - Wish me luck!
Some things bringing me joy right now:
What I’m Reading: Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
What I’m Watching: 2044 Series: Anti-racist Praxis as Futurist Art and Design Pedagogy (The organizers gave an AMAZING workshop at NAEA, and so I’m actually rewatching the series right now)
What I’m Learning: Composting, and gardening with a toddler!
Appreciate you all for being here. I love getting to chat with you all in a longer form, away from the metaverse.
Azadi (freedom),
Alisha
Alisha, you are amazing! Love hearing about all your work! Keep these coming; they are so inspiring! In love and solidarity ♥️ Marissa