Episode Description: In episode 3 of Interrupt the Narrative, Pam interviews Heather Mohamed—an elementary educator—about her journey as an aspiring anti-racist educator. Heather paints a picture of what it looks like to interrupt oppression daily in the classroom. With vulnerability, honesty, and wisdom beyond her years, Heather demonstrates the challenges and triumphs anti-racist teachers face when committed to educational equtiy.  

Bio: A recent graduate of the Childhood Special and General Education Dual Certification program at Bank Street College. Heather is originally from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and she now lives and works in Brooklyn, as a second-grade head teacher at an independent school. 

Breakdown of This Episode:

• The importance of staying true to yourself in the work of interrupting oppression in education.
• The reality that this work is a marathon and not a sprint. 
• Navigating power structures when educators are lower in the school’s hierarchy.
• The importance of seeing students in the fullness of their humanity when doing this work.

LINKS:

Podcast Script (Linked Here) 

Hudes, Q.A. (2022). Mi lenguaje roto (memorias). Vintage Español. 

 Jackson, G. (1971). Blood in my eye. Black Classic Press. 

Kelley, R.D.G. (2022). Socialism Conference 2022. 

 Patel, L. (2021). No study without struggle: Confronting Settler Colonialism in Higher Education. Beacon Press. 

Raider-Roth and Rodgers (2006): Presence in teaching. Teachers and Teaching Theory and Practice, 12(3).  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228338408_Presence_in_teaching

Simmons, D. (2021). 6 ways to be an anti-racist educator. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM3Lfk751cg 

Smith, K., Zemelman, S., & Perry Smith, T. (2022). Teaching for Racial Equity: Becoming Interrupters. Stenhouse Publishers. 

Paris, D. & Alim, H.S. (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. Teachers College Press. https://www.tcpress.com/culturally-sustaining-pedagogies-9780807758335 

Tightrope podcast, co-hosted by Drs. Cornel West and Tricia Rose, one of their guests (Dr. Beverly Daniel-Tatum, author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXvTT6Tctvg

In this episode, part two of the interview with Ama, she offers a deep dive into her facilitation of anti-oppression workshops. Ama paints a vibrant picture of what relational, integrity-rooted, and liberatory-framed social justice work can look like. She provides examples of games and role-plays that take place in her facilitation. 

Guest’s Bio: Ama Codjoe is the former director of the Dreamyard Art Center in the South Bronx where she taught and directed arts and social justice programming for young people as well as professional development for educators and administrators. She has conducted anti-racism, anti-oppression, anti-bias, organizational culture, and leadership trainings for the National Guild for Community Arts Education, The New School, New York University, Bard Graduate Center, Columbia University, University of Maryland, The Met Museum, Queen’s Museum, Cleveland Arts Education Consortium, Groundswell Mural Arts Project, Community MusicWorks, the National League of American Orchestras, and numerous other educator, arts, and administrative groups. As a writer, she has received support from Cave Canem Foundation and elsewhere. Her recent awards include a 2020 BRIO Award from the Bronx Council on the Arts, a 2020 NYFA Fellowship, and a 2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship.

Breakdown of the Episode:

• Ama’s poet-identity and writing background takes center stage and show how they shape her work as a social justice facilitator.
• The privilege bag (and other activities) bring Ama’s participants face-to-face with the realities of “unearned access to power and resources.”
• Arts education can play a central role in the work of anti-oppression and social justice.
• Ama shares how she handles moments of resistance in her workshops and how she protects folx of color in these spaces. 
• Ama uses Theatre of the Oppressed role-plays to move participants from intellectualizing social justice to doing the work.
• Ama invites Interrupt the Narrative listeners to embrace the joy that is an enduring thread of this work.

Links:

Viewable Transcript for Episode 2

Ama Codjoe’s Site

Rachel Ibrahim

Privilege Bag Activity

Tema Okun & White Supremacy Culture

Microaggressions (Dr. Derald Wing Sue)

Ta-Nehisi Coates The Case for Reparations

Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me

Augusto Boal (Theatre of the Oppressed”)

Courageous Conversations (Singleton & Linton)

Cleanup Woman, by Betty Wright

Jacquie Luqman 

In the inaugural episode of Interrupt the Narrative, Pam
interviews Ama Codjoe (a poet, educator, and social justice facilitator) about her
experience working with organizations seeking to become anti-racist. Ama’s experience
helps us begin to interrupt the narrative that short-term, DEI trainings can mitigate
micro- and macro-aggressions.

Ama’s bio

Ama Codjoe is the former director of the Dreamyard Art Center in the South
Bronx where she taught and directed arts and social justice programming for
young people as well as professional development for educators and
administrators. She has conducted anti-racism, anti-oppression, anti-bias,
organizational culture, and leadership trainings for the National Guild for
Community Arts Education, The New School, New York University, Bard Graduate
Center, Columbia University, University of Maryland, The Met Museum, Queen’s
Museum, Cleveland Arts Education Consortium, Groundswell Mural Arts Project,
Community MusicWorks, the National League of American Orchestras, and
numerous other educator, arts, and administrative groups. As a writer, she has
received support from Cave Canem Foundation and elsewhere. Her recent awards
include a 2020 BRIO Award from the Bronx Council on the Arts, a 2020 NYFA
Fellowship, and a 2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship.

Finer Points of the Episode. 

• Building relationships is part-and-parcel of the work of anti-oppression facilitators.
• Being guided by integrity is key when cultivating the disposition of an anti-oppression facilitator.
• Anti-oppression facilitation and joy are not mutually exclusive.
• To do this work in earnest, the facilitator and the organization should come to a point of consensus.
• Organizations that are most ready to engage the work of anti-oppression have conscious leaders as their guides.
• Creativity and the artistic spirit can further facilitate the work of anti-oppression.
• If this work doesn’t free us, we shouldn't be doing it.

Mentioned In This Episode
Information on “Uh Huh, But How Do It Free Us?” [a Play by Sonia
Sanchez]

Ama Codjoe (Poetry)

bell hooks (Bone Black)

“Towards a More Conscious Leader” (Ama’s Article for the National Guild)

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (Racism Without Racists)

Michael Dumas (2014) [“School as a Site of Black Suffering”]

Maxine Greene

Derald Wing Sue PhD

Sweet Honey in the Rock’s “We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest”

Between the World and Me

The Case for Reparations

Viewable  Script

Hosted by a Pan-African Black Feminist educator (Pam Jones), Interrupt the Narrative tackles the interlocking oppressions (including racial capitalism, ableism, and heterosexism) that conspire to create inequitable educational experiences for children and youth who have been the most marginalized, historically. Pam connects with educators, activists, and organizers to hear first-hand stories from those who understand that we can’t reform this educational system: we have to abolish it and start anew. Join the conversation and be a part of the transformation.