“It’s been a very challenging time and my way of coping with this adversity has been through humor. I think a lot of people have been using humor as a coping mechanism because it’s a hard time, and you need to be able to laugh about it or see the absurdity in it.” - Arturo Aviña

Ever Forward Club’s Ashanti Branch is joined by Arturo Aviña. As a Los Angeles-based theatre teacher, Arturo found his calling within education by first experimenting with incorporating film and theatre into his lessons. Now, he also uses his skills to create satirical content on social media to chronicle what its like working in education today. Arturo is a testament to the fact that humor has the power to get us through hard times and advocate change in our world for the better. We hope you enjoy learning about his masks!

(0:00) Ashanti’s introduction.

(7:00) Arturo introduces himself and his journey in education - specifically, how he arrived at teaching theatre.

(12:00) Arturo and Ashanti discuss how the masks of acting apply to the masks of real life.

(16:30) Ashanti shares the front of his mask - funny, serious, hard-working, caring - and how opposing characteristics occupy the front of his mask.

(21:15) Arturo shares the front of his mask - funny, friendly, creative, serious.

(24:00) Ashanti shares the back of his mask - self-doubt, fear of failure, my brother’s mental health/my sadness about it - and some of the self-evaluation that he has been doing around sharing his voice with the world and supporting his brother.

(30:00) Arturo shares the back of his mask - anxiety, doubt, fear - and gives some advice to Ashanti along the way.

(38:30) Arturo shares his perspective on humor in the classroom, education-based humor, and humor as a form of coping.

(46:30) Ashanti and Arturo take time to appreciate teachers and analyze how the public has viewed teachers.

(51:00) Arturo shares how you can get in touch with him, and shares his final message for the audience.

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Connect with Arturo Aviña:

Instagram: instagram.com/schooledbyarturo

Tik Tok: tiktok.com/discover/schoolbyarturo 

Twitter: twitter.com/schooledbyart

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Join our Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/efc-young-mens-advocates-2345 

Email us questions and comments at [email protected] 

Create your own mask anonymously at https://millionmask.org/ 

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Connect with Ashanti Branch:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/branchspeaks/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BranchSpeaks

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BranchSpeaks

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashantibranch/

Website: https://www.branchspeaks.com/

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Support the podcast and the work of the Ever Forward Club: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/branch-speaks/support 

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Connect with Ever Forward Club:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everforwardclub

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/everforwardclub

Twitter: https://twitter.com/everforwardclub

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-ever-forward-club/

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