About our Podcast Series:

WHBLE founder, award-winning writer, director and applied theatre educator, Ah-Keisha McCans, hosts conversations with educators, school leaders, parents, and students to discuss the state of education, and systemic problems facing youth in schools.

Education as Liberation Podcast season two’s theme is Time Capsule. Featuring interviews spanning the summer of 2020 until Fall of 2021, we reflect on education yester-year-today-future. How much has changed since the pandemic started? How much remains the same? Is education on the path towards liberation or must a new system be built up?

About Our Guest

Temesgen Tocruray is a proud Black Man of Eritrean descent living in Brooklyn, NY by way of Dallas, TX. He wears several hats. The 2 most important hats is that of a father of two amazing daughters and a loving partner of a powerful black woman. Other hats include, Actor, Educator/Facilitator . As an actor he has performed on stages and screens all over NYC, the tri-state area, the continental US and Africa. As an educator/facilitator, he has spent the last decade using a unique blend of artistic and facilitation skills to explore social issues, build and further soft and hard skills, and challenge systems of oppressions with a diverse population of students of all grade levels, college students, justice involved folks, teachers and corporations. Temesgen is a graduate of Texas Southern University. 

About WHBLE:

We make art. We are change makers. We activate change, inspire community connection, encourage individual/collective literacies & nurture a brave space to engage in dialogue around complex issues using literacy & theatre!

Learn more about WHBLE at:

http://www.wholebodyliteracy.com

Want to partner with us or schedule a community-healing workshop with WHBLE, check out some of our Testimonials at:

https://wholebodyliteracy.com/testimonials

Follow  us on Twitter @whble1 

Follow us on Instagram @whble_works

--

BECOME A SUPPORTER

Do you love our work? It's easy to become a supporter!

*

Subscribe to our podcast by making a one-time or monthly donation.

Share our podcast with your community.

Schedule a series of workshops.

Book WHBLE founder, Ah-Keisha McCans to speak at your event.

Send in a voice message of support: https://anchor.fm/whble/message

*

Tips are welcome and appreciated.

Leave a tip at Venmo: @whble

About our Podcast Series:

WHBLE founder, award-winning writer, director and applied theatre educator, Ah-Keisha McCans, hosts conversations with educators, school leaders, parents, and students to discuss the state of education, and systemic problems facing youth in schools.

Education as Liberation Podcast season two’s theme is Time Capsule. Featuring interviews spanning the summer of 2020 until Fall of 2021, we reflect on education yester-year-today-future. How much has changed since the pandemic started? How much remains the same? Is education on the path towards liberation or must a new system be built up?

About Our Guest

Jordan Harrison is a professional speaker, educational consultant and international youth development specialist born in Chicago, IL. Most importantly, he is a disruptor to make a difference. He lives mission driven life focuses on radical imagination and eradicating inequality with the constant reminder of our collective humanity.

His work has allowed him to speak to over 150,000 people on anti-racism, equity, inclusion, and how to build people and institutions on equity. He currently is the Vice President of Community Impact and partnerships for Reality Changers where he has worked with over 5,000 8th-12th grade first-generation, low-income college-bound students in San Diego.  In addition, he is also the president of the alumni association of the Student African American Brotherhood, a program to increase the number of Black males graduating from college. He works with students, educators and professionals to provide solutions to one question, “How do we create environments where every person can succeed, no matter where they come from.”

Harrison is committed to the challenging work of changing systems that perpetuate inequities. His work recently earned him a full ride fellowship to Harvard University where he earned his Master's in Education in 2018. Harrison continues his work in transforming lives, communities and the world with the message to encourage others to have the audacity to dream and the discipline to achieve.

We make art. We are change makers. We activate change, inspire community connection, encourage individual/collective literacies & nurture a brave space to engage in dialogue around complex issues using literacy & theatre!

Learn more about WHBLE at:

http://www.wholebodyliteracy.com

Want to partner with us or schedule a community-healing workshop with WHBLE, check out some of our Testimonials at:

https://wholebodyliteracy.com/testimonials

Follow  us on Twitter @whble1 

Follow us on Instagram @whble_works

--

BECOME A SUPPORTER

Do you love our work? It's easy to become a supporter!

*

Subscribe to our podcast by making a one-time or monthly donation.

Share our podcast with your community.

Schedule a series of workshops.

Book WHBLE founder, Ah-Keisha McCans to speak at your event.

Send in a voice message of support: https://anchor.fm/whble/message

*

Tips are welcome and appreciated.

Leave a tip at Venmo: @whble

--

About our Podcast Series:

WHBLE founder, award-winning writer, director and applied theatre educator, Ah-Keisha McCans, hosts conversations with educators, school leaders, parents, and students to discuss the state of education, and systemic problems facing youth in schools.

Education as Liberation Podcast season two’s theme is Time Capsule. Featuring interviews spanning the summer of 2020 until Fall of 2021, we reflect on education yester-year-today-future. How much has changed since the pandemic started? How much remains the same? Is education on the path towards liberation or must a new system be built up?

About Our Guest:

Jerry Freedman has been a teacher for over 60 years. He was named "Teacher of the Year" by Los Angeles County, and has won many accolades including the L.A. Dodger "Education Hero" award, a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, as well as from the United States Congress. One of L.A.’s “Most Inspirational Teacher” award winners, presented by the Mayor of Los Angeles, Jerry was also the recipient of the Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction Award, presented by Mr. Nobel personally.

About WHBLE:

We make art. We are change makers. We activate change, inspire community connection, encourage individual/collective literacies & nurture a brave space to engage in dialogue around complex issues using literacy & theatre!

Learn more about WHBLE at:

http://www.wholebodyliteracy.com

Want to partner with us or schedule a community-healing workshop with WHBLE, check out some of our Testimonials at:

https://wholebodyliteracy.com/testimonials

Follow  us on Twitter @whble1 

Follow us on Instagram @whble_works

--

BECOME A SUPPORTER

Do you love our work? It's easy to become a supporter!

*

Subscribe to our podcast by making a one-time or monthly donation.

Share our podcast with your community.

Schedule a series of workshops.

Book WHBLE founder, Ah-Keisha McCans to speak at your event.

Send in a voice message of support: https://anchor.fm/whble/message

*

Tips are welcome and appreciated. 

Leave a tip at Venmo: @whble

--

About our Podcast Series:

WHBLE founder, award-winning writer, director and applied theatre educator, Ah-Keisha McCans, hosts conversations with educators, school leaders, parents, and students to discuss the state of education, and systemic problems facing youth in schools.

Education as Liberation Podcast season two’s theme is Time Capsule. Featuring interviews spanning the summer of 2020 until Fall of 2021, we reflect on education yester-year-today-future. How much has changed since the pandemic started? How much remains the same? Is education on the path towards liberation or must a new system be built up?

About Our Guests:

Lyndsey Schlax, co-founder of Schools Before Bars, is a school leader, teacher, and community organizer. A graduate of UC Berkeley's Principal Leadership Institute and founder of the national grassroots organization Teachers Take Action, Lyndsey has spent more than 20 years working in schools to increase student voice & civic engagement, coach teachers & schools towards equity, and empower communities to heal through history and collective action.

+

Ruchira Shah co-founded "Schools Before Bars" in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to advocate for government funding to support education.

In addition to founding Schools Before Bars, Ruchi has a decade of experience working in the climate and clean energy sphere. Ruchi has an MSc in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and a BA in Drama from Northwestern University. She is the parent to two girls: a four-year-old and a seven-year-old. In a previous life, Ruchi was a struggling actor in Los Angeles.

Schools Before Bars was a grassroots movement formed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to advocate for government funding for education. Schools Before Bars is calling for:

1. Government support to create conditions in which schools can safely reopen

2. Funding to enable all children to receive an equitable and high quality education (whether in person or remote)

3. Funding to enable the needs of working parents for childcare

About WHBLE:

We make art. We are change makers. We activate change, inspire community connection, encourage individual/collective literacies & nurture a brave space to engage in dialogue around complex issues using literacy & theatre!

Want to learn more about WHBLE at:

http://www.wholebodyliteracy.com

Want to partner with us or schedule a community-healing workshop with WHBLE, check out some of our Testimonials at:

https://wholebodyliteracy.com/testimonials

Follow  us on Twitter @whble1 

Follow us on Instagram @whble_works

--

BECOME A SUPPORTER

Do you love our work? It's easy to become a supporter!

*

Subscribe to our podcast by making a one-time or monthly donation.

Share our podcast with your community.

Schedule a series of workshops.

Book WHBLE founder, award-winning writer and educator, Ah-Keisha McCans to speak at your event.

Send in a voice message of support: https://anchor.fm/whble/message

*

Tips are welcome and appreciated. Leave a tip at Venmo: @whble

--

About our Podcast Series:

WHBLE founder, award-winning writer, director and applied theatre educator, Ah-Keisha McCans, hosts conversations with educators, school leaders, parents, and students to discuss the state of education, and systemic problems facing youth in schools.

Education as Liberation Podcast season two’s theme is Time Capsule. Featuring interviews spanning the summer of 2020 until Fall of 2021, we reflect on education yester-year-today-future. How much has changed since the pandemic started? How much remains the same? Is education on the path towards liberation or must a new system be built up?

About Our Guest:

Niema Golphin is an author and certified meditation guide who was born in Philadelphia and educated at Azusa Pacific University in southern california. After teaching and leading in education for over 15 years Niema has now expanded to bringing mindfulness meditation not only to educators but other fields that vield high stress. Niema has had the privilege of inspiring children and families with two self-published books, and traveled speaking to thousands of teens about her personal story of trauma and healing.

Learn more about Niema’s work at NiemaGolphin.com

About WHBLE:

We make art. We are change makers. We activate change, inspire community connection, encourage individual/collective literacies & nurture a brave space to engage in dialogue around complex issues using literacy & theatre!

Want to learn more about WHBLE at:

http://www.wholebodyliteracy.com

Want to partner with us or schedule a community-healing workshop with WHBLE, check out some of our Testimonials at:

https://wholebodyliteracy.com/testimonials

Follow  us on Twitter @whble1 

Follow us on Instagram @whble_works

--

BECOME A SUPPORTER

Do you love our work? It's easy to become a supporter!

*

Subscribe to our podcast by making a one-time or monthly donation.

Share our podcast with your community.

Schedule a series of workshops.

Book WHBLE founder, award-winning writer and educator, Ah-Keisha McCans to speak at your event.

Send in a voice message of support: https://anchor.fm/whble/message

*

Tips are welcome and appreciated. Leave a tip at Venmo: @whble

--

Our Students Are Not a Monolith

WHBLE founder, Ah-Keisha McCants speaks with Claremont Graduate University, PhD Candidate Kenya Marshall-Harper about the power of relationship-building in schools, leveraging the needs and assets of students and families, the problematic role of productivity in schools, and the importance of the talent development of underserved youth, including Black women and girls, and teachers.

Kenya R. Marshall-Harper is a PhD candidate in education at Claremont Graduate University.  Her research interests include K-12 education, early preparation of gifted and talented students, and underserved populations.  As a secondary English and English Language teacher, she has worked with diverse students for over 14 years.  She has received national and international awards including the Tae Han Kim Award and the Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Award for high achievement. She has presented at numerous conferences on the talent development of notable individuals including successful women of color.  Her dissertation focuses on the talent development and productivity of African-American female faculty.

About WHBLE:

We make art. We are change makers. We activate change, inspire community connection, encourage individual/collective literacies & nurture a brave space to engage in dialogue around complex issues using literacy & theatre!

Want to learn more about WHBLE at:

http://www.wholebodyliteracy.com

Want to partner with us or schedule a community-healing workshop with WHBLE, check out some of our Testimonials at:

https://wholebodyliteracy.com/testimonials

Follow  us on Twitter @whble1 

Follow us on Instagram @whble_works

--

BECOME A SUPPORTER

Do you love our work? It's easy to become a supporter!

*

Subscribe to our podcast by making a one-time or monthly donation.

Share our podcast with your community.

Schedule a series of workshops.

Book WHBLE founder, award-winning writer and educator, Ah-Keisha McCans to speak at your event.

Send in a voice message of support: https://anchor.fm/whble/message

*

Tips are welcome and appreciated. Leave a tip at Venmo: @whble

--

Solving the Inequities that Divide

WHBLE’s CEO, award-winning writer and director, Ah-Keisha McCants talks with Kwame Sarfo-Mensah, founder of Identity Talk Consulting. A former math teacher in Philadelphia and Boston public schools, Kwame talks about the rampant and ignored racial and socioeconomic disparities in educational access, the reactionary approach of schools in the midst of the pandemic, and what might be gained in meeting the demand for alternative career pathway opportunities as a means of achievement and liberation for Black students and their peers.

Kwame Sarfo-Mensa is the founder of Identity Talk Consulting, LLC., an independent educational consulting firm that provides professional development and consulting services to educators globally who desire to enhance their instructional practices and reach their utmost potential in the classroom. Throughout his 14-year career as a public school educator, author, and entrepreneur, Kwame has been on a personal mission to uplift and empower educators who are committed to reversing the ills of the public education system in America and globally. As a staunch ambassador and advocate for teacher empowerment, Kwame has spoken at numerous national education conferences and worked diligently to support the recruitment and retention of teachers of color in the education system. In January 2019, he was one of 35 Massachusetts teachers of color by Commissioner Jeff Riley to be in the inaugural cohort of the InSPIRED (In-Service Professionals Increasing Racial and Ethnic Diversity) Fellowship, an initiative organized by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education for veteran teachers of color to recruit students of color at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels to teach in targeted districts within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As an InSPIRED Teaching Fellow, Kwame facilitated professional development workshops for aspiring teachers at universities such as Boston College, UMass Boston, and Worcester State University and has served as a guest speaker for non-profit teacher pipeline programs such as Generation Teach and Worcester Public Schools’ Future Teachers Academy.

Recognizing the increasing demand for alternative career pathway opportunities within the Black and Latinx teaching community in the Greater Boston area, Kwame founded and organized the inaugural Boston Edupreneurs of Color Symposium, a one-day community event for educators and community members looking to leverage their skill sets as educators to give back to the community, learn valuable lessons about the importance of entrepreneurship and the necessary steps they need to build a successful small business and/or a non-profit organization. A proud graduate of Temple University, Kwame holds a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics and a Master's Degree in Education. He was honored as the 2019 Member of the Year by Black Educators Rock, Inc. for his unwavering commitment to the advancement of the teacher profession. As he has ascended the ranks of the teaching profession, Kwame has always stayed true to his identity as an educator and is motivated to help others do the same as they navigate their educator journeys.

Framing Whiteness in Liberation pt. 1

WHBLE founder, Ah-Keisha McCants talks with Applied Theatre Practitioner and Project Director at the CUNY Creative Arts Team (CAT) Mícheál Curtin about the surfacing the awareness of white identity, centering antiracism and history, the role of capitalism, the brilliance of arts educators, and the tensions around pedagogies and practices on the journey towards educational liberation.

Mícheál Curtin is an applied theatre practitioner from Brooklyn, New York who  specializes in drama-in-education, process drama, theatre of the oppressed, and devised theatre. His work centers on creating theatre in response to communities’ needs as a way of en-livening conversation, making meaning, and developing theory.

He is currently a Project Director at the CUNY Creative Arts Team (CAT), where he directs a theatre-in-education program in six high schools around New York City. With the Literacy through Drama team at CAT, Mícheál and six multi-ethnic actor-teachers develop theatre workshops around topics such as romantic and sexual relationships, policing and racist systems, loyalty, the power of language, immigration, and isolation. The team creates curriculum in response to the young people’s interests, needs, and concerns. For this reason they sometimes focus on skill-building around communication, self-efficacy, study skills, and career & college readiness.

A speaker of Irish Gaelic, Mícheál works periodically in Ireland toward the revitalization of the language, whose speakership has declined over the centuries (from 100% to about 3% of the population) as a result of colonialism by the English. He uses drama, storytelling, and popular education methodologies in native-speaker communities as well as in learner communities to teach the language as well as generate dialogue and meaning around it. “I have found that learning my ancestral language has given me a surer footing in my work at home in the US.”

Mícheál has also done applied theatre work in Rwanda with the CUNY School of Professional Studies M.A. in Applied Theatre (2011, 12), with Latinx communities in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, with LGBTQIA+ youth at The Door (a youth center in Manhattan), and in countless public schools around New York City as a teaching artist. He proudly holds an M.A. in Applied Theatre from the CUNY School of Professional Studies.

Mícheál dreams of a world in which “everyone, myself included, is free to love, enjoy, celebrate, and create. I believe the biggest barriers to achieving this are white supremacist capitalism and neocolonialism. I believe that our ability to play, imagine, and create together are powerful assets in the struggle to dismantle these forces.”

The  Systems That Bind pt. 2

WHBLE founder, Ah-Keisha McCants talks with Educator and Assistant Principal at Boston Public Schools Gavin Smith about teacher messaging to students, encouraging agency and achievement within urban schools, the role of double consciousness in Black youth, and the reclamation of liberation in the face of systemic oppression.

Gavin Smith is an educator, and Assistant Principal in Boston Public Schools. He is the former runner up for Teacher of the Year in Massachusetts where he taught biology for 7 years. Gavin is of Jamaican origin and spent the majority of his childhood between Jamaica, West Indies and Long Island, New York. He has worked at a variety of schools in Boston including alternative high schools, charter high schools, and exam schools. Gavin is a firm believer [in] education being a means of social change, and an advocate for children as a member of the mentoring group Minds Matter Boston. He is the co-founder of YMOC (Young Men of Color), a group designed to create safe space for intergenerational conversation and community building amongst men of color in the Boston area. Gavin holds degrees from Northeastern University, Simmons University, and Boston College. He is an avid runner, Knicks fan and lover of all things black.

The Systems That Bind part. 1

WHBLE founder, Ah-Keisha McCants talks with Research Analyst Donté McGuire about whiteness, white allyship and the redistribution of resources, the role of labels and the ways context and identity matter in navigating systems of oppression.

Donté McGuire serves as a Research Analyst at Higher Ed Insight. He has experience in various educational contexts including international education, high school re-entry and completion, college access, residence life and housing, program evaluation, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. He is a doctoral candidate in the University of Maryland’s Higher Education program and is earning a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies. Donté’s scholarship focuses on improving educational access and success for marginalized groups, cross-cultural education and understanding, and culturally competent leadership. He earned a MEd in Higher Education Administration from North Carolina State University and a BA in Psychology with a minor in Sociology from Wake Forest University.