Critical Teaching in Action Conference
In Spring 2010, Mount St. Mary's Center for Cultural Fluency hosted the second Critical Teaching in Action: a one day conference on the Doheny campus bringing together educators at all levels who are engaging in activist education with Los Angeles' diverse youth. Throughout the city, individual educators and organizations, often in isolation, are enacting innovative curricula for social transformation. Inside and outside the classroom, they engage and inspire multicultural youth in critical educational projects towards a society that is just, equitable, and democratic. This conference celebrated and helped expand on their innovative work.
The 2010 conference theme was Arts and Social Justice. The workshops highlighted art as a powerful vehicle for engaging youth in social justice education and access to the arts as a social justice issue in and of itself. Practitioners and youth came together to share their visions and best practices at the K-12, college, and community level. Participants left the conference with not only inspiration and a sense of community, but specific teaching tools and contacts/resources they could use to engage diverse youth.
Conference highlights
Keynote Speaker: Ariel Luckey was our keynote speaker and performed his powerful"Freeland" hip hop theater act for our closing (see http://www.arielluckey.com/). Ariel Luckey is a hip hop theater artist whose community and performance work dances in the crossroads of education, art and activism. Articulate, insightful and passionate, Ariel seamlessly weaves storytelling, spoken word poetry, dance, acting, and hip hop music in compelling narratives of personal and political transformation. His work inspired the audience members!
Other engaging workshops included facilitation by: Inner City Arts, YouTHink, Facing History and Ourselves and the re-Discover Center as well as K-12 and College Educators on such topics as: Media Literacy & Visual Arts in the Classroom, Film and Social Justice, Using Drama to explore Social Issues, Using Photography to Tell Stories, Recycled Materials and the Innovative Child and many more! Thank you to all of the workshop facilitators and participants for making it a powerful, inspiring day!
Stay tuned for our next Critical Teaching in Action Conference – Spring 2013!