Next #Flyychat Monday, June 27th @ 8pm EST

 The Meaning of Michael

 

Michael Jackson was one of the greatest entertainers of all time.  His influence on music, dance and pop culture is unparalleled. 

He is soul.  

He is Black genius. 

He is both magical and complex.  

There will never be another.

June 25 will mark 7 years since his untimely death. 

Please join me and panel of Flyy MJ fans:  Aleia Brown, Renee K. Smith, Shawndella Taylor and Renee Watson as reflect on the life and complicated legacy  of Michael Joseph Jackson.

Bios

Aleia Brown

Aleia Brown is currently a visiting scholar at the Michigan State University Museum where she primarily serves as the curator and co-project manager for a collaborative exhibition with the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. She is also a Public History doctoral candidate at Middle Tennessee State University. Online Ms. Brown co-leads two Twitter chats #museumsrespondtoferguson and #blktwitterstorians. 

Check out her website  aleiambrown.org and follow her on Twitter: aleiabrown and Instagram:  thataleiabrown. 

Renee K. Smith

Over the last ten years, Renee K. Smith has served in many capacities at Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy. Her roles have included teaching artist in the dance and visual arts departments, coordinator for the Cultural Arts Program, Arts Education Director responsible for arts programming throughout the organization and Senior Faculty Member empowered to share proven engagement techniques with new faculty members as Ifetayo continued to divine it’s pedagogy through the creation of the Rites of Passage Training Institute. During these roles, she has had the amazing opportunity to sit and learn firsthand from the Founder of Ifetayo, Kwayera Archer-Cunningham how to engage youth and families in high quality arts and cultural programming that would leave them transformed from each session. After completing at least 200 hours of training in Ifetayo’s Rites of Passage Teacher Training Institute, she understands the importance of developing great educators through a process that includes reflective learning and how this method of interaction with teachers correlates to high levels of engagement of youth in the classroom.

Currently, Renee is the Director of Operations & Digital Strategies responsible for developing and implementing systems and technology that allows the organization to be efficient and remain relevant to the needs of its community. She holds a Master’s of Science in Non Profit Management from The Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School University and completed her undergraduate degree at Hunter College of the City University of New York in Dance Education. She has also received a certificate from Columbia University Graduate School of Business from the Middle Management Program. She has presented at New York State Council on the Arts Summer Seminar, Brooklyn Arts Council Brooklyn Consortium Events and Ifetayo’s Global Axe Conference in Brazil. As an artist and educator, she has had the opportunity to travel around the world which has included visiting Prague, Italy, Guinea, France, Cuba, and Brazil. As Ifetayo continue to grow, it is her goal to grow with the organization developing technological systems to document institutional successes for future generations of Ifetayo community members.

Renee Watson

Renée Watson is the author of This Side of Home (Bloomsbury 2015), which was nominated for the Best Fiction for Young Adults by the American Library Association. Her picture book, Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills (Random House 2012), received several honors including an NAACP Image Award nomination in children’s literature. Her novel, What Momma Left Me, (Bloomsbury 2010), debuted as the New Voice for 2010 in middle grade fiction. Her one woman show, Roses are Red Women are Blue, debuted at the Lincoln Center at a showcase for emerging artists. Her picture book, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House, 2010), is based on poetry workshops she facilitated with children in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and was featured on NBC Nightly News.

Renée has given readings and lectures at many renowned places, including the United Nations Headquarters and the Library of Congress. In 2015 she was honored with the STEAM award for her work in arts education by Inner City Foundation of New York, Inc.  She is on the Council of Writers for the National Writing Project and is a team member of We Need Diverse Books. She currently teaches courses on writing for children at University of New Haven and Pine Manor College.

Renée grew up in Portland, Oregon and currently lives in New York City.

Website
www.reneewatson.net
 

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reneewatsonauthor.tumblr.com

Shawndella Taylor 

Shawndella attended Clark Atlanta University with a partial voice scholarship. She latergraduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Speech Communication and Theater Arts. Aftergraduating from CAU a semester early in December of 1996, she moved to New York City inJanuary 1997. She began her career at CBS News and worked on shows like Cosby, Letterman,Evening News with Dan Rather, CBS This Morning and The Early Show. After helping a coworker produce a show for the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards, she was inspired to work with musicians and artists. After working with a few projects, she voluntarily left CBS to work on her passion – music. She landed at Arista Records where she worked in A&R under the direction o fLA Reid. She began songwriting for other independent artists and hosting local talent showcases in New York City.

Shawndella applied and was accepted into the Baltimore City Teaching Residency which later allowed her to incorporate music and creativity into educating youth. She moved to Baltimore, Maryland to attend graduate school. She successfully graduated in 2007 with a Masters of Teaching from The Johns Hopkins University. Since 2004, Shawndella has been a successful educator in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta,Georgia. She has used her creative talent to mentor, reach, teach, and challenge children in urban areas. Highly qualified and certified to teach grades K-8 Shawndella has been utilized primarily as a “game changer in Mathematics” where she teaches tested grade levels specifically to raise Mathematics scores by using different creative techniques with a personal approach. She was promoted out of the classroom as a Math Specialist in Baltimore, Maryland early in her education career. She was also the lead Mathematics Teacher at Margaret Fain Elementary School in Atlanta, Georgia where she helped fifth graders achieve the highest Math test scores in the school.

Today, Shawndella manages a Title I based program for school districts in Atlanta, mentors teachers, leads workshops on best practices, and continues to work with youth. She also writes songs and performs through her music production company, 19 Melodies music.

 

Next #Flyy Chat Monday, April 18th @ 8pm

Break the Teeth Off A Comb:  Black Hair/Black Resistance

With Maechi Aharanwa and Lisa Strum

Yup, we gon talk about Black Girl Hair.  Black Girl Hair is an art.  Black Girl Hair is tool of expression. Black Girl Hair is a tool of resistance. And, to some, Black Girl Hair is a mystery.  

Please join me as I welcome Hair Divas, Maechi Aharanwa and Lisa Strum (welcome back!) to the Flyychat!  We will talk about the personal stories we carry in our hair, explore how we use hair to resist and share a few a hair secrets along the way (this is my personal hope, because I love a good hair tip or three)!  

JOIN US!!!

BIOS

Maechi Aharanwa

Maechi Aharanwa - Credits include OFF BROADWAY: An Octoroon(Soho Rep Production/TFANA), Facing Our Truth- Night Vision, No More Monsters Here (NBT), Mother Courage, Macbeth, The Blacks, Trojan Women (Classical Theatre of Harlem), The Beyonce Effect (TFTTF); REGIONAL: Seven Guitars, Antigone, Miss Julie, A Woman Called Truth; SELECTED WORKSHOPS/READINGS: Sundance Theatre Lab, Playwrights Realm, Hartford Stage, The Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, The Lark, Atlantic Stage 2; TELEVISION/FILM: Show me a Hero(HBO), Person Of Interest(CBS), 30 Rock(NBC),  Mercy(NBC), Maybe There's A Tree, Police State, Silver Sling.  Princess Grace Award Recipient. TRAINING: The Juilliard School. 

Next: The Call by Tanya Barfield, directed by Jen Thompson at TheaterWorks Hartford.

Maechi is the director of the Classical Theatre of Harlem's arts education program Project Classics.  www.maechi.net

 Lisa Strum

Lisa Strum is an actor/singer/director/educator/blogger/producer that has performed at Lincoln Center Theatre, Summer Stage, Signature Theatre, New Federal Theatre, Intiman Theatre, the Obie winning Fire This Time Festival and 48 hours...in Harlem Festival, ACT Seattle, Hansberry Project, and the Fifth Avenue Theatre. She has had a recurring role on LAW & ORDER: SVU and was seen on the television pilot CITIZEN BAINES with James Cromwell. Her highly acclaimed one woman show, SHE GON' LEARN, had its most recent performance at The Lark Play Development Center as part of The New Black Fest. The show was also performed at The National Black Theatre, The Emerging Artist Theatre Festival of New Works, and two sold out performances off-Broadway for the United Solo Festival at Theatre Row where SHE GON’ LEARN was awarded Best Educational Show in 2015.  As an educational consultant, she has worked with numerous public schools in New York City, conducted theatre workshops for Teachers College at Columbia University, and has acted as the Theatre Specialist for Abrons Summer Arts Camp at HenryStreet Settlement for the last nine seasons. Lisa is an MFA graduate of the University of Washington's Professional Actor Training Program.

Check out Lisa's blog, The Inner Child Escapes, here and keep up to date with her work on her fan page: www.facebook.com/shegonlearn.

Next #Flyychat!!

Monday, March 14th @ 8pm EST!

All We Wanna Do Is Be Free: Youth and Mass Incarceration

 With

Artists, Educators and Activists-

Piper Anderson and Shontina Vernon

" ...some 10,000 children are housed in adult jails and prisons on any given day in America...Children as young as eight have been prosecuted as adults. Some states set the minimum at 10, 12, or 13."   

-- Equal Justice Initiative (www.eji.org/childrenprison)

Let that sink in for a moment. The prison industrial complex is a beast that feeds on the bodies of our children.  

I hope you will join me as I welcome Piper Anderson to the Flyychat and welcome back, Shontina Vernon, who appeared on our very first #Flyychat in October of 2016!   I am honored to be in conversation with these two amazing human beings who are doing transformative work both in and outside of detention centers using, among other things, the power of the arts to heal the trauma experienced by young people in the juvenile justice system.  

Please join us as we discuss root causes of mass incarceration;  the school-to-prison pipeline; alternatives to incarceration and grapple with the question Angela Davis poses in her book: Are Prisons Obsolete? You won't want to miss this one!!  

JOIN US!!!

 

 Bios

Piper Anderson

 

Piper Anderson is a writer, educator, and cultural worker. In 2015 she founded Create Forward LLC, which delivers creative strategies for social change to activate the collective radical imagination. Create Forward is the culmination of Piper’s fifteen years engaged in cultural organizing projects activating creative strategies to end to the criminalization of communities of color. Beginning in 2001, realizing the destructive impact of prisons and policing on her community, Anderson became Blackout Arts Collective’s Lyrics on Lockdown National Tour Coordinator and directed the cultural campaign that reached more than 25 U.S communities creatively catalyzing a dialogue about the impact of the prison system on communities of color. Lyrics on Lockdown has since evolved into a course at NYU’s Gallatin School, taught by Anderson, where her students design and facilitate an arts program for detained youth at Rikers Island. In 2014 the consistent success of the course catalyzed the launch of NYU’s Prison Education Program, which offers an associate degree program to men at Wallkill correctional facility. Anderson is a skilled facilitator, curriculum designer, and cultural organizer who applies her training in applied theatre, trauma recovery, and transformative justice to end all forms of violence, promote healing, and justice.  www.create-forward.com

Shontina Vernon

SHONTINA VERNON, writer/musician/performer, has written several plays exploring themes that are universal to women. The LA Times called her play, PSYCHOLOGY OF CHROMOSOME X, “surprising, radical, and audacious for its candid exploration of black women and their sexuality.” Vernon is a recipient of this year’s 4 Culture Artists’ Grant, a past recipient of the Louise McKinney Playwriting Fellowship, and was the selected inaugural playwright of the Gurfein-Ntozake Shange Reading Series at New Federal Theater. Her work has been produced by Seattle’s ACT Theatre, the Hansberry Project, SoloNova Festival, the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas, and featured at the World Wide Words International Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Her play, A LOVELY MALFUNCTION had a run at La Mama Theatre in NYC in a collaboration with the esteemed Negro Ensemble Company. Other plays include, ETTA PHIFER’S TESTIMONIAL SHOE KISMET, IN BETWEEN THE ZEBRA’S STRIPES, WOMEN OF THE WILD ROOT, and a solo show titled WANTED – a coming of age tale about forgery, fear, and belonging. She is a National Performance Network touring artist, and a nominated playwright on the 2014 Kilroy’s List.  

Check out Shontina's website here.  And don't forget to visit and "like' her Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/shontinavernon

Next #Flyychat!!

Slaying Monsters and Creating Mirrors: The Movement for Diverse Books- A Liberatory Act

 Monday, February 22nd @ 8pm ET 

 

"...if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves." -Junot Diaz

This month, I am so honored to be in conversation with a writers Renée Watson, Jennifer Baker, Zetta Elliot and blogger, Alia Jones to discuss the movement to ensure that diverse books are available to all!  During this chat, we will learn more about the work of my guests  and what inspires them to create their stories.  We will also discuss how the lack of diversity in children's literature affects young people from marginalized groups. Finally, we will shine a light on other authors who are creating wonderful children's literature as well as learn how all of us can join this movement and advocate for diverse books in our schools and our communities.  

So......JOIN US! :)

In the meantime, please take a moment to read the bios of our AMAZING guest and support their work!   

 

Bios

Renée Watson

Renée Watson is the author of This Side of Home (Bloomsbury 2015), which was nominated for the Best Fiction for Young Adults by the American Library Association. Her picture book, Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills (Random House 2012), received several honors including an NAACP Image Award nomination in children’s literature. Her novel, What Momma Left Me, (Bloomsbury 2010), debuted as the New Voice for 2010 in middle grade fiction. Her one woman show, Roses are Red Women are Blue, debuted at the Lincoln Center at a showcase for emerging artists. Her picture book, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House, 2010), is based on poetry workshops she facilitated with children in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and was featured on NBC Nightly News.

Renée has given readings and lectures at many renowned places, including the United Nations Headquarters and the Library of Congress. In 2015 she was honored with the STEAM award for her work in arts education by Inner City Foundation of New York, Inc.  She is on the Council of Writers for the National Writing Project and is a team member of We Need Diverse Books. She currently teaches courses on writing for children at University of New Haven and Pine Manor College.

Renée grew up in Portland, Oregon and currently lives in New York City.

Website
www.reneewatson.net
 

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reneewatsonauthor.tumblr.com

 

  Jennifer Baker

Jennifer Baker is a writer of fiction & nonfiction, creator of the Minorities in Publishing podcast, social media manager/panel organizer for We Need Diverse Books, and a contributor to Forbes.com. Her writing appeared in Newtown Literary, Boston Literary Magazine, Eclectic Flash, Poets & Writers magazine, and The Female Complaint.

Visit her website: www.jennifernbaker.com

Zetta Elliot

 

Born in Canada, Zetta Elliott moved to the US in 1994 to pursue her PhD in American Studies at NYU. Her poetry has been published in several anthologies, and her plays have been staged in New York, Chicago, and Cleveland. Her essays have appeared in The Huffington Post, School Library Journal, and Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures. She is the author of eighteen books for young readers, including the award-winning picture book Bird. Her urban fantasy novel, Ship of Souls, was named a Booklist Top Ten Sci-fi/Fantasy Title for Youth and was a finalist for the Phillis Wheatley Book Award. Her own imprint, Rosetta Press, generates culturally relevant stories that center children who have been marginalized, misrepresented, and/or rendered invisible in traditional children’s literature. Elliott is an advocate for greater diversity and equity in publishing, and currently serves as writer-in-residence at Weeksville Heritage Center. She lives in Brooklyn. 

  

 Alia Jones

Alia Jones is a graduate of Cornell University where she studied Cultural Anthropology, East Asian Studies and American Indian Studies. While at Cornell she interned for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. After college, she traveled to South Korea on a Fulbright Scholarship to teach english. Four years later she came back to the US to become a children's bookseller. Now she blogs about children's literature at readitrealgood.com. Her blog focuses on promoting excellent and diverse children's literature. She believes that increasing diversity in literature to accurately reflect the stories we see in our world is crucial.

 #FLYYCHAT is BACK!!!

Monday, January 25th @ 8pm EST!!!

 #BlackGirlMagic in Museums!

with Aleia Brown, Stephanie Cunningham 

and 

Ravon Ruffin

 Starting 2016 with MORE #BlackGirlMagic!

One of my favorite things to do when the weather turns chill is to take a family trip to the museum!  Let me tell you, museums are on fiyah! Largely because there so many BRILLIANT women of color are having major influences on museums across the country.  Thanks to them, museums are creating critical dialogues that are relevant, urgent, healing and daring.  Basically, they are sprinkling their Black Girl Dust and crafting radical museum spaces.

Join me as I pick the brains of three AMAZING women to learn how we should be engaging with museums, what artists to be on the lookout for and how we can encourage our young people to join their ranks!

Please take a moment to learn more about Aleia, Stephanie and Ravon!

 #Flyy Bios

Aleia Brown

Aleia Brown is currently a visiting scholar at the Michigan State University Museum where she primarily serves as the curator and co-project manager for a collaborative exhibition with the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. She is also a Public History doctoral candidate at Middle Tennessee State University. Online Ms. Brown co-leads two Twitter chats #museumsrespondtoferguson and #blktwitterstorians. 

Check out her website  aleiambrown.org and follow her on Twitter: aleiabrown and Instagram:  thataleiabrown.

Stephanie Cunningham

Stephanie Cunnigham is a Cultural Ambassador and Art Educator. She has worked at several reputable cultural institutions in New York City, such as the Brooklyn Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, and the New-York Historical Society. As a Museum Educator she taught grades K-12 and college lectures using the museum’s permanent collections and temporary exhibitions. As Co Founder and Creative Director of Museum Hue, she works to advance the visibility and viability of people of color, utilizing museums, the arts and cultural institutions, as a medium for discussion, creation, and solutions. Stephanie believes that art and history captures the essence of the complexities of the world around us.

Check her out atL  museumhue.com

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @museummistress

 

 

 

Ravon Ruffin

Ravon is an alumna of Virginia Commonwealth University, and current MA candidate in American Studies with a concentration in Museums and Material Culture. She seeks to create sustainable practices to nurture community, enhance museum interactivity, and create meaningful impact. Academic interests, to include feminist discourse, urban studies, popular culture and visual studies, promote interdisciplinarity in museum curriculum to enhance community engagement and dynamic exhibition; as well as foster collaborative outreach networks among learning communities. As co-founder and content curator for Brown Girls Museum Blog, she promotes the advancement and visibility of minority communities within the humanities and social sciences as subjects and proprietors.

Check out her DOPE blog: browngirlsmuseumblog.com

Her forthcoming website: ravonruffin.com

And follow her here: 

Twitter: Ravon_Ashley 

Instgram: afroxmericana

 

 

 

Missed #flyychat??? 

Check out the Storify!!!

I mean....why??  Well, you missed another GREAT conversation! Cidra and Lara were absolutely ridiculously AMAZING!!!  

 

But, don't fret!  Check out the storify wrap up here.

 

#Flyychat will be back in January 2016 for more great conversations with fabulously flyy people!  See you then!

I'm Flyy/You Flyy,

 

Robyne

 

Black Girl Flyy...

"In a recent study of African American girls in New York City, the girls who had a strong racial identity — e.g., those who described themselves as “strongly in touch with their racial heritage” or
“Afrocentric” — were more likely than others to say that they were happy on a typical day, to indicate a serious commitment to their schoolwork, to get good grades, and to express a desire to go to college." --Excerpt from "Unlocking Opportunities for African American Girls: A Call to Action for Educational Equity" authored by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the National Women's Law Center.  

Click here to read the full report

Then, join me NEXT MONDAY, December 14th @ 8PM EST, when I will be  joined by educator/activists and all-around-flyy girls, Cidra Sebastien of Brotherhood-Sister Sol and Lara Davis of the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture for our next #flyychat, Black Butterflies: Improving Outcomes for Young Women and Girls of Color.

Tell yo' people and join the conversation!  See you then!