Teaching Artistry With Courtney J. Boddie

Hello, TA PODience. We are back with a brand new episode! In this two-episode arc, Episode 53: “Passing the Baton,” Courtney chats with Margie Johnson Reese, an educator and life-long advocate for children and the arts. She has over 40 years’ experience in the field of arts administration, including heading a local arts agencies in Dallas and Los Angeles. Courtney and Margie’s conversation is one with a sharp focus on legacy—almost like a memory play in which you, the listener, are likely to be transported into places and spaces from Margie’s past while also connecting the myriad pathways that have led to this very insightful chat. Without offering too much (this conversation is just too rich to spoil) Courtney and Margie’s conversation begins as an interview that quickly shifts into a study in retrospection, introspection, learning and storytelling. And it asks the questions: How do we, as arts administrators, break down barriers and clear the path for future changemakers in a meaningful way? How do we pr

Hello, TA PODience. When we posted Act 1 of Episode 52, we noted that we realize that there is a lot going on in the world and want to acknowledge the continued shared traumas we’re experiencing here and globally. Unfortunately, the same sentiment remains true as we post the second half of this two-part discussion. We truly hope that your takeaway from our newest installment is one of calm, joy and a celebration of the power of the arts. In Act 2 of Episode 52: “Shattering the Box,” Courtney continues her conversation with Michelle Manzanales, Director of Ballet Hispánico’s School of Dance. If Act 1 was centered on treating this fraught pandemic time as a moment for reinventing, restructuring and reimagining, this one expands the conversation around impact to an even warmer, thoughtful discussion about intentional approaches to arts learning. At the heart of this chat is that, at its very core, engaging kids through the arts is about joy—access to joy—and how dance specifically can harness that. In one insta

Hello, TA PODience. We realize that there is a lot going on in the world and want to acknowledge the continued shared traumas we’re experiencing here and globally. We hope that our newest episode, which is centered around the themes of creativity, self-expression and living one’s truth will bring some much-needed hope and joy into your spaces. In our newest two-parter, Episode 52: “Shattering the Box,” Courtney sits down in a Zoom space with Michelle Manzanales, Director of Ballet Hispánico’s School of Dance since 2016. Courtney and Michelle’s thoughtful, feel-good conversation is one for the moment in which they discuss how this pandemic time, while fraught, has been a time of reinventing, restructuring and reimagining, particularly for arts organizations. Over the past two years we, as artists and arts administrators, have expanded the ways in which we can do our work, create art and collaborate (e.g., remote work means the potential for finding new creative spaces like parks, the street and even subways).

We are back with the second part of Episode 51: “Name, Listen, Witness,” in which Courtney continues her conversation with Rabab Ghazoul, a “socially-engaged visual artist whose work explores points of contact between systems of power and individual agency, voices that are yet to speak, spaces of in-between-ness, and the body politic.” Rabab speaks very eloquently about the responsibility we have, as artists and changemakers, to be co-conspirators, advocate and make a case not just to “do the work,” but to be truly mindful of others’ past traumas—to avoid perpetuating harm to communities. In their discussion, Courtney and Rabab also chat about the societal and cultural shifts occurring all around us, including the collapse of oppressive systems like colonialism and the historical legacies of racism that are embedded in our daily lives. Rabab points out the need to see the ultimate grinding down of these systems or the work of extracting them from people and communities will need to continue. Courtney also ask

Greetings, TA PODience! We are back with an incredible two-part episode. In Episode 51: “Name, Listen, Witness,” Courtney speaks with the inspiring Rabab Ghazoul. This amazing human identifies artistically as a “socially-engaged visual artist whose work explores points of contact between systems of power and individual agency, voices that are yet to speak, spaces of in-between-ness, and the body politic” whose creative practice “is consistently drawn back to spaces of interaction and activation, with a focus largely beyond galleries or exhibiting regimes as final destinations.” In the first part of the episode, Ghazoul discusses her work with the artist-run project gentle/radical, which is laser-focused on addressing the gaps in mainstream cultural practice, provision and thinking. As Ghazoul puts it, it’s an organization that is focused on “people working in the context of people,” and they ground the work through the philosophy of perpetual outreach, which aims not just to draw people in and hook them, but

Hello, PODience. If you haven’t heard, we’ve hit a big milestone for our podcast and for our team: we’ve just reached our 50th episode and we’re so excited to share Act 2 of that episode with you! Precious Blake, a guest with heart and a focus on community and togetherness through art and interpersonal connection, is featured in Episode 50: “Speed of Trust.” A visual journalist and archivist who moonlights as an illustrator and collagist, Blake is also the Senior Operations Manager at the Village of Arts and Humanities, and organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that strives for equitable revitalization of community through art activation. In Act 1 of this episode, Precious spoke about her creative work, her process and how her personal emotions fuel her art-making and artist hand, making her emotional state very present in her creative work. The questions from Act 1—What does care look like? If we were to think of building a world that leads with a care sensibility, what could we create? How do we, as a

Hello, PODience. This is a big milestone for our podcast and for our team: we’ve just reached our 50th episode and we’re so excited to share it with you! Precious Blake, a guest with heart and a focus on community and togetherness through art and interpersonal connection, is featured in Episode 50: “Speed of Trust.” A visual journalist and archivist who moonlights as an illustrator and collagist, Blake is also the Senior Operations Manager at the Village of Arts and Humanities, and organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that strives for equitable revitalization of community through art activation. In their chat, Courtney asks Precious to talk about her creative work, her process, which, Blake states, always “begins with a burning question” and is enhanced and augmented by research and personal interviews. Precious also talks about how her personal emotions fuel her art-making and how her artist hand, which she calls the third act of every piece she makes, really affects the product, making her emotional

Hello, PODience! We're back with Episode 49, Act 2: "Reframe Around Repair," featuring Mauricio Salgado. Our guest plays many roles and holds myriad positions as an artist and changemaker and, as he says, is in pursuit of justice and healing through a decolonial framework—seeing, naming and analyzing power structures in order to upset the intrinsic imbalance. In this continuation of Salgado's conversation with Courtney, their chat turns from the "I" to the "we"—the collective. They talk about how, in order to grow as a society, we need to reframe the ways in which we think about one another and the words we use to speak to and about the people with whom we share space. To do that, Salgado suggests that we need to liberate ourselves from the "epoch of disposability" and create new systems that welcome collective growth. One talking point of Salgado's that stands out to us as one of this conversation's lightbulb moments: "Histories haunt. As much as empires try to erase them, histories haunt us. And folks are l

Hello, PODience! We have a brand new episode and we can't wait for you to hear it. We are gushing over our newest guest, Mauricio Salgado, featured in Episode 49: Reframe Around Repair. Salgado, who plays many roles and holds myriad positions as an artist and changemaker, notes that he is in pursuit of justice and healing through a decolonial framework—seeing, naming and analyzing power structures in order to upset the intrinsic imbalance. In his conversation with Courtney, Salgado tells us that, through the ways in which he was brought up by his parents, he realized from a young age that justice is a lens through which one can view the world; that the scales of power are always off balance and the pursuit of balancing that power became his objective. And he has held true to that objective by working within and alongside organizations that create and nurture sustainable relationships within their ecosystems and engaging in reparative work to redistribute wealth and power. What else does he do and hope to acco

“Justice is the GPS” continues the feel-good, wellness-focused conversation between Courtney and Ashraf, Youth Arts Manager for the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture. This part of the episode turns the focus to Ashraf's childhood, his journey from Pakistan to the United States as a baby and his personal trajectory with an emphasis on his discovery of the arts. In the episode, Courtney and Ashraf consider the questions: What does justice mean in the context of the arts world? How can we shift systemic and personal patterns and processes so that they lean toward justice and equity? How can we control our environment when we can't control the environment in which you find ourselves? How do you recharge when you lose your magic? How does this poignant two-part episode conclude? Listen and find out!

Episode 48, Act 1: “Justice is the GPS” features a feel-good conversation between Courtney and Ashraf, Youth Arts Manager for the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture. This episode is just what you need right now. It’s all about wellness, self-care and really ruminating in the feelings—all of them—that come up in any given circumstance…you know, like in a pandemic. Our newest episode considers the questions: Where were you when the pandemic began? How did your personal patterns and processes shift? What did you do to control your environment when you couldn’t control the environment around you? In what ways are you helping yourself and how do you recharge when you lose your magic? So, how do Ashraf and Courtney answer these questions? No spoilers! You’ve got to listen to find out!

Justice—climate justice—and art as a catalyst for real effective change are at the very center of our newest episode, part of the Works Alliance for Arts Education, hosted by Creative Generation. Episode 47, "Collectively Moving Toward Justice," features a powerful conversation with Rachael Jacobs, whose career spans three decades, with her artistry contributing to arts in schools, teacher education, the community arts sector and arts activism. Rachael's current project in Australia, "Chill the Heat," was commissioned by ITAC as part of its ITAC IMPACT: Climate project. In this episode, Rachael speaks about how she chooses to invite artists to become artistic visionaries and take the sharp turn toward justice through art; to work as a collective and tap into new ways of thinking as a way forward—a way to turn creativity into creative justice. Some big questions that come up in this episode are: How can the arts influence conversations around climate justice and change the minds of people in positions of power

In Episode 46, Act 2: "Warrior Work," Courtney continues her conversation, grounded in equitable and responsive practices for Teaching Artists, with Tina LaPadula, a warrior for equitable arts education, co-founder of Seattle-based Arts Corps and current Arts Education Manager at the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. In the first half of this two-part episode, the tone was set when Tina admitted that she, like many of us at this moment, is feeling "a little janky...a little raw." After this exchange, Courtney thanked Tina for bringing this truth into the space, opening a door to a very honest, thoughtful conversation. In the second half, Courtney and Tina continue to examine themes of social justice, challenging the status quo, letting go of ego in service of artistry and disrupting oppressive practices by way of high-quality liberatory arts practices and continued learning. This conversation continues to take place at the intersection of creativity, love and justice.

In Episode 46, Act 1: "Warrior Work," Courtney has a very real, very grounded conversation with Tina LaPadula, a warrior for equitable arts education, co-founder of Seattle-based Arts Corps and current Arts Education Manager at the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. At the very beginning of the chat, the tone is set when Tina admits that she, like many of us at this moment, is feeling "a little janky...a little raw." After this exchange, Courtney thanks Tina for bringing this truth into the space, opening a door to a very honest, thoughtful conversation. In this episode, Courtney and Tina make their way through a conversation that examines their personal connection to the word "artistry," tackles themes of social justice, challenging the status quo and disrupting oppressive practices by way of high-quality liberatory arts practices. This conversation takes place at the intersection of creativity, love and justice, and you won't want to miss it!

We're back with a brand new episode and we can't wait for you to hear it. In Episode 45: "Pursuing Authentic Action," Courtney sits down with Kemy Joseph, CEO and Co-Founder of F.E.A.R.S. Advantage, who aims to help purpose-driven business executives leverage equity as a pathway to prosperity to effectively lead their diverse teams through conflicts involving race, politics, and privilege. Together, Courtney and Kemy navigate a thoughtful conversation around the collective traumas of the past year and a half, how that trauma affects the brain's development and the overall effects of the shared experience of being retraumatized (almost daily) without a chance to process and move forward. The conversation settles into one about how we as artists can help create environments in which people can slow down, calm down and allow themselves to reset. In this discussion, Kemy notes that, as our anxiety increases, our empathy decreases. Thus, when it comes to creating the right environment(s) needed for DEI work, we

We're back with the second part of Episode 44: "Oxygen in the Bloodstream." If you listened to Act 1, you'll know that this episode features a truly thoughtful conversation between Courtney and Dennie Palmer Wolf, a researcher with cross-disciplinary consulting firm, WolfBrown. If Act 1 focused on teaching artists and advocacy for the field of arts education, Act 2 builds on that with a focus on the potential power the arts can wield and takes a personal turn for both participants in the conversation. For Dennie, we get a more in-depth examination of how and why she became a researcher and arts advocate. Courtney talks about her very personal connection to the arts and how music brought her parents together. The heartbeat of this conversation can be heard when the two discuss the role of the arts as a disruptive force and change-maker in dismantling deeply oppressive systemic issues in the ways we approach education in this country. Dennie hits the nail on the head when she states that education can help us “

We've got an incredibly special and thoughtful episode of the podcast for you this week. Episode 44, Act 1: "Oxygen in the Bloodstream," features an insightful conversation between Courtney and Dennie Palmer Wolf, a researcher with WolfBrown, a cross-disciplinary consulting firm that believes "every human being has a unique creative voice of intrinsic worth and that every community has a responsibility to awaken, nurture, and sustain its cultural capital." Ms. Wolf, an artist in her own right (but don’t tell her we told you that), is a recent recipient of the Teaching Artist Ally Award, which was given to her by the Association of Teaching Artists (ATA) for her work in the field. In their conversation, Courtney and Dennie talk through a wide range of topics, from personal connection to art, to embracing one’s past and living in the present, to arts education and the COVID-19 pandemic. But the conversation really lands in the sweet spot of teaching artist advocacy and how seemingly caring and highly-regarded i

In Episode 43, Act 2: "Tears on the Drum," we delve deeper into Kwame's past. In doing so, Kwame offers two wise thoughts that really set the tone for this conversation: "Your wounds are your blessings" and "If you can't change the wind, adjust the sail." This leads to a powerful conversation about Kwame's childhood, the trauma he experienced as a result of how he saw Black humans represented on television, and how Black humans were treated by society. And this conversation ultimately moves to how he found and embraced his life's calling and his artistry. Through his artistry and educational background, Kwame aims to create and inspire through poignant metaphor and quotation. Mr. Scruggs is the founder and director of Alchemy, a non-profit organization that uses storytelling—primarily myth and fairy tales—and the djembe drum to work with male youth in order to promote personal development and growth, teaching life lessons through objective means. In their conversation, Courtney and Kwame talk about the need

This episode begins with a brief conversation with returning guest Quanice Floyd, who you may remember from our episode "Shaking Foundations for a New Paradigm." This time around, she's back to talk about her brand new podcast, "Black Arts Admin Bitch," a title she came to in order to embrace the b-word, reclaim it, turn it into a positive and be purely unapologetic about her viewpoints. Her podcast is meant to shed light on stories from arts administrators who are black, indigenous and people of color and to be a liberating space that offers calls to action. The second half of the episode begins by asking simply: How're you doing? What is your artistry? Those are the small questions that launch a truly complex discussion between Courtney and Kwame Scruggs, who aims to create and inspire through poignant metaphor and quotation. Kwame is the founder and director of Alchemy, a non-profit organization that uses storytelling—primarily myth and fairy tales—and the djembe drum to work with male youth in order to p

What is happening in the world around us? What is affecting us socially and politically? What does justice look like? These are just a few of the big questions that frame the inspiring conversation between Courtney and Asian-American choreographer, dancer and dance educator Nai-Ni Chen in Episode 42: "Building and Strengthening Bridges." In their chat, Nai-Ni Chen, of Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, talks with Courtney about the importance of dance in her own life and how the arts can be a conduit for connecting humans to their own humanity, particularly in these turbulent times. Nai-Ni also describes her diverse dance company, which has brought arts and cultural programming to audiences across the country, as one with a unique aesthetic style—formed in part by the realization that the United States offers students a narrow, Euro-centric, patriarchal curriculum, often omitting the immigrant story—as having a strong focus on celebrating culture and humanity. In their conversation, Nai-Ni also notes that, by working