The fall of 2019,  was a season of wonderful opportunity. I reached a point of success in my career and to add motivation to joy I was accepted into the Harlem Studio Museum teaching practicum, a meeting ground for artist and educators to exchange thoughts and ask questions about art and artist.

The entire program was pure joy and a place of liberation. Everyone around me shared a keen interest in Black art and when we were not looking at art we were reading about it. The readings we delved into were not readings I would have came across in a DOE setting. It was a moment that was radical and renewing!

When we weren’t discussing art, we discussed ourselves. The small room was always full of meaningful chatter. We shared what it meant to show up as our happy selves and be paid for it. We thought deeply about the difference between conceptual mainstream artist and Black conceptual artist. We concluded in many conversations, that the market forces play an important role in the  work we see and don’t see.

Now, as I write this blog post, I think on that happiness I felt back then and I wonder, do people still show up as themselves anymore? Workplaces are changing drastically. We are also changing drastically…to be real and forthcoming does not seem the goal anymore.

Back in 2019, when I felt mostly settled and in true joy; I, transferred that energy into the classroom. Everything SMH exposed me to; I facilitated in the classroom. I developed strategies for children by using SMH theories and practices.

I was able to apply their theories and practices to my teaching because I understood it. The cohort was small and thus Ilk, our facilitator had  ample opportunity to explain theories. We learned each other names and made life long friendships. Because of this community, I was invited to travel to California to see an artist marry and I am currently working on a community project with another artist. I had space during this fellowship to  engaged in conversations about artists of African descent, contemporary art practices, and strategic museum programming.

As a teacher, I met other intelligent educators who were as passionate about art as I was. One educator asked me to submit my work to a Zine she was completing with a group of artist. Another one invited me to her first gallery show.

Our facilitator, Ilk, was enthusiastic about each topic and it showed up in each of his classes.

I was opened up to a whole new world about artist and their practice. What I enjoyed the most about the practicum was it gave me insight to how the museum world looked. Before the fellowship, as a teacher, I’d take my students to the museum and keep most of my questions about operation systems to myself. As a matter of fact, I always thought the museum world was untouchable and of the elite until I sat at the Harlem Studio Museum Practicum table.

Ilk peeled each skin of elitism off ever so gentle.

We attended special guest lectures with well established and up and coming artists such as Chole Bass and Douywe Bey. We were welcomed to different variations of the museum such as the reading room, their library, art in the park and learned of its connection with the Schomburg Research Center.

Now after this exposure, I look at museums as places of servitude. The art is answering to the people of the time and to the time itself.

Over all, it was a wonderful opportunity that is impactful even seven years later.