Teaching Improvement Activities

Antiracism Organizing and Training

As of 2023, I have attended, organized, and supported the creation of four Undoing Racism®/Community Organizing workshops, a signature program of the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB). During these programs, participants experience a humanistic process for laying a foundation to explore how we have been racialized, socialized, and conditioned to think about race and racism. Through my ongoing education with PISAB, I am also an active participant in Artists Co-Creating Real Equity (ACRE), its affinity group for artists and cultural workers.

In addition, I received specialized training as an anti-racist facilitator through ArtEquity’s National Facilitation Training, a two-weekend-long intensive retreat pairing deep analysis and skills building with a meaningful discourse on issues of inclusion, equity, and the role of art makers.

I have also received Latine-focused arts leadership training through the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC), and their Leadership Institute. This immersive week-long arts leadership and professional development program is intended for Latine artists, arts administrators, and cultural workers in all media or disciplines. I was invited to continue to my work with NALAC by continuing on to their Advocacy Institute, a multi-month program where participants are trained to communicate effectively with elected officials, lead proactive efforts in their own communities, and understand the frameworks involved in shaping cultural policies.El Teatro Campesino Training

El Teatro Campesino Training

From my earliest days of working within the Chicano theatre aesthetic, nearly twenty years ago, I was introduced to the work of the historic El Teatro Campesino. Born out of the energy and drive to support farmworkers, and integral to “El Movimiento,” El Teatro Campesino’s work, politics, and understanding of the Chicano identity continue to be the lodestone for most of my artistic life. I began formally understanding and training with the company in 2015, traveling to their hometown of San Juan Bautista, and since that time, I have undertaken formal and informal training with company members — including maestros Luis Valdez, Noé Yaocoatl Montoya, Kinan Valdez, and Chas Croslin.

This work has also included attaining an advanced understanding of the company’s unique approach to acting and performance, known as Theatre of the Sphere or the Vibrant Being. Rooted in Maya mathematics and metaphysics, this approach is one of the more elusive elements of Chicano theatre performance because it has been passed down through workshops led by a select few practitioners for the majority of their history. 

I was the first person outside of the company’s official maestros to teach this approach in the Spring of 2022 at Brooklyn College. This physical theatre approach, emphasizing a holistic performance philosophy, is a valuable, anti-colonial counterpoint to the Western emphasis on psychological realism traditionally taught and celebrated in US theatre training.

Educator/Classroom Training

In addition to my philosophical and aesthetic training, I have placed a high value on understanding how to teach in higher education classrooms. As a creative artist who comes to teaching from a practical history (as a working artist, not a theoretician), I have always been aware that this is a place where I will continually seek necessary, advanced knowledge so I can best serve all students who participate in any class I am facilitating, regardless of the room. 

As such, I continue to participate in educator training programs, both locally and nationally. For example, to support my students, I was certified through CUNY’s Online Training Essentials (OTE) program so I could develop an online pedagogy that greatly informed and supported my teaching efforts through the COVID-19 pandemic. The OTE program continues to be valuable to this day. In Summer 2022, I attend the Teaching Portfolio Workshop through Brooklyn College’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), which guided me through the process of designing and creating this teaching portfolio. Most recently, in Winter 2023, I participated inCTL’s Pedagogy in Practice Week. This three-day intensive practicum offered hands-on workshops designed to show participants how to put pedagogical ideas to practical use in areas such as syllabus development, assignment design, student engagement, building classroom community, and more.