Articles

HOLDING TENSIONS: Let's Be Normal

Four Themes Illuminate Important Conversations at SXSW EDU 2022

Reflections from the Fresh Professor

We all want the same things, mostly…

When I moved to Seattle, from Brooklyn, NY, I knew that I would face some significant differences, but I thought I was ready for it. I was hired as the Executive Director of a beloved arts education organization, serving mostly low income, BIPOC youth in south Seattle and on the southern border of Seattle. 

Reflections from the Fresh Professor

Four Themes Illuminate Important Conversations at SXSW EDU 2022

Reflections from the Fresh Professor

I am clawing at my face, I can’t see, and I’m four years old. Just had surgery on my eyelids because my eyelashes were growing into my eyeball. I remember my mother crying and my father consoling her. Lying supine on the bed, I remember the feeling of the cotton sheets on my ankle, and the sound my hair made on the pillow..."

Four Themes Illuminate Important Conversations at SXSW EDU 2022

Four Themes Illuminate Important Conversations at SXSW EDU 2022

Four Themes Illuminate Important Conversations at SXSW EDU 2022

“When I think of the word Resilience, I think of every young person that wakes up in the morning, cold, hungry, and tired. I think of that person looking at the tv, phone, or reading a news article and all they see are negative images and stories of people that look like them..."

A CEO, Afraid

Reflection on Trans Day of Remembrance

Four Themes Illuminate Important Conversations at SXSW EDU 2022

Seven fifteen in the morning. I remember when the sun wasn’t out, at this time, but the mornings are gradually brighter every day. I turn right to look out of the bay window where my exercise bike is housed. I live by the water, so close that I taste salt when I open my windows. Meniscus on the horizon throwing me off balance, while calming my heart. Reflections from the water are blinding.

Mentoring Blindly

Reflection on Trans Day of Remembrance

Reflection on Trans Day of Remembrance

"Yet, we do not often highlight the negative impacts when those mostly white and well- meaning mentors leave their mentee, sometimes making the situation worse. When youth of color are taught in a colorblind way, as if we live in a meritocracy where hard work pays off, the reality of racism/sexism/paternalism prove the opposite, and those youth feel more marginalized."

Reflection on Trans Day of Remembrance

Reflection on Trans Day of Remembrance

Reflection on Trans Day of Remembrance

As reported by Transgender Europe, “in the past 12 months, 350 trans and gender-diverse people were reported killed globally. Of the reported killings worldwide, sex workers make up the majority of victims. People of color make up 79% of the 28 trans people murdered in the USA....”

Out of the Storm

“Politicians don't bring people together. Artists do."

COVID-19 & Next New Deal

A tractor was upside down on the street, the top of the license plate scraping the concrete. Trees were knocked down, as were power lines. Sand and dried salt water dusted everything, in sight...

COVID-19 & Next New Deal

“Politicians don't bring people together. Artists do."

COVID-19 & Next New Deal

Teaching is like dancing. Sometimes your step on someone’s feet, misread cues, or land flat on your ass. Whatever the case, teaching is both exhilarating and frightening...

“Politicians don't bring people together. Artists do."

“Politicians don't bring people together. Artists do."

“Politicians don't bring people together. Artists do."

 

A couple weeks ago my kids and I saw Spider-Man: Homecoming. It was a fun movie with cool effects, fun action sequences, and a predictable plot. However...

Interviews

‘It’s time to change the story’: TEDxSeattle celebrates its 10th anniversary by inviting speakers on hip hop, education, and climate change

Complex Magazine: The New York Regents Exams Are Tough, But a New Program Uses Hip-Hop to Help NYC Students Pass

Waking Up for Education Reform: Q&A with James Miles

Cool Jobs ft. James Miles

Fresh Ed: Teaching students through hip-hop with NPR

Leadership InSight: James Miles

Art and accountability: A conversation with James Miles

5 questions with James Miles

Dads We Love-James Miles

James Miles & Jamel Mims, Fresh Ed

Fresh Ed: Teaching students through hip-hop