Social Justice as a practice can be defined as the empowerment and mobilization of historically marginalized groups through community support and refinement of critical thinking skills. Creative Expression as a Social Practice could then be seen as tapping into creativity as a powerful tool in sparking conversations, raising awareness, and inspiring communities to move toward social change. Together with Ilasiea Gray, Miguel Grijalva and Wojo Womack, we'll dive into what this looks like in their Teaching Arts practice with students, how they hope to see their social practice changing, and how their work with students evolves their work as artists.

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Teaching Artists Bios:

Ilasiea Gray is a multi-hyphenate social practice artist (actress, educator, writer, director, creator). As an actress, she does a variety of work ranging from stage to screen. She made history in Colorado playing the title role of Sleeping Beauty (Denver Children’s Theatre) and performs in the video game Life Is Strange: Double Exposure, releasing October 2024. As an educator, she runs her own acting programming for kids and teaches in a variety of capacities nationwide for theatres, arts organizations, and schools. She is a True West Award recipient for her impactful work in the arts and arts education, has been featured in publications & panels discussing the intersection of arts, activism, and youth advocacy, and speaks at conferences around the country(including South by Southwest (SXSW) Education Conference), about her internationally published essay on inequity in the arts for kids of color. Ilasiea has an MFA in Social & Environmental Arts Practice, from an inaugural program created/led by Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors.

Social Media:

www.ilasiea.com

Instagram: @laegray

Ilasiea L Gray (Facebook)

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Miguel Grijalva is a freelance artist going on 25 years. Miguel holds an associates degree in Illustration and Graphic Design, and a bachelor's degree in Advertising Art and Design. He teaches art, ceramics, and sculpting at Rio Rico High School in Rio Rico Arizona. At the high school he has an art club and throughout the school year and summers, they paint murals in and out of the high school.

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Wojo Womack is an entrepreneur who owns three businesses, but his heart and purpose lie in community support and development. Though he has loved being a sports trainer and coach for the past 20 years, it's his work teaching film and media production to underserved communities for the past 17 years that fulfills his mission of helping people become self actualized. As a Columbia University certified Master Teaching Artist Wojo has been fortunate enough to create curricula for dozens of programs spending a full year in over 40 schools. With such an immense amount of classroom experience in mostly struggling schools Wojo has gained a very unique perspective. This is how he was able to create the Dot Product Approach. A holistic teaching strategy whose philosophy is based in practicality and efficacy.