Arts Education: CWTA Education Committee Meeting
Can CPS plans address the growing student social emotional crisis and related issues in Chicago’s underperforming schools using Arts Education as a tool?
Many of Chicago’s students are experiencing deep social/ emotional issues that are challenging CPS schools. We will take a deep look at the potential for CPS plans to use vigorous arts education as a remedy. Join the discussion with guest speakers, Tsehaye Geralyn Hébert and Dr. Obari Cartman!
Tsehaye Geralyn Hébert is a self-described "bona fide gumbo girl." The nationally acclaimed playwright triaged between her grandparents’ rural Louisiana family seat, her Baton Rouge birthplace, and her mother’s beloved New Orleans. Steeped in her African-Creole culture, she relishes quiet world-changing moments that live on stage alongside the hyperbole and spectacle of Mardi Gras. With a rich polyglot larger-than-life-world full of music, dance, activism, and storytelling, there’s no wonder Hébert found her way to the theater.
The Northwestern University and School of the Art Institute of Chicago alum penned The Chicago Quartet, a series of works set across 19th and 20th century Chicago. Fearless in scope, Hébert's work is highly imaginative and might include Lucy Parsons, Ida B. Wells, Jane Addams, Chicago's Black avant-garde arts communities, or the lady sitting next to her at the salon.
The citizen artist is committed to inclusivity and sustainability. Hébert's writings and performances center race, gender, disability, and the economics and geography of making art. She brings communities and demographics together to grieve, heal, celebrate, and move boldly forward.
Dr. Obari Cartman is a father, son, brother, uncle, thinker, writer, therapist, photographer, drummer, and grassroots mental health advocate. He is a Chicago native, where his cultural and educational foundations were cultivated by several African-centered institutions. He received his undergraduate degree from Hampton University and a Ph.D in clinical & community psychology from Georgia State University. His recent work includes being a trauma focused clinician, restorative justice coach and program evaluator with H.E.LP., LLC (Healing Empowering and Learning Professions). Dr. Cartman has served as a professor of psychology at Georgia State University and the Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies at Northeastern University. Dr. Cartman recently created a male rites of passage curriculum called MANifest that is being implemented in juvenile detention centers, schools and in private community settings. Dr. Cartman is the former program director for Real Men Charities, Inc. where for 3 years he facilitated weekly men's wellness and African drumming circles and was the associate editor of the South Side Drive magazine. Dr. Cartman is the current President of the Chicago Association of Black Psychologists and curator of a directory of Black mental health providers.
