Teaching Artistry with Courtney J. Boddie

Hello, TA PODience. We realize that there is a lot going on in the world and want to acknowledge the continued shared traumas we’re experiencing here and globally. We hope that our newest episode, which is centered around the themes of creativity, self-expression and living one’s truth will bring some much-needed hope and joy into your spaces. In our newest two-parter, Episode 52: “Shattering the...

We are back with the second part of Episode 51: “Name, Listen, Witness,” in which Courtney continues her conversation with Rabab Ghazoul, a “socially-engaged visual artist whose work explores points of contact between systems of power and individual agency, voices that are yet to speak, spaces of in-between-ness, and the body politic.” Rabab speaks very eloquently about the responsibility we have,...

Greetings, TA PODience! We are back with an incredible two-part episode. In Episode 51: “Name, Listen, Witness,” Courtney speaks with the inspiring Rabab Ghazoul. This amazing human identifies artistically as a “socially-engaged visual artist whose work explores points of contact between systems of power and individual agency, voices that are yet to speak, spaces of in-between-ness, and the body p...

Hello, PODience. If you haven’t heard, we’ve hit a big milestone for our podcast and for our team: we’ve just reached our 50th episode and we’re so excited to share Act 2 of that episode with you! Precious Blake, a guest with heart and a focus on community and togetherness through art and interpersonal connection, is featured in Episode 50: “Speed of Trust.” A visual journalist and archivist who m...

Hello, PODience. This is a big milestone for our podcast and for our team: we’ve just reached our 50th episode and we’re so excited to share it with you! Precious Blake, a guest with heart and a focus on community and togetherness through art and interpersonal connection, is featured in Episode 50: “Speed of Trust.” A visual journalist and archivist who moonlights as an illustrator and collagist,...

Hello, PODience! We're back with Episode 49, Act 2: "Reframe Around Repair," featuring Mauricio Salgado. Our guest plays many roles and holds myriad positions as an artist and changemaker and, as he says, is in pursuit of justice and healing through a decolonial framework—seeing, naming and analyzing power structures in order to upset the intrinsic imbalance. In this continuation of Salgado's conv...

Hello, PODience! We have a brand new episode and we can't wait for you to hear it. We are gushing over our newest guest, Mauricio Salgado, featured in Episode 49: Reframe Around Repair. Salgado, who plays many roles and holds myriad positions as an artist and changemaker, notes that he is in pursuit of justice and healing through a decolonial framework—seeing, naming and analyzing power structures...

“Justice is the GPS” continues the feel-good, wellness-focused conversation between Courtney and Ashraf, Youth Arts Manager for the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture. This part of the episode turns the focus to Ashraf's childhood, his journey from Pakistan to the United States as a baby and his personal trajectory with an emphasis on his discovery of the arts. In the episode, Courtney and...

Episode 48, Act 1: “Justice is the GPS” features a feel-good conversation between Courtney and Ashraf, Youth Arts Manager for the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture. This episode is just what you need right now. It’s all about wellness, self-care and really ruminating in the feelings—all of them—that come up in any given circumstance…you know, like in a pandemic. Our newest episode conside...

Justice—climate justice—and art as a catalyst for real effective change are at the very center of our newest episode, part of the Works Alliance for Arts Education, hosted by Creative Generation. Episode 47, "Collectively Moving Toward Justice," features a powerful conversation with Rachael Jacobs, whose career spans three decades, with her artistry contributing to arts in schools, teacher educati...

In Episode 46, Act 2: "Warrior Work," Courtney continues her conversation, grounded in equitable and responsive practices for Teaching Artists, with Tina LaPadula, a warrior for equitable arts education, co-founder of Seattle-based Arts Corps and current Arts Education Manager at the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. In the first half of this two-part episode, the tone was set when Tina admitted t...

In Episode 46, Act 1: "Warrior Work," Courtney has a very real, very grounded conversation with Tina LaPadula, a warrior for equitable arts education, co-founder of Seattle-based Arts Corps and current Arts Education Manager at the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. At the very beginning of the chat, the tone is set when Tina admits that she, like many of us at this moment, is feeling "a little jan...

We're back with a brand new episode and we can't wait for you to hear it. In Episode 45: "Pursuing Authentic Action," Courtney sits down with Kemy Joseph, CEO and Co-Founder of F.E.A.R.S. Advantage, who aims to help purpose-driven business executives leverage equity as a pathway to prosperity to effectively lead their diverse teams through conflicts involving race, politics, and privilege. Togethe...

We're back with the second part of Episode 44: "Oxygen in the Bloodstream." If you listened to Act 1, you'll know that this episode features a truly thoughtful conversation between Courtney and Dennie Palmer Wolf, a researcher with cross-disciplinary consulting firm, WolfBrown. If Act 1 focused on teaching artists and advocacy for the field of arts education, Act 2 builds on that with a focus on t...

We've got an incredibly special and thoughtful episode of the podcast for you this week. Episode 44, Act 1: "Oxygen in the Bloodstream," features an insightful conversation between Courtney and Dennie Palmer Wolf, a researcher with WolfBrown, a cross-disciplinary consulting firm that believes "every human being has a unique creative voice of intrinsic worth and that every community has a responsib...

In Episode 43, Act 2: "Tears on the Drum," we delve deeper into Kwame's past. In doing so, Kwame offers two wise thoughts that really set the tone for this conversation: "Your wounds are your blessings" and "If you can't change the wind, adjust the sail." This leads to a powerful conversation about Kwame's childhood, the trauma he experienced as a result of how he saw Black humans represented on t...

This episode begins with a brief conversation with returning guest Quanice Floyd, who you may remember from our episode "Shaking Foundations for a New Paradigm." This time around, she's back to talk about her brand new podcast, "Black Arts Admin Bitch," a title she came to in order to embrace the b-word, reclaim it, turn it into a positive and be purely unapologetic about her viewpoints. Her podca...

What is happening in the world around us? What is affecting us socially and politically? What does justice look like? These are just a few of the big questions that frame the inspiring conversation between Courtney and Asian-American choreographer, dancer and dance educator Nai-Ni Chen in Episode 42: "Building and Strengthening Bridges." In their chat, Nai-Ni Chen, of Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, ta...

As educators, how do we decenter our ego? How do we decenter our authority? How do we give up the practice of regurgitating information to our students, demanding of them our definition of "success," and, instead, ally and co-conspire with them? These are the essential questions that frame Episode 41: "Dear Reader: In Solidarity, Felicia," featuring Felicia Rose Chavez, who is the Creativity and I...

"Kids have a lot of teachers. They don't have a lot of artists in their lives." That quote, taken directly from this week's episode, frames the second part of Courtney's conversation with Russell Granet—New 42’s President and CEO! In Act 2 of Episode 40: “Striving Toward Belonging,” Courtney and Russell take a deeper dive into Russell's historical knowledge of teaching artistry. They dig into its...

Courtney talks with Russell Granet, New 42’s President and CEO, about his journey from childhood class clown, to artist, to teaching artist, to his current role as arts administrator. Russell’s time as a teaching artist, over 30 years ago, is of particular significance in this discussion, and his career, as this is the point during which he saw the systemic inequities—in terms of access to the art...

In this episode, we feature a deep discussion, from the video series, "We Can't Go Back", between panelists Toya Lillard, Robyne Walker Murphy and Durell Cooper, around a number of topics including: saviorism in arts education; relinquishing power so that younger Black practitioners can step up; and holding arts organizations accountable so that anti-racist policies don't simply become language in...

First, Courtney sits down for a convo with Step Afrika! founder, C. Brian Williams. How can predominantly white institutions (PWIs) better respond to and dismantle their own oppressive practices in order to rebuild their infrastructure? Well, that's one question and one approach. But Williams thinks he has a better idea and call to action: cultivating a strong ecology of arts organizations that ar...

Hey, listeners! It’s our last episode of 2020 and, unlike the majority of this turbulent year, this episode is fire! The overarching question of this episode, which features both Khalia Davis and Quanice Floyd, is: “What does a liberated and racially just world look like?” And how do our guests answer this question? Well, you'll have to listen to Episode 37: “In Solidarity and Community”! First, C...

Courtney speaks with Alaina Newell, creator of the podcast "The Fourth Wall," as part of the video series “We Can’t Go Back.” In this insightful episode, Courtney and Alaina discuss Newell's podcast and its inception, and they confront the contradiction of theatrical safe spaces (and its severe lack of brave spaces). Candidly, Alaina admits that she has approached her participation in the field wi...