Artist-Educators Professional Development Workshop
Spoken Word Poetry as a Vehicle for Teaching Social Justice in the classroom
When: POSTPONED UNTIL THE FALL!
Where: New York, NY (Exact Location TBA)
COST: $40 per person – $35 Early Bird registration – group rates negotiable
CONTACT: info@TheRealSun.com
Overview: This training workshop will explore various techniques for engaging young people in an exploration of identity, social constructs, and social justice through the art form of spoken word poetry. The training will center in on the importance of validating and facilitating the journey of learners to get in touch with the depth of their own inner truths, identities, and experiences in connection to wider social issues and context through an anti-oppressive framework. The training will offer practical tools that can be used in the classroom to meet this goal. Spoken Word Poetry is the primary art form that will be used to apply this methodology, however the principles of this training can be easily applied across various artistic mediums.
About the Facilitator: Having worked in alternative and arts-based education in the community and in schools in Canada over the last 8 years, The Real Sun has distilled the best of what has worked in her experience into a concise and comprehensive method of taking the personal into the political and back again through creative channels. Centering in on identity politics and anti-oppression it is social justice that is at the forefront of her work. The Real Sun was born in Korea and is a proud resident of the Jane-Finch Community in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. There are four core elements to all that The Real Sun is, does, and creates: Art, Education, Healing, and Social Justice
As an artist, The Real Sun expresses her creative spirit through multiple artistic mediums as a poet, singer/songwriter, musician, visual artist, and is also part of a theatre collective called Nomanzland. She has released two albums RISE (2008 – Hip-Hop) and HORIZON (2014 – Acoustic Soul) and has performed on stages across Canada, US, Korea, Japan, Sinagpore, and Peru. Her poetry was recently published in Rattling the Stage: A Collection of Canadian Monologues, Spoken Word and Short Plays (2012) a book written as a resource guide for educators. The Real Sun was also a contributing Author to the book Rhymes to Re-Education: A Hip Hop Curriculum Resource Guide for Social Justice Activities (2014)
The Real Sun has taught youth from a wide spectrum of ages, races, and socio-economic backgrounds. She is currently the interim Executive Director of Lost Lyrics an alternative education organization that she helped to create in 2006. She has also done extensive work with various other organizations, schools, and institutions as an educator including: York University, University of Toronto Schools, The Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto District School Board, Limestone District School Board, Arts for Children and Youth, Canadian Opera Company, Canadian Stage, Soulpepper Theatre Company, St. Alban’s Boys and Girls Club, and more.
Over the years, The Real Sun has played an active role in the founding, building, and strengthening of many community organizations, initiatives, and movements in Toronto and in particular in the Jane-Finch Community that focuses on issues of poverty, community resilience, art, anti-oppression, gender-based violence, Hip-Hop and identity. (Organizations include Nomanzland, West-Side Arts Hub, BeLovEd, LIFE Movement, Don’t Believe The Hype, Jane-Finch Action Against Poverty, Connect the Dots, JinDap and Lost Lyrics.)
As a Healer-in-Training The Real Sun is currently pursuing studies in Psychotherapy, Bio-Energetic Therapy, and Energy Healing at the Integral Healing Centre of Toronto. She is also a Reiki Practitioner Certified at the 2nd Degree Level. Healing is an element that is at the core of the work that she does in the classroom, aiming to help learners to come to a place of healing through their creative works.