In this episode, part two of the interview with Ama, she offers a deep dive into her facilitation of anti-oppression workshops. Ama paints a vibrant picture of what relational, integrity-rooted, and liberatory-framed social justice work can look like. She provides examples of games and role-plays that take place in her facilitation.

Guest’s Bio: Ama Codjoe is the former director of the Dreamyard Art Center in the South Bronx where she taught and directed arts and social justice programming for young people as well as professional development for educators and administrators. She has conducted anti-racism, anti-oppression, anti-bias, organizational culture, and leadership trainings for the National Guild for Community Arts Education, The New School, New York University, Bard Graduate Center, Columbia University, University of Maryland, The Met Museum, Queen’s Museum, Cleveland Arts Education Consortium, Groundswell Mural Arts Project, Community MusicWorks, the National League of American Orchestras, and numerous other educator, arts, and administrative groups. As a writer, she has received support from Cave Canem Foundation and elsewhere. Her recent awards include a 2020 BRIO Award from the Bronx Council on the Arts, a 2020 NYFA Fellowship, and a 2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship.

Breakdown of the Episode:

• Ama’s poet-identity and writing background takes center stage and show how they shape her work as a social justice facilitator.
• The privilege bag (and other activities) bring Ama’s participants face-to-face with the realities of “unearned access to power and resources.”
• Arts education can play a central role in the work of anti-oppression and social justice.
• Ama shares how she handles moments of resistance in her workshops and how she protects folx of color in these spaces.
• Ama uses Theatre of the Oppressed role-plays to move participants from intellectualizing social justice to doing the work.
• Ama invites Interrupt the Narrative listeners to embrace the joy that is an enduring thread of this work.

Links:

Viewable Transcript for Episode 2

Ama Codjoe’s Site

Rachel Ibrahim

Privilege Bag Activity

Tema Okun & White Supremacy Culture

Microaggressions (Dr. Derald Wing Sue)

Ta-Nehisi Coates The Case for Reparations

Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me

Augusto Boal (Theatre of the Oppressed”)

Courageous Conversations (Singleton & Linton)

Cleanup Woman, by Betty Wright

Jacquie Luqman