This was our Summer 2020 Semester which was co-organized by a team of volunteers during the months of Covid lockdown.
MISSION: The Beaubourg School is an interdisciplinary experiment in education. We are tuition-free and operate with an open curriculum based on engaged input from our community of teachers and participants. Each semester is determined by the needs and imaginations of our New Orleans’ communities. Our free school model prioritizes artistic and social research as well as ways of knowledge-sharing that seek to raise social consciousness and explore the paths of liberation. We support teachers in offering creative gatherings that connect learning with experience and theory with practice. We seek to investigate education and knowledge in order to continually ask what’s worth knowing.
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AUGUST 2020 CATALOG:
Workshop - Té V. Smith - Turning Pages: A healthy masculinity workshop - 8/5
Toxic masculinity is a term for some of the dangerous associations of “maleness” in our culture. It doesn’t mean that masculinity is bad or that it is bad to be a man. It does mean, however, that many of the traits associated with masculinity in our culture are dangerous or toxic for both men and women’s mental, physical, emotional, and relationship health and let’s be honest; the difference between healthy & toxic masculinity can be and has been a matter of life or death in some cases.
Turning Pages is a Healthy Masculinity workshop dedicated to addressing and implementing healthy practices and monitoring progress of boys and men.
Té V. Smith is a Nigerian American writer who focuses on the themes of healthy masculinity, mental health, and education reform. He has written two books, a collection of poetry & prose, 'Here We Are, Reflections of A God Gone Mad' (2017 R.H. Austin Publishing) and a Young Adult novel, 'Exit Ticket' (2019 Field Order Press). His work has been published in or are forthcoming in Tin House, Kingdoms In The Wild, Black Girl In Ohm, Blackbird and more.
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Workshop - Moréna Espiritual - Stardust en el Sur: A music history and movement class - 8/8 at 11am
Stardust en el Sur is a healing movement workshop made to honor indigenous ways of relating through dance in order to promote a mind-body-soul consciousness that is expansive and accessible to anyone; no prior knowledge or skill set required. It’s name came to be because all music danced to and learned about in this class are by Afrolatinx creators.
Join us in this pop up session focused on the Rap in Español as we muse on it’s political evolution to answer the question: What does it mean to be daring and how can we use this framework to unlock new potential within movement? Come prepared to brainstorm, learn some history, and then apply your conclusions through some brand new, self-made dance moves.
Moréna Espiritual (they/them) is a queer Afro-Taíno teaching artist, performer, and organizer. Their family is from Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, while they were raised mostly in Harlem, New York. They have performed at venues like the Brooklyn Academy of Music (2014) and New York Live Arts (2016), and their work has been part of an exhibition at the VisArts museum in Rockville, Maryland. They are a recent Teaching Artist Project fellow - a self-reflective program developed by Community Word Project to deepen their social justice-based pedagogy. Currently they teach "Stardust en el Sur" - a healing dance class that mixes political education, movement, and reflection in order to unlock kinetic medicine for its participants while uplifting the legacy of the Afro-diasporic genres of Latin America. Stardust has been taught at the Langston Hughes House, Sarah Lawrence College, with the collective Radical Love Consciousness, and as community classes at the Church of St. Timothy and St. Mathew’s.
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Forum - MarkAlain Déry - NoiseFilter - 8/12 at 6pm
COVID-19 updates as seen through the filter of Social, Economic and Racial Justice.
MarkAlain Dery, DO, MPH, FACOI is an infectious diseases physician and epidemiologist who is the founder of community radio station 102.3FM WHIV-LP, a station dedicated to human rights and social justice. You don't have to wait to hear what he's up to, though: with Dr Eric Griggs ("Doc Griggs"), he has a daily, ten minute podcast NoiseFilter on COVID-19. Find it on Spotify.
Click here to join the Open Forum Zoom Meeting
Workshop - Tim Kooken - Somatic Presence for Creative Communication - 8/15 at 10am
This workshop will be an exploration into the presence of our bodies. The body remembers. The body is an amalgamation of histories and stories and memories which go beyond our lifetime. The body is relational, interpersonal, cultural. Through sensory activation, awareness practice, meditative movement, discussion, and mindful communication, we will explore the somatic, in all its creative and psychosocial entanglements.
Presencing is focused on awakening and/or continuing a process. Life is process, presence is process. This will differentiate 'presence' from the 'present' as something dynamic with time. We will explore how we relate with and through space, and how our bodies inform mindful choices in interpersonal communication. Your body and your presence is all that is required.
Majak Qigong aka T.T. Kooken (they/them) is a Genderqueer facilitator and teacher of many embodiment modalities. From martial arts, meditation, breathwork, and fitness, to improvisation, performance, creativity, and ritual, they are focused on bringing healing through Somatic awareness and practice. In keeping with the spirit of Qigong as “Energy Cultivation”, they coalesce areas of experience to cultivate energy and develop deeper humanity. They're committed to working with nature, against the patriarchy, and towards a greater awareness of body knowledge, energy, and experience. They are a full-time parent, explorer, and student of living practice.
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Forum - Andrea Heard - School Reimagined - 8/19 at 6pm
How is Virtual Instruction going for teachers? What are the benefits and challenges of Remote Learning? Andrea has kept her eyes on the changing learning landscape and wants to provide tips and insights that can make the experience better for teachers, students, and parents.
Andrea is a native New Orleanian who has taught here for the past 10 years. Beginning in elementary, then moving forward to high school, and now teaching collegiately at Southern University at New Orleans and also Delgado Community College. Once leaving teaching in the charter school movement in 2017, she began a blog called Ask Miss Heard. It began with writings to help support parents and also novice teachers navigate our current education system. From there, she continued with weekly LIVE shows via social media sites. All of those pieces have led up to her recent work and docuseries project. Here she fuses her background in film with her experiences in education. She has 10 shows total that will air later this year.
Workshop - Dax Bram - Manifestos - 8/22 at 11am
This workshop/class explores notable manifestos and the concept of manifesting. Students will workshop their own manifesto by the end of the session(s).
DB is an interdisciplinary PhD student in cultural anthropology and a Mellon Graduate Fellow in Community-Engaged Scholarship at Tulane University.
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Workshop - Jalisa Roberts - Exploring the Elements of Dance - 8/26 at 6pm
What does a dancer do? At its core, dance is moving through space and time with energy. The class will explore a couple of the five elements of dance (body, action, space, time, and energy), creating short movement phrases through structured improvisation. This class is designed for dancers as well as ‘non-dancers’.
Jalisa Roberts is a writer, educator, Black Studies scholar, singer, and choreographer; and explores how all of these different artistic interests live in one body and influence each other. Her choreography sparks conversations on identity and memory. Much of Jalisa's work explores how individuals relate to and influence groups, and how our narratives on similar events can differ greatly based on our individual experiences.
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Workshop - Amelia Parenteau - Anti-racist Book Club - 8/29 at 11am
Join the Anti-Racist Book Club for an introductory conversation about equity, diversity, and inclusion. Prior to class, we'll read excerpts from texts seminal to anti-racist work by authors Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robin DiAngelo, and Reni Eddo-Lodge. In our workshop discussion, we will explore strategies to incorporate anti-racist practice into our daily life. Texts will be provided free of charge.
Amelia Parenteau is a freelance writer, translator, and theater maker based in New Orleans with a focus on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. An alumna of Sarah Lawrence College, she has worked with TCG, Ping Chong + Company, The Lark, The Civilians, the French Institute Alliance Française, Voyage Theater Company, and The Park Avenue Armory in New York; People's Light in Pennsylvania; the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut; and Théâtre du Soleil in France. She has translated dramatic works by Leslie Kaplan, Alain Foix, Sedef Ecer, the Théâtre du Soleil, David Lescot, and Charlotte Boimare & Magali Solignat. She is a member of the FENCE International Translation Network, ATLAS, and TCG, and she has been published in several magazines and journals including American Theatre Magazine, Asymptote Literary Magazine, Contemporary Theatre Review, Culturebot, HowlRound, and The Mercurian.
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