Songs and Stories for Building Beloved, Equitable Classroom Communities
Presented by City Love
Come sing, dance and discuss with us! We will use our songs and stories to open up space for participants to reflect on race, equity and solidarity in our lives, our classrooms and our school communities. This is an opportunity for each of us to practice in pairs leading developmentally appropriate conversations about race, difference, and equity and collect tools to help us do this in a mindful, impactful, and healing way. We will draw on the collective brilliance of participants to continue adding resources to our toolkits, to work through challenges, and create action steps for how we will create nurturing, empowering spaces for all of our students and concert attendees. We will close out with a full-group song-writing experience! Bring your singing voice and your dancing shoes!
Qiana Ganges is a singer-songwriter, Co-Director of the children's music group City Love (www.muchcitylove.com), and Kindergarten Lead Teacher at The Philadelphia School. She received her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Geology from Temple University after taking a long break, graduating in her 30s and proving to herself that it’s never too late to keep going. Her journey after college led her to food growing and food access work at several Philadelphia farms, including (Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden, Mill Creek Farm and Greensgrow Farms). Her time at Sankofa Farm coincided with the discovery of her family name’s connection to local Black history, which she later reflected on in a personal essay included in Stories We Know: Recording Black History of Bartram's Garden and Southwest Philadelphia. Outside of the classroom and the stage, she loves spending time with her husband, West, and daughter, Parker. They reside in beautiful West Philly.
Brian Caselli Jordan (he/him) is a singer-songwriter, Co-Director of children's music group City Love (www.muchcitylove.com), a 1st/2nd grade teacher at The Philadelphia School and a proud father. Brian has taught for the last 16 years and holds an M.Ed in Early Childhood Education from Temple University. As a teaching artist with City Love he has had the honor of co-leading school assemblies and workshops about race, equity, and belonging with tens of thousands of Preschool-6th grade students and teachers around the country. Brian is also a trainer with the University of Pennsylvania’s Lion’s Story project helping lead racial literacy trainings for schools and organizations nationwide. Brian has been a member of CMN since 2020.
