Episode 29 Podcast Recap

In this episode, we were able to continue the conversation about cultural appropriation vs. cultural appreciation but with a very special guest, LaNesha Tabb! LaNesha is an educator, author, and speaker with 15 years of experience in the classroom. Now she focuses on helping educators make their subjects globally relevant. We were so honored to have her on our show to dig deeper into this idea of teaching our students about a variety of cultures and making sure our diverse students are seen while also making sure we are approaching is in an appropriate way. 

It is no secret that teachers make mistakes. We are human afterall! But we can educate ourselves, learn from our mistakes, and do better next time. Art is such a huge part of culture, so as art teachers we have the ability to share so much with our students about many different cultures. We discuss with LaNesha about how we can do these cultures justice and teach them in the appropriate ways. Take a look at your own students and see who they are. What cultures are represented? What do they know? What can you learn from them? How can you teach about their cultures and allow them to see themselves in the artwork and feel seen? 

“Shame has no place in this work.” LaNesha reminds us that we are doing our best to give our students experiences and expose them to different cultures. If we don’t, there’s a chance that these students might not learn about that culture from anyone else. We do the best we can and really our main goal is to give our kids great experiences. 

Listen to the whole episode to hear more about how to go about presenting art and artists from different cultures in appropriate ways. How to go about it and what to do if you don’t know what to do! We pick her brain about it all and talk about specific examples as well. 

If you enjoy hearing from LaNesha, you can find more from her on her website www.laneshatabb.com and on instagram @lanesha_tabb

Keep blending,

Laura and Hayley