kahlil almustafa
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About ME
With more than a decade of experience as an Arts Educator, I have worked with young people from the elementary to the university level. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to facilitate workshops with thousands of young people, in hundreds of educational settings from a 14-week Rites of Passage Poetry and Basketball program with 8th grade boys in the Bronx, to an annual two-week Poetry Slam residency in a boarding school in New Hampshire, to a Drama, Poetry and Community Research to Performance workshop with elementary school girls.
In each instance, I have used student-based pedagogy to empower young people to explore and express their unique poetic voice. In addition to teaching, my range of roles and responsibilities have included writing curriculum, coordinating programs and special events, and managing student data. Outside of the classroom, I have facilitated teacher trainings, published essays about education and presented in conferences. I am currently pursuing education work on a freelance and long-term basis.
In each instance, I have used student-based pedagogy to empower young people to explore and express their unique poetic voice. In addition to teaching, my range of roles and responsibilities have included writing curriculum, coordinating programs and special events, and managing student data. Outside of the classroom, I have facilitated teacher trainings, published essays about education and presented in conferences. I am currently pursuing education work on a freelance and long-term basis.
MISSION STATEMENT
By practicing and advocating for progressive pedagogy, my goal is to infuse young people’s educational experiences with hope and inspiration.
BRIEF HISTORY
> Born in Queens, NYC and raised by two elementary school teachers
> 2002 Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam Champion, New York City
> MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts, Goddard College, 2011, Plainfield, VT
> 2002 Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam Champion, New York City
> MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts, Goddard College, 2011, Plainfield, VT
CAREER
Fresh Prep MC at Urban Arts Partnership, NYC (2012-2014)
> Taught 40+ sessions to prepare cohorts of HS students who previously failed to pass the NYS US History and Global History exams; taught hip-hop based curriculum, developed and implemented lesson plans, and managed student data.
> Taught 40+ sessions to prepare cohorts of HS students who previously failed to pass the NYS US History and Global History exams; taught hip-hop based curriculum, developed and implemented lesson plans, and managed student data.
MasterPoets Instructor at The Adobe Peapod Academy, NYC (2012-2013)
> Facilitated poetry workshops with 15+ HS students, collaborated with a team of educators to develop goals and programming, coordinated field trips and culminating events, prepared young people to perform at special events, including 24 Hour Plays on Broadway.
> Facilitated poetry workshops with 15+ HS students, collaborated with a team of educators to develop goals and programming, coordinated field trips and culminating events, prepared young people to perform at special events, including 24 Hour Plays on Broadway.
Arts Educator (2004-Present)
> Poetry Instructor - Facilitated workshops, designed and implemented writing and performance-based curriculum, hosted and coordinated special events, publishing projects and field trips in more than one hundred schools and community institutions in NYC, including Urban Word NYC, Community Works, Holderness Boarding School, Police Athletic League, and The Renaissance Charter School. > Trained teachers to integrate poetry into their curriculum at NYU, Bank Street, Montclair State University and New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE).
> Published essays in Listening to and Learning from Students (Information Age Publishing, 2010), and Teaching Matters Student Curriculum Guide (2010).
> Poetry Instructor - Facilitated workshops, designed and implemented writing and performance-based curriculum, hosted and coordinated special events, publishing projects and field trips in more than one hundred schools and community institutions in NYC, including Urban Word NYC, Community Works, Holderness Boarding School, Police Athletic League, and The Renaissance Charter School. > Trained teachers to integrate poetry into their curriculum at NYU, Bank Street, Montclair State University and New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE).
> Published essays in Listening to and Learning from Students (Information Age Publishing, 2010), and Teaching Matters Student Curriculum Guide (2010).
Performance Poet (2000-Present)
> Nationally recognized performer and guest speaker at community institutions, universities, political events, and prisons, including New Urban Arts with Rhode Island Poet Laureate Rick Benjamin, “The Brian Lehrer Show” on WNYC radio, Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival, and Lincoln Center.
> Nationally recognized performer and guest speaker at community institutions, universities, political events, and prisons, including New Urban Arts with Rhode Island Poet Laureate Rick Benjamin, “The Brian Lehrer Show” on WNYC radio, Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival, and Lincoln Center.
AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS
> Selected by Hip-Hop Theater Festival as one of thirty artists nationally creating a new hip-hop aesthetic, funded by Ford Foundation (2008)
> Selected as one of seven artists for The Field’s Economic Revitalization for Performing Arts grant program funded by Rockefeller Foundation (2009)
> Selected by Puffin Foundation for the Arts & Dialogue Award (2010)
> Selected by Harlem Arts Alliance for Arts in Community Grant (2010)
> Selected as one of seven artists for The Field’s Economic Revitalization for Performing Arts grant program funded by Rockefeller Foundation (2009)
> Selected by Puffin Foundation for the Arts & Dialogue Award (2010)
> Selected by Harlem Arts Alliance for Arts in Community Grant (2010)
PUBLICATIONS
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Growing Up Hip-Hop: Selected Poems from 1994-2009
> Used as a text in more than 40 classrooms from elementary to the university level > Featured as a must-read in Planning to Change the World: A Plan Book for Social Justice Teachers “Growing Up Hip-Hop should be required reading for every junior high school & high school English class.” - Bree Picower, PhD, founder of NYCoRE & author of Practice What You Teach |
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From Auction Block to Oval Office: 100 poems in the first 100 days of Obama’s presidency
> Living Room Readings - toured people’s homes and community spaces reading from the collection and engaging in critical dialogue > The People’s Inauguration, a panel discussion on the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama’s inauguration at the Jerome Greene Space, NYC “kahlil almustafa’s poems are extraordinary in their political complexity and aesthetic sensibility. His language is crystal-clear and the ideas are continually provocative.” - Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States |
Information Age Publishing
2010 |
Listening to and Learning from Students: Possibilities for Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum
> Essays “Hope & History,” and “Things I wish I told my grandma,” alongside student poems developed in poetry workshops > Winner of the The Society of Professors of Education Book Award "Insightful, cogent, provocative, illuminating, and just plain common sense. These are just some of the words that describe this collection of essays. Listening to and Learning from Students is just what we need to counter some of the non-sense spewing from policymakers and think tanks that believe they control the future of education reform. They would do well to listen to those who have the most at stake." - Pedro Noguera, New York University |