#37: Corbrae Smith: Forged Through Fire

Corbrae Smith is a middle school art teacher by day, dope afrofuturist illustrator by night. Based in Oakland, CA, he is active in the local art scene and has created and contributed to many murals in the Bay Area.

He spoke passionately about teaching and how he makes an impact with his students by continuing to push forward with his art career. We talked about critique, both in the classroom and with our own artwork, the struggles of juggling these two careers, and making your own opportunities while also defeating your ego.

I loved his idea of using expert groups in the classroom to encourage students to share work with each other, give more autonomy to students, and offer opportunities for advanced students to showcase and improve their knowledge while helping struggling students. There’s just so much to this method!

Corbrae also talked about how anti-racist teaching is different for Black teachers and how exhausting it has been to educate white colleagues and help us along. We NEED to step it up. Keep doing the work of confronting your biases and pushing the other white people in your life to do the same. Keep doing this work even when it’s uncomfortable - lean into your discomfort.

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