A Reflection on Learnings from We Can’t Go Back: A Video Interview Series Focused on Anti-Racism in Arts & Cultural Education
From August to December 2020, the Teaching Artistry with Courtney J. Boddie podcast and Creative Generation collaborated with twenty-two inspiring Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists, educators, and community activists through the “We Can’t Go Back.” The interviews aggregated leadership strategies, educational tools, and an archive of the stories of BIPOC professionals whose work took action - inspired by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other countless victims at the hands of police - to further community understanding, counteract White Supremacy, and disassemble anti-Blackness in cultural and educational systems. This cumulative reflection highlights the many anti-racist, liberatory, and intersectional feminist practices, strategies, and fundamental shifts in arts and cultural work – both pedagogical and institutional – to reimagine a future to which the arts education field may move toward. Readers are invited to pause and reflect on the question: If we can't go back, where do we go from here?