Creating Inclusive Spaces: Supporting LGBTQ+ Individuals in the Arts Education Community & Classroom

Feb 19, 2025
Mar 28, 2025
Time
4:00 pm
5:30 pm
Cost
Free
Location
Zoom
Register

The NYC Arts in Education Roundtable is thrilled to partner with PFLAG NYC and GenderWise to bring this three-part series to the arts education community.

Please join us for this virtual series that seeks to address best practices, strategies, and supports for LGBTQ+ students and arts education workers in all facets of arts education spaces. Participants will explore how we can support each other as well as address and prepare for the different scenarios that we might come across in our professional lives. Partners from PFLAG NYC and GenderWise will facilitate sessions on topics including:

  • Creating inclusive and safe learning environments for LGBTQ+ youth, and reviewing policies and protections that currently exist in NYC schools (geared toward educators)
  • Supporting LGBTQ+ staff, educators, TAs, interns, etc. in the workplace and extending those supports into relationships with school partners (geared toward organizations and arts administrators)
  • Putting learnings into practice and engaging in productive conversations when confronted with pushback to LGBTQ+ topics (curated for all audiences)

Up to 4.5 hours of NY State CTLE credit will be available for full series attendance (1.5 hours per session).

More details on each session are available below. All sessions will take place from 4 – 5:30pm ET.

Wednesday 2/19: Supporting LGBTQ+ Young Learners – Tools & Strategies

This workshop facilitated by PFLAG is geared towards educators and will take a deeper dive into best practices, both responsive and proactive, when supporting LGBTQ+ youth and creating a safe and inclusive environment in the classroom. Included in this discussion will be addressing language, upstander strategies, and how to best support when an LGBTQ+ young person comes out. We will also look at NYS and NYC laws, and NYC Public Schools policy specifically focused on students and their families. Q&A to follow.

Monday 3/10: Practicing LGBTQ+ Allyship in Arts Education: Supporting Educators, Administrators, and Families

This workshop facilitated by GenderWise is geared toward administrators and arts and culture organizations, and will focus on communication techniques, best practices, and understanding rights and laws that will support educators, administrators, and families who work with/support queer and trans staff. We will focus on organization policies and practices that can be put in place at both the school and arts organization levels to ensure the safety and comfort of LGBTQ+ staff, whether they be permanent fixtures or visitors from outside organizations. Beyond exploring best practices specific to participants’ needs, we will review lesser-known legal protections that LGBTQ+ folks have in the workplace to ensure compliance, especially when sending employees to work in other spaces. We will model and practice how to use these laws to advocate for better conditions for LGBTQ+ people. Q&A to follow.

Friday 3/28: Working With Pushback: Tools and Tactics for Difficult Conversations

This discussion-based and interactive workshop facilitated by representatives from both PFLAG and GenderWise will review some of the many real-world reactions and worries that educators, administrators, parents, and guardians may have, and how to engage in productive conversations despite pushback or negative reactions to LGBTQ+ topics. All are welcome to attend. Q&A to follow.

About the Presenters

Philip Calabro

Philip Calabro (he/she) is an artist and educator with lifelong passions of queer activism and working with young people. Her activism work is rooted in theatre and how allyship can be created through human connection and storytelling. With PFLAG NYC, he’s part of the Safe Schools team, teaching respect and equality for LGBTQ+ students of K-12 school communities in all five boroughs, and leading PFLAG NYC’s Interfaith programming. As an artist, Philip performs across the city and throughout the country for all ages under his drag moniker, Nancy NoGood. She has written a drag play for youth through a commission with Michigan Stage in Detroit, and in the city has performed at Joe’s Pub, The Brick, Queens Theatre, and Target Margin Theatre.

Rachael Feldman

Rachael (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based facilitator, teaching artist, professor and arts administrator. Rachael holds an MA in Applied Theatre, which they have used to focus on socially-driven education around gender, queerness, and consent. Beyond co-running GenderWise Trainings, they are an adjunct Gender Studies professor at John Jay College, a teaching artist and administrator with New York City Children’s Theater, and a queer history tour guide and developer with Christopher Street Tours.

Ania Upstill

Ania Upstill (they/them) is an educator, clown and theater maker. They have been an educator and facilitator for over ten years, and hold a Masters in Applied Theater from CUNY. In their personal creative and education work they focus on the LGBTQIA+ community, with a focus on queer and trans joy. Ania co-founded GenderWise, a company that aims to increase understanding of gender diversity. They are a Joker with Theater of the Oppressed NYC and work as a teaching artist for Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theater Workshop, New Victory Theater, and Opening Act. Ania is also an adjunct professor in Gender Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Clark Wolff Hamel

Clark Wolff Hamel (he/him) works as PFLAG NYC’s Director of Education Program implementing and expanding LGBTQ+ education and support throughout New York City and beyond. He works in New York City schools at individual school, district, and citywide levels creating and providing LGBTQ+ education to teachers, administrators, students, and families. He also works creating and sharing educational content for colleges and universities, hospitals, community health centers, at the corporate level, and more. His work has led him to serving on the boards of multiple transgender healthcare clinics and publishing multiple articles around transgender access to healthcare. He holds an MA in Human Rights and a BA in Sociology.

About PFLAG NYC

PFLAG NYC is the founding chapter of PFLAG, the nation’s foremost family-based organization committed to celebrating LGBTQ+ young people and creating a better future for all.

Jeanne Manford of Flushing, New York, marched in the Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day Parade with her son, Morty, on June 25, 1972, carrying a sign that said, “Parents of Gays: Unite in Support for our Children.” Spurred on by Jeanne, a group of New York City parents in 1973 founded Parents of Gays of Greater New York, the predecessor of PFLAG NYC.

PFLAG NYC started a national movement that now has more than 250,000 members and supporters in over 500 chapters throughout the United States.

Today, our mission remains the same: to create a better future for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth and adults through a partnership of parents, allies, and LGBTQ+ people.

About GenderWise

GenderWise offers engaging, accessible and interactive trainings and consulting related to gender diversity in professional and educational spaces.

Utilizing skills and pedagogical practices developed while studying applied theatre, we aim to make education around gender diversity accessible and relatable for all clients, regardless of familiarity with the content or with theatre. 

It is our goal that every participant walks away feeling better prepared to support their TGNC colleagues/students/employees/etc, whether that be through changed policy, personal advocacy, and more. We aim to make our educational spaces safe and brave, fostering an environment where participants are free to ask the hard questions for the sake of personal growth.

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