Our Services
Black Teaching Artist Lab, LLC
Offerings Overview
Black Teaching Artist Lab (BTAL) provides a set of virtual and in-person workshops, curriculum design services, research initiatives, interviews, and speaking engagements designed to support organizations, educators, teaching artists, and the wider public . All offerings are facilitated by founder Melissa Parke and/or a trained BTAL teaching artist, each with extensive experience in facilitation, coaching, project design, and management.
Curriculum Design
BTAL will develop a single training seminar (either a live, virtual workshop or video recording) that expands upon existing curriculums with an Afrocentric SEL lens. Directly facilitated by Melissa Parke, this offering will help schools and organizations to develop curriculums that are more reflective of their Black teachers and more responsive to the needs of their Black learners.
Afrocentric SEL Virtual Workshops
Through Zoom, BTAL offers 90-120 long virtual workshops. These offerings include BTAL’s Afrocentric SEL Overview workshop and single competency workshops. These workshops are open to all individuals (including those who do not identify as BIPOC or work as teaching artists) and are led by a BTAL trained teaching artist. Additionally, we offer customizable, virtual workshops for partnering teaching artist organizations.
Empowering Black Creativity Through Culturally Rooted Arts Education
Black Teaching Artist Lab offers dynamic, engaging workshops designed for teaching artists, educators, and youth programs. Our workshops center the Black experience, honor the African Diaspora, and strengthen intercultural understanding through art-making, storytelling, and creative practice.
Speaking Engagement
Speaking engagement offerings are done by Black Teaching Artist Lab founder, Melissa Parke, who has over 4+ years experience in speaking with diverse crowds on topics such as Arts education, Black culture, equality and social politics.
Ready to Bring More Joy, Culture, and Creativity Into Your Curriculum?
Let us help you create lesson plans that celebrate the brilliance of Black youth..
Podcasts
Episode 54,
ACT 2: Melissa
Parke - Walk In Truth
Teaching Artistry with Courtney J. Boddie
Hey, PODience! What are you saying "yes" to right now? What obstacles are standing in your way that you are willing to knock over in order to do and feel something new? These are just a few questions that pervade the second part of our two-episode arc featuring Melissa Parke. In Act 2 of Episode 54: "Walk in Truth," Melissa talks a bit more about her work. She specifically goes into more detail about the Afro-centric SEL framework she created, noting that the lens through which the framework operates is centered in culture. Then, suddenly, the conversation turns sharply into a talk about love of sports, fitness and the power of saying yes. This carves out space for the two to discuss the work that needs to be done, internally and externally, in order to create meaningful goals and bring new ideas and systems into all aspects of life, particularly in education. So, will Melissa and Courtney be going head-to-head in a rugby match? It'll make sense when you listen, which you can do via SoundCloud, iTunes, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. You don’t want to miss this episode!
Black, Bi-Polar and Badass
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Afrocentric SEL
Our mission is to support Baltimore City Public School teachers and school communities in building sustainable and just neighborhood schools. We accomplish our mission through school-based projects that deepen school relationships, and through policy and advocacy work to support school communities in coming up with their own solutions to historic inequities.
Celebrating Blackness Through SEL
Are you interested in increasing the social emotional learning of your black students? Then you don’t want to miss this talk with Melissa Parke, founder of @blackteachingartistlab where she’ll be sharing tips from her Afrocentric SEL model and more!
M.E.C Presents: Poetry Across The Curriculum Facebook Live
As April is National Poetry Month, MEC like to host a Facebook live (through Zoom) centered around the importance of the Arts in classrooms and reading and discussing a poem from One Book One Philadelphia's 2021 pick, Jericho Brown's "The Tradition."
Black Teachers Matter
As a proud member of the @melanatededucators we are excited to participate in a Facebook Live discussion about the importance of Black educators and mentors. This will be a powerful conversation that will be open to everyone so don’t miss it💫 Join us on November 4th 8-9PM EST on Facebook live!
Founder, Melissa Parke