Young Audiences of Louisiana honors Kellogg Foundation’s National Day of Racial Healing

NEW ORLEANS, LA, January 8, 2024. Young Audiences would like to take this moment to honor the eighth annual National Day of Racial Healing (NDoRH) on Tuesday, January 16 throughout the Young Audiences Charter School YACS network. On this day and on Wednesday, January 24, Young Audiences of Louisiana (YALA) will host its first annual NDoRH community building events. On Tuesday, January 16, 2024 we will engage in a Collective Breath for Racial Healing – during morning announcements we will guide our students at each YACS campus in a collective breath. 

And, on Wednesday, January 24, 2024 at Lawrence D. Crocker School (2301 Marengo St. New Orleans), Young Audiences is offering a second community building event for Racial Healing in the form of Collective Movement for Racial Healing. Coach Eddy Villalta Guillen will guide community members in a Creative Movement event to inspire conversation and restoration.

January 17, 2024, marks the eighth consecutive year of the National Day of Racial Healing (NDoRH), an annual observance launched by W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) on January 17, 2017 as a time to contemplate our shared values and create the blueprint together for how we heal from the effects of racial inequities. WKKF launched this annual event to build on the foundation’s work and learnings of the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) community partners. Fundamental to this day is a clear understanding that racial healing is at the core of racial equity. This day is observed every year on the Tuesday following Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

At YALA, we dream of an anti-racist world, especially in our schools and communities. We believe in the power of movement and creativity to bring people together, deepen relationships, fortify movements and collectively heal. Therefore, this second community building open house event offers an opportunity to begin racial healing through collective movement, conversation and restoration, encouraging wellness and a supportive and nourishing antiracist space for our community invested in our students.  Our underlying purpose includes community building, social emotional learning, ethical awareness, and parent engagement.  

According to YALA’s Executive Director, Jenny James,”Young Audiences of Louisiana has been so fortunate over the years to have benefited from W.K. Kellogg Foundation's support, thought leadership, and thought partnership on racial healing. We are proud to host our first Day of Racial Healing event to provide our learners, teachers, teaching artists, and families with arts based tools to process tough topics related to race, have thoughtful discussions, and come together in community.” 

“We believe in the power of movement and creativity to bring people together, deepen relationships, fortify movements and collectively heal” says Ja’nese Brooks-Galathe, YALA Director of Professional Learning and a member of the NDoRH planning team. 

Director of Access, Belonging and Strategic Partnerships, additionally a planning member of the NDoRH event, Renee Benson notes that, "We are big fans of our caregivers as they are the champions behind every young learner in which our work engages. This event re-centers our work to focus on the needs of caregivers, specifically our Spanish speaking community. Spanish will be the primary language spoken at the event with English translations provided as a way to prioritize the voice of our native Spanish speaking caregivers."

YALA understands that racial healing is both a tool and a process for celebrating our common humanity, acknowledging the truths from our shared history, and recognizing our collective potential. Through racial healing, we can forge deep, meaningful relationships, lay the groundwork to transform broken systems, and bridge the divides to transform communities for our children and future generations. Racial healing is not only important but essential—as healing is at the heart of racial equity.

The facilitator of the event, Restorative and Social-Emotional Learning Coordinator Eddy Villalta Guillen explains that, “Body movement is the very first form of passing the history and culture of civilizations since the beginning of times, movement has no color boundaries or code to be done, and is also part of every living thing in this world, poses no frontiers and can touch the deepest fibers of humanity, and just like love, movement can move mountains.”

Please visit: www.dayofracialhealing.org, where you will find helpful resources including Conversation Guides, Action Kits and the Business Case for Racial Equity.

You can also follow YALA on Facebook and Instagram.

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