Renee Benson, Director of Access, Belonging, and Strategic Partnerships
Renee Benson is a New Orleans-based singer, songwriter, poet and composer. She has performed in Germany, Austria, Turkey, UK, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Holland, Denmark and Romania. Renee has graced the stages of some of Europe’s and the world’s biggest festivals: Glastonbury Music Festival, Popfest, Eurovision and Life Ball.
In addition to her work as a vocalist, Renee teaches with many institutions including: Girls Rock (Austria), Young Audiences of Louisiana, NOMA and the Caravan Stage Theater Co. She also founded IN MY WORDS, an arts-intensive program for young women in the South Bronx.
Building upon her rich performing arts experience, Renee spent three years at Young Audiences Charter School where she acted as a teaching artist, ELA teacher and founder of the schoolwide mindfulness program. As a K-8 teaching artist, she collaborated with classroom teachers to organize, plan and execute highly impactful instruction in Math, Science, ELA and Social Studies using the artistic discipline of music, and worked to support academic, creative, social and emotional development through an arts-integrated framework. Renee witnessed the results of her arts integration efforts when she obtained 100% classroom participation rate and 90% mastery of connecting academic content rate with her students during the 2017-18 schoolyear.
