African Live Art and Empathy in Action have been hard at work on a collaboration for several months now. We’d like to take this time and space to share who African Live Art is, as well as shed some light on their current and future collaborations with Empathy in Action.
African Live Art is all about connection and understanding. The Ghana-based organization has members in Ghana, France, the United States, and beyond. While the organization offers a wide variety of classes, including Traditional and Contemporary African dance classes, African instrument and music classes, history, and even folklore classes involving storytelling and their interpretations, they are much more than the sum of these parts and their work extends outward absolutely. As a virtual platform, African Live Art seeks to “share, connect and increase the visibility and engagement of Afro-Centric, African Art forms, History and Tourism to various institutions such as Universities, Libraries, Arts Organizations, Africans in the Diaspora and individuals across the world.” Much like Empathy in Action, their messages and vision are based on empathy and inclusion through intentional action.
Corinna Espino was first introduced to African Live Art through its creator-owner, Kophori (Philip Agyapong). Prior to the inception of African Live Art, the two had been working alongside one another at the East Bay Center for Performing Arts— Corinna as the resident Social Worker and Kophori as the West African Dance Instructor. After the creation of African Live Art, Kophori approached Corinna in October of 2020, needing help ensuring that all of his teachers were on the same page in regards to how they were giving instruction in the classroom. For Corinna this could not have come at a better time. After formulizing her years of love and devotion to developing and delivering training seminars of all types into a concretized plan, the opportunity to work with and develop trainings for Kophori catalyzed the transitions she had envisioned years before.
Together, African Live Art and Empathy in Action were able to create an instructor onboarding training for the African Live artists, which included 4 modules, cross-cultural teaching strategies, best practices for adult learners, award winning practices for virtual instruction and course structure. This training was provided as a live training and also as an online module.
While both organizations were thrilled with the results, the collaboration’s true gift was allowing space for Corinna, Sascha, Kophori, and others to connect more deeply with one another and allow more meaningful exchanges. As such, they have all learned from one another; each member brings their own unique set of talents, thinking, and creative skills. In connecting with one another, African Live Arts and Empathy in Action have put themselves in a uniquely advantageous position where their goals, aligned as they are, have the chance to impact an even bigger audience than previously imagined— and to an even greater extent.
In the near future, the collaboration intends to move beyond the instructor training and support African Live Arts in community mobilizing and marketing efforts in hopes of fostering and nurturing deeper connections with the African artists and their customers!
If you are curious about African Live Art and/or want to check out their services, continue on to https://www.africanliveart.com and/or Instagram (@africanliveart). Below are some of their wonderful instructors!
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