Curriculum and Teaching
I design curricula and facilitate experiences that center embodied learning, cultural presence, and healing-centered practice. Grounded in the Bantu principle of Ubuntu, 'I am because we are, ' my approach honors students and teachers as co-creators of knowledge. I work with artists, organizations, and schools to develop curriculum that is creative, sustaining, accessible, and grounded in learners' lived experiences.
Curricula Samples:
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Using Dr. Aurora Levins Morales' The Historian as Curandera as a foundation, students examine who writes history and why certain stories are told while others are erased. Through photography, students become historians—capturing their perspectives, contributing to the archive of their communities, and learning to see their own work as historically significant.
In this course students:
Develop photography and photo editing skills
Identify and articulate their artistic perspective through critique and written reflection
Create a thematic photo portfolio exploring essential questions: Who writes our stories? What histories need to be told?
Analyze historical framing devices to contextualize photographic work
Curate and present a community photography exhibition
Create a personal photography book
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Migration & Immigration
Students become historians, first documenting their own communities through interviews and observations, then exploring how race, gender, class, and environment shaped American migration (1500-1900). Working collaboratively in groups, students create short films that examine historical patterns and contemporary debates, culminating in a community film festival.
In this class, students:
Examine immigration history and identify different types of migration in the context of American colonization
Connect historical patterns to current political and social debates
Collect qualitative data through community-based research
Source and analyze primary documents for historical relevance
Collaborate in groups to produce short films
Present their work at a community film festival
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This unit is framed around the idea of Sankofa. Students learn about Sun Ra, Octavia Butler, Alicia Wormsley, and other artists and writers who embody an Afrofuturist sensibility. Central questions include:
How can history help us understand our present and shape our future?
What is liberation? What can we learn from liberation movements?
What lessons about social transformation can we learn from artists, writers, organizers, and leaders about surviving today and creating a better tomorrow?
This curriculum culminates in a youth-directed action project in their community.
Pictured below:
Aleta with students on a field trip to Drake Park in collaboration with interdisciplinary artist Alethea Pace. During this trip, high school students in Aleta’s class facilitated activities with a local elementary school in the Bronx.
