Engineer turned Multi-disciplinary Artist and Teacher
Having completed my postgraduate studies in Clinical Engineering at Cardiff University of Wales (U.K), I decided to take a well earned break. I had worked full time while completing my studies part time, and my health had suffered a great deal as a result. Having completed LAMDA’s grade 8 in solo acting myself, I decided to begin teaching to keep myself occupied while I focused on my health. What began as a temporary career break, turned into a life change.
I could see how beneficial Speech and Drama is to children. Especially children who learn English as a secondary language. When students engage with my lessons, their English teachers at school were surprised and impressed by the rapid improvement in their communication skills, and this was reflected in their classroom engagement, homework and examination grades.
The longer I taught, the more potential I saw for using the LAMDA framework to skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, research, statistical analysis, stress management, performance anxiety, study and revision skills (to mention a few). These are skills that aren’t taught within the scope of a traditional school’s academic curriculum.
Having attended a private secondary school (ages 11-18) in the U.K., as an asylum seeker, I was acutely aware of the fact that the privileged children I was surrounded by seemed to miraculously know all these skills that I was struggling to catch up with by teaching myself. Now as an adult I am aware that this was a result of the socioeconomic inequality between my wealthy peers and myself. I also quickly realised that most people did not get the opportunity to learn these skills. I became determined to offer access to this knowledge and training outside of these institutions that are inaccessible to most people.
During the Pandemic, I began offering lessons online and expanding my teaching practice to include more focussed writing lessons. I now live in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. I am in graduate school studying counselling psychology. I now offer lessons in Bharatanatyam, performance and writing.
Everything is inherently political. In time past, the average person could adopt an apolitical attitude. However, in this era, where fascism is on the rise globally, being apolitical is a luxury that the average person cannot afford. Coupled with the rise of misinformation, further fuelled by AI, I believe that young people of today benefit from age appropriate discussions of politics, systemic structures, and how we can see their impacts in both the art we study and create, and our own realities.
In my opinion the political views we hold are tied to our morality and how we choose to move through the world. For instance, my political beliefs will be reflected in the environment I choose to nurture in my studio and my approach toward teaching and disciplining students. Not to mention the works I chose to introduce my students to (I predominantly work with the works of artists of the global majority).
I identify primarily as a liberatory political writer and multidisciplinary artist. My art and teaching practice always orients towards the liberation of all people, centring people of the global majority, the disabled community and children.