EDIB Spring 2021 Report

Monday, Jun 14, 2021
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Dear students, faculty, and staff,

As we come to the conclusion of the academic year, we are writing to share our spring 2021 Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (EDIB) report. We believe this update is an important step in communicating efforts throughout the school. This work can often be challenging, but we remain committed to developing processes that continue to foster inclusivity and belonging within our community.

Below you will find the Spring 2021 Report, which will also be on our website. We will continue to share EDIB reports over the course of next academic year as well.

We want to thank you, our community, for your feedback and involvement in this work. A special thank you to the members of the Workshop and Bias Response Working Groups for guiding the development of programming in these two critical areas. As always, we welcome any additional comments or questions.

Sincerely,
The EDIB Taskforce

 

 

​​​​​Juilliard’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Spring 2021 Report

The following report is a summary of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (EDIB) progress across Juilliard’s departments and divisions during the spring from the start of Block 3 to the end of the academic year. While this report includes many updates, it is not a complete representation of all current and projected EDIB initiatives. The next report will be circulated at the end of the fall 2021 semester.

 

EDIB Working Groups

EDIB Working Groups comprising students, faculty, and staff from across the school were launched in October 2020. Over the course of the year, the groups met monthly to work toward initial goals. Below please find a progress update.

Bias Response Working Group

  • The group provided feedback on the draft policy which resulted in the recommendation for a new section called “Using this Policy.”
  • The group recommended “focus groups” that would provide opportunities to share information about the policy; answer questions; and solicit feedback on bias reporting, the Bias Response Report Form, and response processes. Focus groups will be implemented during the 2021-22 academic year.
  • The group developed educational resources to be utilized via my.juilliard, during orientation, and through other platforms to share information about the Bias Response Office and various processes. Mini-project topics included community centered definitions, a resource map, and outlines for pop-up events.

Workshop Development Working Group

  • The group spent initial meetings establishing the spirit of the group, which was to create educational opportunities throughout the year and support a culture of belonging at Juilliard for all community members.
  • The group determined that educational opportunities for the following academic year should include staff/faculty specific sessions with professional development; departmental/divisional forums to discuss within the context of art forms; orientation touchpoints for undergraduate, graduate, and transfer students; and expanded EDIB sessions during the First Year Experience (previously Colloquium).
  • The following sessions, with possible follow-up discussions, were reviewed and approved for implementation next academic year. Note that topics will be developed with presenters to be determined over the summer, and a complete schedule will be shared in the fall.
    • Faculty/Staff Offerings
      • Tools for Inclusive Learning Environments
      • Fostering Belonging at Work
      • Navigating Representations of Diversity
      • Understanding Academic Accommodations
    • Departmental/Divisional Offerings
      *Co-hosted by departments with attendance by any community member
      • Gender in Artistic Expression
      • Intersections of Self and Score
      • Navigating Missteps and Fostering Generative Rehearsal Spaces

Internal Updates and Collaborations

Alumni: This summer Alumni Relations, EDIB, and Student Development will collaborate to offer opportunities to further develop alumni engagement and relations. We aim to provide a holistic approach, including elements of mentorship, discussion, and networking.

Bias Response: We are pleased to announce the hiring of an associate director of bias response and Title IX senior deputy, who will be responsible for assisting in the further development of the bias response and prevention processes. Additionally, the bias response deputies—who are responsible for receiving reports, connecting individuals to resources, assisting in response procedures, and advising community members on the school’s nondiscrimination and harassment policy and processes—will complete the following trainings this summer:

  • Campus Restorative Justice Across Student Affairs: six-week course, University of San Diego, Center for Restorative Justice
  • Tackling Tough Conversations: half-day course, New York Peace Institute

Writing and Communication Center (WCC):The WCC, in conjunction with Liberal Arts and EDIB, will offer a series of discussion-based events that will focus on current events and the needs of our community. This framework will allow students, faculty, and staff to gather and share with one another in a community space.

Divisional and Departmental EDIB Updates

Our divisions and departments have continued their work to thoughtfully broaden curriculum and provide EDIB learning opportunities. Additionally, each division and department continues to develop recruitment processes with a focus on deepening candidate pools and engaging with people of diverse backgrounds and experiences. The below updates are selections of progress this spring.

STUDENT DEVELOPMENT

Student Diversity Initiatives

  • The Diversity Advocates hosted 14 programs this spring.
  • One successful active program was Women of Juilliard Then and Now, for Women’s History Month. In this session, the DAs hosted a panel of Juilliard alumni across all disciplines who identify as women.
  • For Black History Month and Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage months, the department partnered with AVI Food Services to highlight prominent chefs and entrepreneurs in each community. Flyers in the Residence Hall and virtual posts were showcased to highlight individuals in both communities and their achievements.
  • Student Diversity Initiatives and the DAs are currently planning Diversity Dialogues, programs, and initiatives for the upcoming year and will welcome 3 new DAs to the team.

Community Engagement

  • The Office of Community Engagement launched a new Lunch and Learn series, The Communal Table, held monthly, January-May. Guests were Michelle Rofrano (conductor and founder of Protestra, the protest orchestra), Ashley Jackson (Pre-College and DMA harp alum; Margaret Bonds scholar and member of the Dream Unfinished Project), Jay Julio (viola alum and founder of Sound Off: Music for Bail), Chris Carroll (trumpeter turned government lobbyist), Ryan Donovan (dancer and theater scholar whose work explores body, gender identity, and ethnicity in Broadway).
  • ​​​​​​All Community Engagement teaching fellows were required to take a new year-long course, Practicum in Classroom Pedagogy, covering culturally responsive pedagogy, and pedagogical techniques that support EDIB principles led by the Crime Victims Treatment Center (trauma-informed teaching) and Health Resources in Action (creative youth development). Topics included whiteness in the classroom and the music world, strategies for engaging many kinds of learners, and various methodologies to democratize and create equity in a classroom setting.
  • Concert Fellows led a multi-classroom project with multiple NYC elementary and middle schools around “found sounds”—the sounds that students heard and were interested in within their own respective spaces. The project elevated, amplified, and empowered each student's cultural and artistic voice.

DANCE DIVISION

  • The Dance Division hosted master classes for third- and fourth-year students with guest artists including Matthew Rushing, Juliano Nuñes, Lloyd Knight, Gregory Lau, Jermaine Spivey, Rena Butler, Spenser Theberge, Jonathan Alsberry, Riley Watts, Peter Chu, Ami Shulman, and Hofesh Shechter.
  • The hip-hop class welcomed guest teacher Omari Wiles of the House of Nina Oricci and Les Ballet Afrik for a master class in Vogue technique. Calvin Royal III, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, taught ballet to the first-year class.
  • The Dance Division hosted a six-week residency for the entire division with Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, culminating in a livestreamed performance in Peter Jay Sharp Theater.
  • Dean Alicia Graf Mack continued to lead discussions on bias and inclusive language with faculty, staff, and students.

DRAMA DIVISION

  • The Drama Division recently named Derrick Sanders as associate director. Derrick comes to Juilliard from the University of Illinois at Chicago.  
  • Spring community meeting guests in the Drama Division included director and writer Seret Scott, poet and playwright Cornelius Eady, and playwright and director Guillermo Calderón.
  • The theater history course, now called Vibrant Legacies in Theater, with Shana Komitee, featured guests including Shanti Pillai on classical Indian performance, Juilliard’s Renée Baron on the Harlem Renaissance, Ju Yon Kim on Mei Lanfang and Chinese national theater, Ruben Santiago-Hudson on August Wilson, and more.
  • Writer and actor NSangou Njikam hosted a six-week workshop in hip-hop theater with second- and third -year actors.
  • Rehearsal and performance projects this year featured works by writers including Tanya Barfield, Carlyle Brown, Julia Cho, Nilo Cruz, María Irene Fornés, Jiréh Breon Holder, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Hansol Jung, and José Rivera and led by directors including Elena Araoz, Lisa Benavides-Nelson, Jade King Carroll, Wayne T. Carr, Jimonn Cole, taneisha duggan, Justin Emeka, Kimille Howard, Orlando Pabotoy, Jeffrey Page, Taylor Reynolds, and Shaun Patrick Tubbs.

MUSIC DIVISION

  • Chamber music manager and faculty member Curtis Stewart taught a course titled Cultural Equity and Performance Practice that delved into the performance of notated music influenced by the Blues and African American art music; it culminated in a performance project.
  • This spring, composers of programmed orchestral works that were performed included Michael Abels, Claude Arrieu, Anthony Barfield, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Jessie Montgomery, Paola Prestini, Florence Price, Tōru Takemitsu, Jeff Scott, Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges), Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Reena Esmail, Alberto Ginastera, Ruth Gipps, Betsy Jolas, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Alvin Singleton, and Joan Tower.
  • Conductors included David Chan, Marin Alsop, Elaine Douvas, Elinor Rufeizen, Keri-Lynn Wilson Speranza Scappucci, and Xian Zhang.
     

Historical Performance

  • Juilliard415 commissioned and recorded an arrangement of dances by the Black British abolitionist, writer, and composer Ignatius Sancho (c. 1729–80) created by student Nicola Canzano.
  • Historical Performance continued its series of symposium talks emphasizing questions of colonialism and marginalized voices in the early modern period with guests including Kate van Orden on The Renegade Origins of the Early Music Movement, Julia Prest on Francophone and Creole Opera in 18th-Century Colonial Saint-Domingue, Steven Zohn on Telemann’s Musical Exoticism, Arne Spohr on Black Musicians in German Courts in the 17th and 18th Centuries, and more.
  • Two baroque violins are being made available to MAP students, and there is a plan to increase the inventory of baroque instruments for MAP in the future.
  • Historical Performance is planning a large-scale collaboration with MAP that includes a commission with a librettist and composer next season.
     

Vocal Arts

  • Bass Kevin Short was appointed to the voice faculty and will begin teaching vocal arts students in the fall of 2021.
  • Tenor Lawrence Brownlee was appointed as distinguished visiting faculty in vocal arts. During the spring semester, he led two residency periods.
  • Denyce Graves returned for several spring semester residencies as part of her appointment as distinguished visiting faculty. She also provided individual coachings and career consultations.
  • Vocal Arts welcomed bass-baritone and Juilliard alumnus Simon Estes for a one-day residency in May. He led individual coachings and his residency culminated in an in-person conversation co-hosted by Denyce Graves.
  • Guest coach Kayo Iwama joined the vocal arts and collaborative piano departments to lead the final Liederabend of the year in June. She coached four singer-pianist duos for five weeks and the students prepared an art song program that featured repertoire by a diverse group of composers and poets including Margaret Bonds, Florence B. Price, Carlos Simon, Sheila Silver, Adolphus Hailstork, Roberto Sierra, Julia de Burgos, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Susan Stewart.

Jazz

  • Jazz programming in the spring semester featured composers such as John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, Charles Mingus, George Russell, a diverse list of original student compositions, and other new additions to the canon by Geri Allen as well as commissions by young composers including Miles Lennox and Courtney Wright.
  • The department welcomed guests Carmen Bradford (voice), David Berger (Juilliard Jazz Orchestra guest conductor), Christ Botti (trumpet), Grammy winner Kurt Elling (voice), Lenora Helm (voice), NEA Jazz Master Shelia Jordan (voice), Romero Lubambo (guitar), Nduduzo Makhathini (pianist), and Marvin “Smitty” Smith (drums).
  • During the spring semester, Jazz Studies continued to focus on gender diversity within the Creative Ideas course. Guests included North Carolina Central University professor Lenora Helm Hammond on behavioral aspects of collegiality, who was joined by Roxanne Stevenson, a professor from Chicago State University, on viable musical careers.
  • An increase in the gender, racial, and ethnic diversity amongst students and faculty remains an active goal with significant progress made to date.
     

EVENING DIVISION

  • This spring, the Evening Division offered a continuation of Advancing Anti-Racist Orchestra Models, taught by Alex Laing, as well as a continuation of Celebrating Black Playwrights, taught by Shana Komitee.
  • This summer, the Evening Division will offer a new course, Lift Every Voice: Great Black Opera Singers, which will be taught by Cori Ellison.  
     

PREPARATORY DIVISION

  • A division-wide commissioning project of more than 30 works is underway, with faculty members from both Pre-College and the Music Advancement Program (MAP) collaborating with a diverse group of composers to create a more inclusive repertoire for talented young musicians. A work for solo instrument and piano is being commissioned for each instrument in the Pre-College, and an étude book that aligns with MAP’s yearly learning outcomes is being commissioned for each instrument in MAP.
  • Pre-College orchestras recently recorded works by Ruth Crawford Seeger and Jessie Montgomery. Ensembles performed works by Gabriela Lena Frank, William Grant Still, Ehren Valmé, and others.
  • The Pre-College has recently received commissions from Allison Loggins-Hull and Kendall Williams. The Loggins-Hull work, Gifts, is being performed by flute applicants for the Pre-College. The work by Williams, Village, will be recorded by a combined group of students from Pre-College, MAP, and the Washington Heights Inwood Community Music Charter School (WHIN), with the composer as soloist on steelpan.
  • MAP faculty member Huang Ruo is leading a 5-week course titled Asian and Asian-American Composers. Alice Jones, assistant dean of community engagement and career services and a MAP faculty member, is leading a five-week course titled Leadership, Communication, and Advocacy in the Arts. Both courses include students from Pre-College and MAP.  
     

K–12 PROGRAMS AND INITIATIVES  

  • To be more inclusive of the varying needs of special education students in partner schools, K–12 Programs & Initiatives has hired an external special education consultant who provided training and guidance for new resource creation to empower students to learn dance, drama, and music without barriers. 
  • The department launched a six-month phase to review curriculum with a focus on inclusion and belonging. The project is providing key learnings on bias and opportunities to develop stronger practices that are more inclusive of race, cultural identities, gender, and gender expression. 
  • To further develop and incorporate principles of culturally responsive pedagogy and to help K–12 students make personally relevant connections frequently during their learning, a guest presenter provided a workshop on Cultural Literacy and Archeology of Self. 
     

LIBERAL ARTS

  • For MLK week, the Liberal Arts department held a session on the movie Selma.
  • The department held a session on how to address EDIB in pedagogy and has taken up the issue of how to incorporate EDIB principles in both the content and delivery of course materials. 
  • The department hosted a week of activities called Meet James Baldwin, culminating in a talk by celebrated Baldwin scholar and author, Magdalena Zaborowska.
  • In collaboration with the EDIB Taskforce, two colleagues, Lisa Andersen and Anthony Lioi, prepared a presentation on the history of Asian American activism, which was followed by a facilitated community discussion.  

CONTACT US

We welcome feedback on EDIB initiatives at any time. Please send comments or questions to [email protected].