Tea with…Yamile Lima

Welcome to Tea with…Yamile Lima! We had a wonderful chat about teaching theatre with a social justice focus and some of the tools that Yami uses herself in her classroom. Hope you enjoy!

Yami Lima is a Latinx Middle School Theatre Arts and Language Arts Educator for Miami Dade County Public Schools, one of the largest urban area schools in the United States. She holds her M.S. Ed. In Education and Social Change from the University of Miami and her B.F.A. in Musical Theatre Performance from New World School of the Arts Conservatory through the University of Florida. She has been a performing artist, designer, production assistant and director for over two decades in educational theatre, local theatres, private studios, films and voice over studios in Miami, FL. Her belief is that in education, as teachers, we need to integrate social justice, and SEL practices within the classroom to assist in affecting change in society. As a teacher-activist Yami believes that you must assist the community to help bridge the gap between what is done within the schools that works and implement it within the community. As Paulo Freire stated, “Teaching is a political act, no pedagogy is neutral.”

Book Recommendations that Yami recommends in our video:

Radical Possibilities by Jean Anyon

Theatre of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal

Everyday SEL in Middle School by Carla Tantillo Philibert (Also available for Elementary, Early Childhood and High School) 

Reading, Writing and Rising up: Teaching about social justice and the power of the written word by Linda Christensen

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

Whenever possible, we have linked our book recommendations to Semicolon Bookstore, an independently, Black woman-owned bookstore and gallery space in Chicago. If you would like to support a BIPOC owned bookstore in your area, check out this list.