LAUNCHING THE SERIES

Care Coalition defined trauma and its ongoing effects. They discussed the original public health study administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifying ten adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) or traumas that revealed that 67% of participants had experienced one or more in their lifetime, and 12.6% had experienced four. AEN workshop participants recognized that trauma is indeed everywhere: in the lives of their students, and their own lives.

The team introduced the work of medical researchers and scientists who are studying the long-term effects of trauma, offering the “trauma iceberg” as a metaphor that depicts the responses to trauma, including visible actions that only suggest the unseen impacts on emotional, behavioral and physical health. They shared the work and the words of Dr. Nadine Burke Harris who linked trauma to its negative impacts on brain development, hormonal and immune systems, and a person’s DNA. They focused on the importance of multidisciplinary approaches to the treatment and prevention of the impacts of trauma, i.e., traumainformed care and practices.

AEN staff and key consultants then shared some thoughts about their decision to “step into this work”. Building upon personal and professional experiences with the arts, they spoke about the well-documented benefits of arts education. They reviewed the language of Dr. Elliot Eisner’s “10 Lessons the Arts Teach” and the New Jersey Arts Standards and invited the group to consider their experiences with arts education in the context of learning about traumainformed care. They hoped that the design of the sessions would allow participants to, among other goals, see how rigorous arts education can be intentionally trauma-informed, model language and arts-based exercises that are supportive and help build selfcare, self-regulation, and resilience, and provide opportunities for creative expression, joy, and healing.

Hip Hop artist Sheikia “Purple Haze” Norris offered a workshop that energized the participants and demonstrated the intuitive ways that arts education work embodies traumainformed care. Her fast-paced, highenergy activities inspired audience movement and positive thoughts. Showcasing the visual, musical, verbal, and dance aspects of Hip Hop, she provided ways for participants to express their individual identities, build and contribute to a communal support system, and restore a sense of power and agency.

In the “ritual” wrap-up and debriefing discussion, participants made connections, valued the common foundation of information that they could build upon in future sessions and in their classrooms, and loved seeing how trauma-informed care work was embodied in the work they did with Purple.