Our Teachers
ESCA’s Teaching Artists are committed to creating content that is culturally relevant, highly engaging, and authentic. By doing so, our teachers encourage our young students to celebrate their heritage and culture through creativity and imagination. Teachers at ESCA do not follow a specific curriculum or set of lesson plans, but rather share a topic, theme, or art form that they are passionate about with our students.
ESCA’s Teaching Artists are comprised of credentialed K–12 teachers, after-school program leaders, arts educators, and local professional artists.
Tiye Garrett: African Dance
Tiye Garrett is from Fresno, California but has lived in San Jose for several years. She is passionate about life, self-care, and helping people in a multitude of ways such as sharing her gifts through dance. Tiye has been dancing all her life but professionally for about 4 years. When joining Akoma Arts, founded by Keith Hames, a fire ignited within her for loving to share energy with our audiences. Akoma Arts incorporated West African dancing, drumming, singing, and poetry. For Tiye, dancing is an expressive positive outlet that brings her healing. She says that it is always important to remember that she dances for herself, but she also receives so much joy by sharing dance with others.
Miguel Gonzalez:
Spoken Word & Poetry
Miguel Gonzalez started writing poetry in the fourth grade and has never stopped since. He started working with youth in the ninth grade as a swimming instructor in high school. Raised in East San Jose as a child of Colombian immigrants, Miguel devotes his art, music and writing to telling the stories of the peoples and cultures that have influenced his life. A multicultural artist, Miguel finds inspiration in the stories of struggle, strength and perseverance that come from the families of East San Jose.
Malcolm Halcrombe: Drumming & Capoeira
Malcolm has been a cultural warrior in the South Bay Area. He has taught capoeira, drumming and digital music for over a decade. He has taught all ages and continues to learn and share the knowledge he has obtained.
Ruby Ming: Visual Arts
Ruby is dedicated to igniting curiosity and sparking joy through engagement with the arts. She has been visual arts educator for over 20 years, teaching art making and visual literacy lessons to encourage children’s self-expression and creativity. She has taught at summer camps, elementary schools, and museums around the Bay Area.
Rachel-Anne Palacios: Visual Arts
Rachel-Anne Palacios has made a name for herself in the Bay Area art world. A self-taught multicultural artist, her pieces reflect the respect she has for culture, religion, traditional values, elders, and the cycle of life and death. Palacios grew up amongst Oakland's cultural diversity in a household headed by her mother and grandmother who were mentors, teachers, coaches, as well as friend. Rachel-Anne is passionate about helping others find their space creatively along with a practice of basic skills: following directions, folding, cutting, tying, etc. She is now sharing cultural arts education programming with Bella Vista, Cleveland Elementary and Rudsdale Newcomer Continuation School in Oakland and a number of city and county libraries throughout the Bay Area. Rachel-Anne is also a teaching artist in the fine arts department at the Crucible in Oakland and with Youth in Arts in Marin County.