NJEA hosted the ACCESS Hope & Healing Conference on Oct. 21 at the Princeton Marriott at Forrestal.
The conference was led by Alisha De Lorenzo and Tyrone K. Laws.
ACCESS members first met “Brother Ty” in July of 2022 at a previous Hope & Healing event. Participants entered the conference room not knowing what to expect. No typical tables and chairs were set up. No assigned seating was evident. In what was described at the time as the best opening conference keynote ever, Brother Ty marched into the main room with a group of people playing instruments from around the world. Before long, everyone in the room was a part of this international musical adventure.
At this year’s Hope & Healing Conference, that experience was re-created. Through music, Brother Ty intersperses information about the instruments, the traditions they reflect and the meaning behind our work in education.
This conference combined movement, mindfulness, breath work, drumming and transformational self-inquiry with an understanding of the inner work required to create healing-centered and just educational communities. Participants left with a renewed commitment to the possibilities of hope and healing in education.
Alisha De Lorenzo is an educator, therapist, and self-described, positive disruptor. After decades spearheading groundbreaking initiatives in the education space, Alisha has emerged as a guiding force in reshaping the way schools and communities cut through the noise, lean into positive disruption, and solve for the disengagement, disconnection, disparities and declining morale plaguing our schools and communities.
Tyrone K. Laws is a historian, artist, actor, photographer, playwright, community advocate, cultural activist and public speaker. He is the founder and Director of Kwest for Truth a multicultural, edutainment performance group specializing in civic, corporate and educational presentations.