Art Meza

By Melanie Berru There are two versions of Martin Luther King Jr. The one murdered. And the one they carefully resurrected. The King who was murdered had grown dangerous. Dangerous to power. Dangerous to empire. Dangerous to capitalism dressed up as democracy. Dangerous to a nation that preferred symbolic progress over real structural change. The King who was resurrected was safe. Smooth. Easily digestible. A man reduced to a dream, polished and replayed once a year, stripped of the parts of...

In every lesson, honor the human story.  At a very young age, I began to teach in an untutored and natural way. My work has always been rooted in people. Before curriculum, before policies, before institutions, there are lives. I have made it a personal responsibility to stay close to the pulse of the people I serve. Who are they? What do they carry? What are their dreams, their needs, and their conditions? How can I stand beside them, not above them, in their journey?  To teach in a human...

The Love Drought We are living through a love drought. As an educator in the community, in the classroom, and inside the jails, I’ve witnessed it again and again. It’s not that love itself is gone, but that too many people no longer feel loved by those closest to them. When we stop feeling loved, it becomes harder to believe we are worthy of love at all. Whether we are free or confined, so many of us are surviving with empty cups. It’s as if the soil of our souls has gone dry, thirsty for...