Bring a Teaching Artist To Your School

Date choices

• Week of February 1-5, 2027
• Week of February 15-19, 2027
• Week of March 1-5, 2027
• Week of March 15-19, 2027
• Week of April 26-30, 2027
• Week of May 3-7, 2027

Offerings

A tour of jazz

Format: 1 day; performance(s), or performance(s) plus workshop 
Session length: 40-55 minutes 
Grade level(s): K-12
Key topics/focus: force and motion, states of matter, heat and energy transfer, weather and climate, earth, sun, and moon systems, physics of movement

The performances begins with a march into the performance space, and by providing the history of this unique aspect of jazz performance from the birthplace of jazz - New Orleans. During the performances, musicians will provide a demonstration and brief description of every instrument, explaining the variety of sounds that each instrument makes and how the various instruments interact to create layers of sound. Each family of instruments is described, including how and why it makes sounds the way it does. This descriptive component is spread out across the concert rather than all at once, and doing so provides another opportunity for interaction between the musicians and the audience. 

Additional workshops or conversations are offered as add-ons to performances so the students get more out of our presence at their schools. In many instances, a segment of the students stays behind to ask questions after the performance for the whole school; this is most often best for the band students. 

Date choices

• Week of March 8-12, 2027
• Week of March 22-26, 2027
• Week of April 19-23, 2027
• Week of April 26-30, 2027
• Week of January 11-15, 2027

Offerings

Tour performances and talkbacks

Format: 1 day OR Block booking schedule available for multiple schools in a district,; performance(s)
Session length: 40-55 minutes 
Grade level(s): 3-12; some performances are 7-12
Key topics/focus: history, social studies, civics, theater, English language arts, African American studies, democracy, social justice, freedom, equality

Mike Wiley’s documentary theatre brings real history to life on stage. Each production tells powerful, true stories that spark conversation and connect audiences to the people and moments that shaped our nation. These are gripping stories of courage, struggle, hope, and hard-earned victories in the fight for human and civil rights — unforgettable, moving experiences that are a vital part of the American story.

Available performance titles 

• Changing Same (NC Focus, WWII): based on the true story of the murder of Pvt. Booker T. Spicely, visiting Durham on leave during WWII and how Durham reacted to the acquittal of the white bus driver. Stirring show highlighting both how Durham’s Black Wall Street existed and was influential across the city and how racism persisted. Recommended for grades 7-12.
   
• Breach of Peace (Freedom Riders, civil rights, NC history): recounting personal stories of members of the Freedom Riders of 1961. This solo-play is a living monument to those remarkable young men and women of various races, religions and backgrounds who rose to face the dangers of fighting for just and equal treatment for all. Recommended for grades 5-12.
   
• Tired Souls (Montgomery bus boycott, civil rights history, women’s history); Montgomery, AL, Dec. 1, 1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a city bus. This action inspires the black citizens of Montgomery to abandon all travel on city buses until they are no longer forced to sit in the back or stand when a white person boards. There were more who came before, brave visionaries who laid the groundwork for this pivotal moment. Tired Souls introduces audiences to heroes and heroines Jo Ann Robinson, Claudette Colvin and others instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement, changing the course of U.S. history. Recommended for grades 3-12.
   
• Brown vs Board of Education (school segregation, civil rights history): in 1952, the Supreme Court heard a number of school-segregation cases, including Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. It ruled unanimously in 1954 that segregation was unconstitutional, overthrowing Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) that had set the "separate but equal" precedent. This play recounts the effects of the decision on the families who participated in the original court case, the impact of the ruling on school systems at the time and the challenges still being made today. Recommended for grades 5-12.
   
• Jackie Robinson: A Game Apart (athletic integration, civil rights history): glimpse into baseball legend Jackie Robinson’s life during a bygone era of separate and unequal locker rooms, whites-only hotels and restaurant back doors. Witness the hopeless humiliation of a star player showered with adulation on the field, but a second-hand citizen outside the stadium. Meet compatriots fighting the same battles between end zones, inside the ring, around the track. a powerful lesson of courage through dedication, perseverance and leadership. Recommended for grades 3-12.
   
• One Noble Journey (slavery, antebellum, reconstruction, American history): the true story of Henry “Box” Brown, a slave who crated and mailed himself to freedom. Brown's life unfolds like a Mark Twain adventure, perilous and somber at times while humorous and heroic throughout. Audience members join Wiley on stage, quickly becoming characters helping propel the historic action. Recommended for grades 3-12.
   
• Fire of Freedom (NC focus, Civil War history): the story of Abraham Galloway, radical abolitionist, who went from enslaved to NC legislator, with stops as spy, soldier, and orator. Risking his life behind enemy lines, he recruited black soldiers for the North, and fought racism in the Union army's ranks. He also stood at the forefront of an African American political movement and led a historic delegation of black southerners to the White House to meet with President Lincoln Long hidden from history, Galloway's story reveals a war unfamiliar to most of us. Recommended for grades 7-12.
   
• Dar He: The Story of Emmett Till (civil rights): in 1955, a 14-year-old black Chicago youth traveled to the Mississippi Delta with country kinfolk and southern cooking on his mind. He walked off the train and stepped into a world he could never understand -- a world of thick color lines, of hard-held class systems and unspeakable taboos. Young Emmett crossed that line and met his gruesome fate by whistling at a white woman. This riveting play chronicles the murder, trial and unbelievable confession of the men accused of Emmett Till's lynching. Recommended grades 7-12.
   
• Blood Done Sign My Name (NC focus, civil rights 1970s American history): this hot-headed hate crime launched the small town of Oxford, NC into a season of violent reprisals. Based on Tim Tyson’s award-winning memoir, Wiley’s compelling dramatization of the true-life account of this 1970 racial murder feels frighteningly familiar, and all too current. Recommended for grades 7-12.