The Future belongs to us
Artist: Natalie Daise
“If oonuh ent kno weh oonuh dah gwine, oonuh should kno weh oonuh come f’um.”
Tendaji Bailey is a Gullah Geechee native of Port Royal & St Helena Island, SC in Beaufort County. He is a 2015 graduate of Morehouse College and former middle school math teacher and community organizer.
He has served as an instructor of African dance, improvisational acting, and other performance arts. His work as an educator has utilized the concept of STEAM—Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics but ultimately the current high-stakes test environment is edging culture, arts, and history out of the classroom. While teaching for six years was enriching, he has explored a different route for empowering young people.
His next venture to serve the community was through KAVI (Kings Against Violence Initiative) as their Community Intervention Coordinator. He was afforded the opportunity to create and develop an after school program that provided space for youth to discuss and process how violence impacts their lives and provide tools to help heal and manage daily stressors. He was also able to develop an curatorial arts education program called Young Exhibition Makers. Teen throughout the five boroughs of New York City were brought together to create and curate an art exhibit that explored topics the resonated with them: teenhood, black identity, mindfulness, family matters, violence, and gender equality.
He is an Artist and the founder of the Gullah Geechee Futures Project. He helps to develop programs and events to educate the public about the rich history and culture of Gullah Geechee communities throughout the coastal south east and beyond through the Mellon Morehouse Movement, Memory, & Justice Project. He is also the Gullah Geechee educator at the Coastal Discovery Museum providing tours and workshops. He is a Certified Interpretive Guide through the National Association of Interpreters.
As an emerging artist he transforms into a Griot, a traditional Stroyteller, by singing, song writing, and curating immersive experiences through his most recent work, “SEEKING|SOARING: Gullah Resilience Songs”.