Supporting Work at the Intersection of Arts, Education,
Healing and Social Justice
Meet Our TIPTA Trainers
Betsaleel (Bets) Charmelus
Bets Charmelus (he/him) is a facilitator, community advocate & an auditory story-teller. Whether in his work as a program director for the anti-violence, music based non-profit Beyond the Bars, facilitating as a music instructor for survivors of sexual trauma with JJPI’s B.O.S.S Program, coordinating men’s mental health support groups or aural story-telling in the nationally acclaimed, all-black rock band ill Fated Natives, Bets is passionate about finding & claiming new spaces, building strong, inter-connected communities & exploring the difference between questioning oneself and asking oneself questions. Bets is a graduate of the Bartol Foundation’s training in Trauma-Informed Practice for Teaching Artists and Trauma-Informed Teaching Artist Practices and Identity. He serves as a member of the Board of the Bartol Foundation.
Candy Alexandra González
Candy Alexandra González (they/them) is a Little Havana-born and raised, NYC and Philadelphia-based, multidisciplinary visual artist, poet, activist and trauma-informed art educator. Candy received their MFA in Book Arts + Printmaking from the University of the Arts in 2017. Since graduating, they have been a 40th Street Artist-in-Residence in West Philadelphia, a West Bay View Fellow at Dieu Donné in Brooklyn, NY, Leeway Art and Change Grant Recipient and the 2021 Linda Lee Alter Fellow for the DaVinci Art Alliance. Candy is currently an Art + Art Education doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University. Candy is a graduate of the Bartol Foundation’s training in Trauma-Informed Practice for Teaching Artists and Trauma-Informed Teaching Artist Practices and Identity. They also completed training with Lakeside Global Institute including Group Facilitation, Enhancing Trauma Awareness, Deepening Trauma Awareness and Applying Trauma Principles.
Mae Early
Mae Early (she/genderfluid) is a writer, theatre artist, and educator who lives and works in Philadelphia. As an arts educator, she believes that we all deserve a safe and supportive environment to explore our voice and identity. In service of this mission, she facilitates arts workshops for all ages and ability levels at schools, community centers, corporations, and nonprofits. For twelve years, she was the Director of Education at Philadelphia Young Playwrights, a theatre education organization which uses playwriting as a vehicle to increase students’ comfort with writing, literacy, and creative expression. Currently she is the Program Manager for Bartol's online trauma-informed training initiative, and she is also the creator and lead facilitator of Bartol's 20-hour trauma-informed training for teaching artists and arts administrators. She is also a co-creator of Whole HeART Teaching, a resource center with curated materials like lesson plans, activities, and other supplementary artifacts that are healing-centered and place student agency at the center of learning. A freelance consultant and facilitator, Mae regularly facilitates professional development across sectors and ages in the areas of trauma-informed and healing-centered teaching, teaching artistry, arts education pedagogy, creative writing, theatre, and workforce development.
Shavon Norris
Shavon Norris is an artist, educator, and facilitator. She uses movement along with text and sound and imagery to reveal and highlight the stories living in our bodies. Her work explores our relationship to our identities, our experiences, and to each other. An examination and celebration of what we feel, think, and believe. She received a BA in Biology from Manhattanville College and an MFA in Dance and Choreography from Temple University. Presently she teaches at Temple University and Thomas Jefferson University. As an artist her work has been presented at venues in New York City and Philadelphia. As a performer, she has worked with Silvana Cardell, Leah Stein, Merian Soto, Jumatatu Poe, David Brick and has toured nationally and internationally with Pig Iron Theatre Company. As an educator and facilitator, Shavon has worked with Headlong Performance Institute, Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Need in Deed, LiveConnections, and Arts and Business Council for Greater Philadelphia. In partnership with these organizations, as well as others, Shavon has offered short and long-term learning to diverse communities on topics of Movement, Intentional Inclusivity, Mindfulness, Wellness, and Healing Centered/Trauma Informed Practices. Shavon is a graduate of the Bartol Foundation’s training in Trauma-Informed Practice for Teaching Artists and the curriculum creator/facilitator of its advanced training in Trauma-Informed Teaching Artist Practices and Identity. Shavon’s artistic and educational philosophies are rooted in the desire to offer herself, learners, performers, and audiences, opportunities to deepen the understanding of self and the collective. To explore ways to light us up, lift us up and shift what needs transforming. She loves all the living and working she gets to do in the world.
Anjoli Santiago
Anjoli Santiago is a lifelong artist, balancing her passion for the evolutionary potential when education and creativity intersect. Stepping into the Director of Education and Public Programs role at Philadelphia Theatre Company in September 2023 was a young artist’s whispered dream that took almost two decades to realize. She started as an actress/poet/teaching artist, dancing about city theatres and exercising the skills earned from a B.A. in Theatre at Temple University. During this time, she learned how vital communal access to arts is. The invitation to creativity is inherently inclusive. Curious about how to stretch her brain, she became a NY Teaching Fellow, graduating with honors from CUNY City College with an M.S.Ed. She taught in the South Bronx as a Special Education and Creative Arts teacher for grades 6-12. Continued curiosity led her to develop after-school and summer programming for grades 6-8 with Liberty Leads from Bank Street College in Harlem. The Philadelphia skyline always called to Anjoli, as did the scent of her mother’s flower garden, and in 2016, she connected to teachers across the nation with Classroom Champions, a wonderfully unique social and emotional curriculum connecting world-class athletes as mentors to K-8 classrooms. She grew for seven years, honing many skills. Philly also embraced the artist in Anjoli, and she was able to reconnect to her artistic self with Power Street Theatre, collaborating in many ways from 2018 to 2021. In 2022, Anjoli started engaging with different theatres throughout the city, like Theatre in the X, Drexel University, and InterAct Theatre. With a season of unplanned rest in 2023, Anjoli returned to her roots of poetry, explored open mics throughout the city, and took a stand-up comedy class to see what would happen. Unexpectedly, she found her way into storytelling with First Person Arts (FPA) on a solo adventure in August 2023. Ben from FPA gave three invitations to put her name in the bucket, and it was pulled, making space for a new form of artistry to bloom in Anjoli. She has since become a 2x StorySlam Champion with First Person Arts. She supports the Trauma-Informed Practice Training work with the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation in her spare time. The Bartol Foundation has also become a home for Anjoli to share her learnings about social and emotional learning with creatives and art administrators. She enjoys exploring how these practices can elevate access to creativity, better understand how to create healthy interpersonal relationships, and wholistically embrace who you see in the mirror. Anjoli adventures Philadelphia often; you may find her in the wilds of the urban landscape... she invites you to say hello.
Enoch the Poet
Enoch the Poet: Enoch (he/him) is a poet, author, trauma-informed teaching artist and creator and writer for manga series Immortal Dark. He was born and raised on the Northside of Wilmington, DE. As a mental health advocate and someone living with bi-polar disorder, his work examines the process of healing and the ways that trauma and mental health move through a family, as well as the outside forces that affect or have affected these developments. His goal is to create written works, curriculum, and platforms that deepen our emotional understanding and its cyclical relation to the conditions acting on the Black mind, body, and spirit. Enoch is the 2017 Philadelphia Fuze Grand Slam Champion and the author of two poetry collections, “The Guide to Drowning” released in 2017 and “Burned at the Roots” released in 2020. Enoch operates as the Program Director for ArtWell, a multi-disciplinary arts programming non-profit geared towards using the arts as a medium to enhance students' social-emotional toolkit, nurture the exploration of self, and strengthen their presence in community.