School of the Alternative

I have been part of School of the Alternative (SotA) since 2018, served on the advisory board since 2023, and joined the board of directors in 2026. I am one of many facilitators for our annual spring session, helping to shape and sustain a space for experimental, self-directed, and collectively built learning.

School of the Alternative is an artist-run community based on the historic first site of Black Mountain College in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Each May, artists come together to live, work, learn, and teach communally, building a temporary school rooted in collaboration, curiosity, and care. Rather than recreating the hierarchies of traditional educational institutions, SotA creates space for everyone to participate as both learner and teacher, with faculty, staff, and students sharing responsibility for sustaining the community.

At its heart, SotA aims to provide a learning space that is equitable, caring, and radical in response to a world that is not. My ongoing involvement with the project is grounded in a belief in collective learning, community care, and the transformative possibilities of building something different together.