State of Emergency: Moving Up Maslow | Katrena Perou | TEDxWakeForestU

Katrena Perou, the second speaker of the afternoon, is the chief program officer at Urban Arts Partnership, a nonprofit that works to advance the intellectual, social, and artistic development of underprivileged public school students. Perou, who started the partnership at Samuel Gompers High School in South Bronx, New York, compared the students’ feelings that they were not being heard and would just end up dead or in prison to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need: “With everything these students were facing, going to the program didn’t matter. They were just trying to make it through the day,” she explained. Perou added that by listening to a CD of songs that students at the high school had created, particularly a song called “State of Emergency,” she learned to gain their respect by trusting them and making sure their voices were heard. Katrena Perou is the Chief Program Officer at Urban Arts Partnership, a nonprofit organization that works to advance the intellectual, social and artistic development of underprivileged public school students. Urban Arts’ arts-integrated education programs help close the achievement gap and give young people the skills they need for the future. Perou brings years of nonprofit leadership and education development experience to her role at Urban Arts, and her work in the field has been recognized nationally many times over. Perou tirelessly uses her talent and expertise to secure sound education for all students, regardless of situation. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx