Chapter 5: Acting Like a Prince, Dancing Like a Queen, Singing Like a Cop: Promoting Peace and Justice Through Community-Engaged Film and Theater in General Education Arts Courses for Adults

Acting is a powerful form of experiential learning. The experience of acting can be transformative, especially for students who enroll in the general education arts courses I teach in undergraduate degree completion programs for working adults. My name is Celeste Landeros, and I am a White, female college professor in my early 50s. Because I teach in South Florida, the majority of my students are Black, primarily African American or Afro-Caribbean, and/or immigrants from Latin America.

With an average age of 39, many of these students see an undergraduate degree as a means of advancing their careers, while some hope it will be a way out of poverty. Although our university faculty is committed to incorporating the experience of adult learners into pedagogy, the standard curriculum deemed “general” education was not designed to reflect the experiences of working-class students of color. Acting and filmmaking allow these students to make general education specific as they tell their own stories, explore alternate identities, and inhabit imaginary worlds.