RaceOff / Teja Arboleda, M.Ed
This live, multimedia and musical, beat-entrenched audience interactive program is based on Teja Arboleda’s wildly successful, national touring video, RaceOff.
Arboleda challenges the audience to wipe away assumptions about racial identity and jumpstart a cultural revolution that will turn the word race into a four-letter word! The main feature of RaceOff is a video which “morphs” between 13 faces so slowly that you can’t tell the difference between them. Arboleda then takes the audience on a charged tour of the history of racial categories, the impact of race in society, and the future of identity.
Teja Arboleda is a television producer, director, writer, actor and public speaker. He also is the founder and president of Entertaining Diversity, Inc. Entertaining Diversity, Inc. provides consulting and education programs on cross-cultural and diversity issues for educational institutions, companies, and civic groups all over the United States. Using entertainment-based formats, Entertaining Diversity’s unique mix of theater performance, lectures and multimedia presentations has won high critical acclaim by institutions and at professional gatherings such as the National Association for Multicultural Education. Arboleda’s highly regarded performance-lectures Ethnic Man® and Healing Racism have taken him to over 500 cities and towns in the U.S. as keynote to international organizations such as TESOL, and national institutions such as Yale University. Recognition of the importance of Arboleda’s vision includes an appearance before the Senate committee on racial classification where he testified for changes in federal racial and ethnic categories, and hundreds of news stories in the media including the New York Times, Associated Press and National Public Radio.
Arboleda is a prolific television producer and director. He also acts as a liaison producer between television and video production companies in Japan and the US. In addition, he has made outstanding contributions to public television in the United States. In 1994, he won an Emmy Award for Public Affairs Programming. From 1990 to 1992, he was staff editor for the nationally acclaimed PBS documentary series FRONTLINE. From 1990 to 1994, he was assistant director/editor for minority affairs programming at WGBH-TV in Boston, MA where he was awarded an excellence distinction for service as a faculty member in the Public Affairs program production training courses. Since 1985, he has produced, directed and filmed music videos,including 500 corporate sales and training videos, commercials, PSA’s and independent films. Recent clients include: Verizon Wireless, MEDITECH, JJWild, Valco, Partners Health Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Historical Entertainments and CELT Corp.
As an actor and comedian, Arboleda often uses a fast paced comedy style, focusing on ethnic and culturally related topics. In 1990, he played the leading role in the PBS television docudrama “Matzeliger.”
Arboleda is the author of In The Shadow of Race (Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1998), an account of his personal experiences as a multicultural, multiethnic and “multiracial” American. Recently he created, produced, directed, wrote and starred in the six part, first through fourth grade educational video series, Diversity Elementary, which aired on PBS in early 2001, and is distributed by AGC/United Learning. He has produced segments on cultural diversity issues for WCVB-TV’s (ABC) Chronicle and has recently completed web marketing videos for Verizon Wireless.
Arboleda is adjunct professor, teaching Race & Ethnic Relations and Media Production at The New England Institute of Art in Brookline, Massachusetts. He received his B.A from Clark University, and his M.Ed from Lesley University, Cambridge, MA.
WHAT SPONSORS ARE SAYING
Thank you so much for presenting yesterday. The audience was very impressed and found your approach to such a delicate issue very creative, entertaining and educational. You highlighted so many important points, which made us think over our world view. Thank you again for your personal and professional contribution to the important issue of race and ethnicity in this country.
Liliana A. Zagaria
Coordinator Interpreter Services
Lawrence General Hospital
Teja was great…we had about 200 people at his presentation. I received overwhelmingly positive feedback about him.
Diane Wisnewski
Manager, Student Activities
Macomb Community College
Things went extremely well. Matter of fact, the faculty and students loved his presentation so much, some have already mentioned trying to get him back here next year. Thanks so much for your help.
Kisha Watts
Diversity Director
Thayer Academy
NERSC, Providence, RI – Keynote & Workshops Audience Response:
– Great! Wonderful keynote.
– Very touching & poignant but made me think and ask what’s behind the smile.
– Great presentation.
– Excellent choice for NERSC.
– It was inspirational, moving, amazing.
– He is awesome. Teja is an amazing person and felt very inspiring to me.
– He spoke from his heart and own experiences. Truly touching and meaningful.
– The best presentation and talk on racism.
– Awesome, inspirational story.
– Great presenter.
– Longer presentation – more!!
– I think the statement “racism is a disease: is huge. It was fabulous.
– He was excellent.
– Very good presenter.
– Great presentation.
– Great session. Really enjoyed his stories and life as an example of a diverse life.
– Amazing story. Very excellent message.
– Enjoyed Teja sharing his life with everyone
– Amazing life story.
– He can help by sharing his experiences.
– He was an excellent presenter, very informative and interesting.
– Hope you have him back!
– Wonderful, funny man.
Category : Diversity and Multicultural &Speakers &Teja Arboleda