Nakeysha Roberts Washington, M.S. Ed is the owner and Creative Director of Genre: Urban Arts (GUA), a platform where artists can become published digitally and in print. Nakeysha spends much of her time preparing opportunities for creatives to share their art as part of the necessity for inclusion. All of this with the knowledge that working in the space of developing yourself as a creative is often seen as a privilege. Pop-up galleries and performances organized by Nakeysha via Gene: Urban Arts allows everyone in the creative community the ability to develop themselves as artists, become published and showcase their art through performance and exhibition. GUA is now a playground for 2500+ creatives, all who have their own medium in which they create— Their own Genre.

Covid-19 insisted on a pandemic pivot for small businesses. Genre: Urban Arts was no different. Because of Nakeysha’s long history in education, GUA received and accepted many invitations as an educational consultant group to develop literacy and arts workshops that centered upon culturally responsive practices, anti-racist/anti-biases philosophies, and social justice topics. Many of these workshops required website development and content creation for virtual exhibitions that showcase art and writing of the participants.

Nakeysha is one-third owner of Circle RP, an educational publishing and consulting agency. They have recently released a student workbook, Learning in the Round: Moving Forward in the Restorative Classroom, that provides a template for teachers and students to conduct circle work and is rooted in the restorative practice pedagogical approach.

Because of her work in education and in the arts, Nakeysha was invited to become a board member for Woodland Pattern Book Center in Milwaukee, WI. This is a nonprofit organization that supports independent publishers and authors. She also acts on an advisory board for MKE Rising, an organization that endeavours to train Black men to teach in primary and secondary classrooms.

Nakeysha has been published in Routledge, various literary journals, and anthologies. She was honored with having a monologue performed in Brooklyn, New York, at the Billie Holiday Theater as part of a showcase entitled 50 in 50: What Place Do We Have in this Movement? This work interrogated Black women’s experiences at the height of the Me Too movement. Around the same time, a work of creative nonfiction entitled, “No Cream” was published in Wisconsin’s Writers: An Anthology of Nonfiction. Nakeysha’s writing and other work centers around social justice issues because she believes that it is a creative’s responsibility to interrogate and reveal the intricacies of society.

Having 13 years of experience as an educator, Nakeysha taught in secondary education for 10 years in service to her hometown Milwaukee. She chose to move into post-secondary education securing instructor positions at various universities and colleges. This includes her alma maters, Milwaukee Area Technical College and the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee (UWM). She began work on obtaining a doctoral degree in Urban Education at the UWM. In addition to instructing, Nakeysha secured several positions in UWM since 2018. These include Supervisor and Trainer for Secondary English teacher candidates, Curriculum Specialist and Redesigner for the English Education program, Program Manager & Facilitator, and Senior Outreach Specialist.

In her recent work as researcher and conference presenter, Nakeysha presented at the Modern Language Association’s 2019 International Symposium in Lisbon, Portugal as part of a panel to discuss culturally responsive pedagogy in relation to the teaching of writing in urban education. She presented in Baltimore, MD at the National Council of Teachers of English where she collaboratively presented Accessing Culturally Responsive Practice through Onsite National Writing Project Institutes. She was also co-presented/ co-facilitated with the Story Collider team for Biology Leadership Community Virtual Summit

Nakeysha happily accepted a position as Milwaukee producer with her favorite podcast The Story Collider Milwaukee in January of 2019 and part-time Marketing Manager position in 2021.

Services:

• Writing Workshops+ Teaching

• Curriculum Development

• Event Planning

• Site Development

• IG/ FB + Site Store Integration

• Social Media Strategist+ Development+Planning

• Book/ Media Development + Design + Publication

• Writing

• Mentoring

Book or contact Nakeysha at Nakeysha@GenreUrbanArts,org