Zahra Glenda Baker

Zahra Glenda Baker has worked as a teaching artist in the performing arts for more than 30 years. She began her teaching career as an early childhood music instructor in the Wiggleworms program at the Old Town School of Folk Music, where she also developed and implemented a Chicago Public School music residency highlighting African American acapella vocal traditions. She specializes in arts integration and finds collaborating with classroom teachers and students invigorating and inspiring.

Her extensive list of residencies and partnerships include: Harmony, Hope and Healing; Urban Gateways; Chicago Lights; Ravinia Music Festival; Albany Park Theater Project; About Face Youth Theater; Highwire City Learning Centre in London, England; eta Creative Arts Foundation; and the Chicago Park District, where she co-founded TRACE (Teens Re-imaging Art, Community and Environment). She enjoys being involved in projects that create opportunities in which participants of all ages explore personal and communal expression though music, storytelling, performance art, and the visual arts.