About Kesa Kivel

Kesa Kivel is a Los Angeles–based educator, game-maker, and activist living on unceded Tongva land.

She is currently working on an eight-part blog series: Transforming the Way We Think About Incest: Are Incest, Sexism, and Racism Connected? Please add your name to the contact page to be placed on the mailing list. Thank you!

Her latest project (2022): Kesa was the advisor for the app version of the “Road to Racial Justice” game. Created by the Envision Center of Purdue University, the app is based on the original, free downloadable print version of the game that Kesa created. The app is available on iOS as well as Android devices.

The downloadable “Anti-Racist Activity” for ages 7-14 is available for use during Black History Month and throughout the year. The featured Black historical figures include: Malcolm X, Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Harriet Tubman.

Two activity pages are provided for each individual featured: The first page is for research and writing, and the second is for coloring/art. Free related curriculum is available.

Kesa recently developed “The Blobber Game,” her latest cooperative game—a fun one!—in which players respond to requests on “Blobber” cards either by performing simple physical movements (improv-like), or by answering lighthearted questions in order to advance on the game board from “start” to the end of the road.

Kesa also created the free downloadable “Road to Racial Justice” board game, which she developed over a three-year period with the help of a focus group comprised of individuals of various races and ethnicities. Kesa is committed to sharing widely, and as of 2022, she has received almost 4,000 requests for the game.

Purdue University has created a video game version of the “Road to Racial Justice” game, now available on iOS and Android devices

Overview

2022 “Road to Racial Justice” Digital Version Launched! App for iOS devices

2021 “Anti-Racist Activity” and curriculum Launched!

2020 “Ask an Old White Woman About Racial Justice” Blog Launched!

2020 “Blobber” Board Game Launched!

2020 “Road to Racial Justice” Digital Version Launched! App for Android devices

2015 “Road to Racial Justice” Board Game Launched!

2012-2014 “Road to Racial Justice” Board Game
(developed game, facilitated focus group, created curriculum)

2012 YWCA “Stand Against Racism” Rally (co-organized with the YWCA Santa Monica / Westside)

2012 “Never Give Up! Ama’s Journey to Freedom on the Underground Railroad” Film (directed and produced) Available to stream. A coming-of-age historical fiction set in the 1850s, the FREE 28-minute educational film Never Give Up! Ama’s Journey to Freedom on the Underground Railroad provides excellent, well-researched content on slavery in the United States as well as on everyday acts of resistance by enslaved people. The richly textured, innovative film breathes life into history by weaving live footage of students acting out the story of an enslaved girl named Ama with compelling original illustrations, historical photographs, and a powerful, emotional music score. Never Give Up! makes history relevant and relatable.

Film and curriculum available at: Never Give Up!

2010 Underground Railroad Interactive Project (co-organized with the YWCA Santa Monica / Westside)

2008 Moon Magic Workshop on Puberty
(facilitated workshops and created curriculum)
Moon Magic Workshop on Puberty Facilitator’s Guide

2007 Taking Our Place in the Art World (created curriculum)
The curriculum was developed in conjunction with the exhibition “Multiple Vantage Points: Southern California Women Artists, 1980-2006,” which was on view at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in Barnsdall Park from February 25 through April 15, 2007. The curriculum was created to help students explore gender stereotypes and gender discrimination in their own lives and in the lives of others, especially women artists from the Middle Ages to the present.
Taking Our Place in the Art World Curriculum

2006 Girl House Art Project (facilitated workshops, created curriculum)
The Girl House Art Project was inspired by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro’s 1972 “Womanhouse” art installation. The purpose of Kesa Kivel’s Girl House and Beyond curriculum is to create a safe environment in which students can explore the topic of sexual harassment through ten engaging activities, many of which include artwork. The intention is for students who have been sexually harassed to begin the healing process, and for all students to learn some critical thinking skills and gain an understanding of the social/cultural factors that affect girls’ and women’s lives. Girl House Project Curriculum

Prior to teaching a feminist arts curriculum, Kesa taught poetry to foster teens in a residential facility, as well as to youth incarcerated in juvenile halls and at a probation camp. For over a decade Kesa worked with Families to Amend California Three Strikes (FACTS), a non-profit prison reform organization that helped change the unjust Three Strikes law. She also worked as a social worker in London, England.

Awards

2011 “YWCA Focus Award” honoring exceptional women who inspire and empower women. Video of Kesa honored at YWCA Award Ceremony

2002 “Friends of FACTS Award” for activism with Families to Amend the Three Strikes law.

2000 “Operation Read Award” in recognition of outstanding service in support of education and literacy for probation youth.