A Chicago artist will perform at an Aurora music room next month, but her day job lets her reach out in a different way.
Rashada Dawan is an author, vocalist, actor, and activist. She often performs with a band called Chicago Soul Spectacular. She’s worked with them for about three or four years.
“It’s something that soothes my soul,” she said. “I just get to really sing songs that I think resonate with me, and greats like Gladys and Aretha and Chaka, I’ve even learned some songs I don’t know.”
Her vocalist journey began in the fifth grade when her teacher asked her to sing for a parent teacher conference. After that Dawan said she started doing talent shows and theater productions. She’s performed with Disney’s “Lion King,” on the television show “The CHI” and many other platforms.
Acting was something Dawan drifted into. She said she and the craft have a love-hate relationship.
“So acting kind of came because musical theater found me. And so, I started doing theater,” she added. “And they were booking me for all these musicals. So, they’re like, ‘Oh, well, yeah, you going to sing. Surely, you can act.’ And then when I started getting into different TV shows, I was like ‘Oh, I don’t like this at all.’”
She said she loves breaking down different characters and having a director give her a vision, but she doesn’t like dealing with the technical details of the industry.
When Dawan is not doing, as she calls it, ”artsy things,” she uses her speaking voice and theatrics as a pro trainer for an organization called Playworks. This nonprofit works with schools across the country to ensure that students have safe and healthy playtime during recess. I met Dawan after her therapy session in Evanston, and then we headed to Lincoln Elementary school in Belvidere for her next adventure.
Dawan led an icebreaker before the faculty presentation.
The session focuses on what’s called a “recess reboot.” Dawan told the crowd that the training is not about restructuring that time but more about organizing it.
“They come back from recess, and how many times do you have to settle them down?” she asked them. “Lots, right? How many times does the recess, and what happened out there, filter into your classroom, right? So, what we’re trying to do is cut down on that.”
She continued to prepare the staff for her upcoming four-day visit.
“Recess Reboot, components, a lot of words, but it’s just, we are looking at recess,” she told them. “We are doing staff, learning and development, student learning and development, and then collaborative planning support.”
Dawan wears many hats. She said she loves her day job. She inserts herself into many other things and this includes helping to heal the community. Several years ago, Dawan took to the streets of the South Side of Chicago to sing for peace in Karaoke for Peace.
And Dawan does what she needs to do to protect her own peace. She goes to therapy. She said this is important for artists because they are intuitively channeling types of beings.
“So, to be able to filter some of life’s reality,” she said, “as you are being a vessel of artistic gifts, I think requires constant input and output.”
Dawan said her next artistic endeavor is to create an affirmations album. She explained that this self-talk helps eliminate negative thoughts that often visit us throughout the day.
She is slated to deliver training to Lincoln Elementary in early September. She will perform her other gig with Chicago Soul Spectacular on Sept. 28 at The Venue, 21 S. Broadway, in Aurora.
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Publish date : 2024-08-29 14:43:00
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