The Paw Print

By Raina Suri, Staff Writer

The first semester was already in full swing when The Paw Print met with one of Walter Payton’s new hires: Ms. Darian Hicks. Hicks is a new addition to the arts department and is a Dance I and Drama I teacher with a strong background in choreography. An alum of Whitney Young, Hicks spent most of her high school years in concert choir and the dance team, mirroring her current professional focuses.

Hicks said about her return to the selective enrollment system, “I have had a goal of working in a selective enrollment high school for about two years, since I got my master’s in education, so when I saw the position posted I was excited to throw my hat in the ring.”

Now that she’s here, Hicks has found herself excited to interact more with the students and encourage the dance and theater programs, specifically through events such as the dance concert recently held on Oct. 30.

“I love watching students go from having a very small presence to a very big presence, so I think working with the students has been my favorite thing so far,” said Hicks.

The new teacher also has a past of working with theater productions and other teachers in the field. A retired performer, her days used to be made up of auditioning, performing, and teaching, but now she spends her time teaching at Payton, preparing for her new baby, and working as the lead teaching artist for the dance program at the Goodman Theater.

“We do a social justice musical every summer, which is something that’s really important to me,” said Hicks on her work at the Goodman, “so I love getting together with other artists and students around Chicago who also care about social justice [and] being in their art.”

Hicks brings a passion for students to her job, citing a desire for every student to feel at home and be able to create in the classroom. She acknowledges that every student comes from different backgrounds and encourages them to use their differences to create a better picture of the world around them.

“I am really aligned with a Nina Simone quote, which is, ‘An artist’s duty is to reflect the times,’ so a way that I handle equity and inclusion in the classroom is by asking my students to look at the world around them and how they can use art to show the world what it needs to see,” Hicks said.