Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cj Morgan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Cj, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

A story… It was a reach, but we knew there was one more quarter under the 2000 green Mercury Cougar seat. We concluded another hot summer day and were collecting our quarters, nickels, and dimes to secure dinner, a calzone from a local pizza shop. It was a summer of sacrifice with many of our family members questioning why we were punishing ourselves to work for a local Y program for little compensation. It was in that summer that we found purpose, and that purpose lit a flame within that wouldn’t allow us to do anything
else but create a program that would change the lives of the youth in our “Teen Camp.” During this time, the concept of TheGifted Arts was conceived. We used the arts then to teach life skills, confidence, and character building and just to create memorable moments in the lives of our youth. Seventeen years later, we still receive messages like “Hey Mr. Cj, I just wanted to thank you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used things you told us and applied them to my life.”
We later went on to further our education, explore our careers, and cultivate our passion and thus created TheGifted Arts. Our mission is to inspire our youth to transcend limitations and embrace purpose though the performing arts. We accomplish this goal by guiding our artists on a multi-year journey toward a deeper understanding of their personal power through artistic experiences that shape confidence, fortify self-worth, and increase drive.

How and why it all began…
As Co-founders, we (Nicholé Morgan (nee Montgomery-Boone) and Clarence ‘CJ’ Morgan, III), were not too much older than our current GiftedArtist students when we conceptualized TheGifted Arts, Inc. (TGA), in 2007. While in college, We were working with a teen program at the YMCA in Virginia that had a low participant count totaling ten members. Over three years, we increased enrollment to a maxed enrollment of sixty-five under our leadership, in addition to an active waitlist year on year. We accomplished this by designing and implementing project-based hands-on activities that included science, the arts, and recreation. In addition, we developed and ran focus groups facilitating discussions on pertinent teen matters and social issues that deeply impact adolescents’ daily lives. We were proud of our students’ personal successes which sparked a vision our what it would be like to replicate this model on a larger scale to serve more students and offer more services.
We used the arts then to teach life skills, confidence, and character building, and just to create memorable moments in the lives of our youth. We went on to further their education, explore career opportunities, and cultivate our passion in education. While working as a 8th-grade counselor for 14 years, I realized that one of the major forces working against student’s educational success is their internal belief in their ability to succeed, their confidence, and honing transferable skills, thus TheGifted Arts was born.

Cj, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are a youth elevation and performing arts organization that uplifts and artistically trains young people, within a culture that values identity, purpose, leadership and embodies confidence and excellence.

We strongly believe in the power of intention — that with racial and social justice and liberated black and brown communities, youth will magnify their personal power.

We transform the lives of youth through culturally responsive artistic experiences.

We play an integral role in helping young people establish healthy behaviors that provide a positive and enriching physical, emotional, and mental state of being; strengthening their gifts and abilities to become agents of change.

We are committed to eliminating racial inequalities in the arts and dismantling systems of oppression with and through our art.

GiftedAcademy is a year-round youth program offering culturally rich performing arts curricula and experiences that build confidence, leadership, and artistic development through an understanding of self and embracing one’s personal and creative power. HQ’d and serving in Raleigh, w/a broader presence in Wake County and the Greater Triangle within the last two cycles. New Season: Aug 2023 -Jun 2024

Performance Academy- Students deepen their technique training across ballet, jazz, modern and hip-hop, as well as vocal coaching. Community performance group and competes locally and regionally. The group attended their first ever dance competition (Fly Dance) in Feb 2023, placed 1st as a group, 3rd for junior solo improv, 1st and 2nd place for senior solo improv. This season PA has performed at 9 external community events (with 2 pending with VAE Raleigh and a Durham based business) with a total guest count of 3121 and 2 internal events with a 460 combined audience size and 1 still pending.

GiftedSummer is a unique, full-day, five-week cultural performing arts camp for rising 3rd – 9th-grade students interested in exploring the performing arts world, w/project based learning and daily recreational activities.

GIFTEDIMPACT- performance demonstrations and free after-school programs for schools and community agencies. An introductory experience w/cultural arts while exploring their personal gifts, building confidence, and developing artistic skills. We have presence at 3 Wake County based schools in the 2022-2023 season, all now multi-year partnerships. This student group completed 7 IN school and 4 AFTER school performances (with 3 pending), w/a combined guest count of 3660.

Students receive performance/creation training and development, coaching and informed positive beliefs around self-image and confidence. Our high schoolers receive college readiness and exploration and workforce/entrepreneurship development. They attend college trips, leadership workshops and high school participants can complete our in-house workforce development program that offers paid job opportunities in our agency in our GiftedImpact and GiftedSummer programs.

We believe that all performing artists are all around performers fusing together skills and techniques across disciplines to deliver a memorable performance. We’ve found through surveyed data that on average a little over 50% of our students come in w/ no prior arts education or exposure. As such, while the other 50% of students usually come in with a primary area of interest, all enrolled in our programs, engage and train in all our arts disciplines within a given season.

ARTS OFFERINGS:
Theater: Community teaching artists instruct masterclasses to prepare our artists to perform a stage play. Our original shows reflect the struggles, cultural richness, beauty, and resilience of our black and brown communities.

Step- percussive dance originated in gumboot mining in Africa, modernized by HBCU sororities/fraternities.

Dance- Exploration in hip hop, african, latin, and european dance techniques. Artists are encouraged to take skills learned and become choreographers, and present their own piece at our annual showcase.

Fashion- Culminating event where artists present the theme of the year through inspirational fashion scenes. Our opening scene celebrates our heritage while others showcase the personal character development each student has matriculated through the year.

Music- focus on music production, song writing, vocal performance, stage presence.

Spoken Word- We use poetry to speak to issues of social justice, politics, race, and community

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The performing arts are the mechanism we use for our youth’s engagement, development, and learning. Our core purpose is to create a safe space where young people, most of whom are of color, can explore their identity, discover their purpose and greatness, and cultivate skills that allow them to compete in a global society.

COVID-19 has exacerbated the already existing inequities and opportunity gaps in the communities. It has also provided a spark that ignited a nation to challenge racial and inequitable practices and ideologies that were previously just accepted as normal. We have been delivering the arts with a social justice lens for the last thirteen years, bringing great attention and awareness to the more significant systemic issues that impact the lives of our black and brown students and communities. Due to the pandemic, our work was put in jeopardy.

We lost an estimated 72% of our generated/earned income revenue into the first quarter of 2021, considering we canceled several key in-person programming and events. We lost 60% of our participants and we had to rebuild. Since that time, we solidified our mission, curriculum, and programs. I studied what real marketing is, and Nichole started to use her speaking platforms to reform funding practices and champion our purpose. Since that time, we have increased our budget, maxed out our enrollment in our premier programs, and we are now asked to provide valued feedback to ensure equity in our work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thegiftedarts.org
• Instagram: @thegiftedarts
• Facebook: @thegiftedarts
• Youtube: tgiftedarts

Image Credits
Mike Lassiter Jeremiah Kasongo Tyana Taylor Caliyah Holland Kaeleb Perry