My name is Kishasha Faronii-Butler, aka Tasa R. Faronii, and I am a Brooklyn born New Yorker. I write as TR Faronii. An interest in music, writing, voice, diction, and communication fueled an early career on stage, screen, and television. As a young musician, I was a founding member of New York Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Cosmopolitan Young People's Orchestra As a young actor, I created the role of Billie Jean in the original Off-Broadway production of the play Black Girl, played Ifada in Wole Soyinka's play The Strong Breed, and originated the character L'il Bo in the film The Cross & the Switchblade.I directed a regional production of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues and have written several plays. Dixie Peach made its regional debut at the Seelig Theatre, and original play Wolf Reads: The Musical, based on Becky Bloom's children's book The Wolf! was performed by a cast of middle school students at the Liberty Partnerships Program in Newburgh, NY. As an independent bookseller I owned and operated The Oracle Bookstore, formerly a brick-and-mortar store and now online as Liberty Oracle Online.The same interests in communication lead me into the classroom as a special education teacher and into the study of American Sign Language for the Deaf. I am a certified auditory integration specialist and English teacher for speakers of other languages. I created several arts-in-education programs for individuals who are identified as disabled. These individuals I prefers to refer to as differently abled or with learning differences. Among those programs have been Periwinkle Production, Inc.'s Arts for Special Population and Orange County AHRC's music-based skills development curriculum for pre-school and grades K-12. Currently, I teach violin, viola and piano to students who are reluctant learners, adult beginners, and gifted young players. I assisted in the development of the Zylofone Studios project, a performing arts program for individuals with special needs.I hold a master's degree in Health Arts and Sciences from Goddard College in VT and an earned Doctorate in Educational Leadership & Change from Fielding Graduate University in CA. As an adjunct professor in the English Department at SUNY Orange Community College Middletown and Newburgh campus, in addition to teaching first year students, I have developed curriculum for students in need of remediation in college level reading and writing skills development. I work as instructor/mentor with the Liberty Partnerships Program middle school students in Newburgh, NY.Currently, I am a member of the Community Advisory Board and former member of the Board of Trustees of Radio Catskill public broadcasting station WJFF 90.5, as well as a tutor with the Literacy Volunteers of American. I am also a mediator with the NYS Dispute Resolution Center.I love storytelling, sharing events that I know of, or ideas that I believe in thrills me to no end. Through writing, I can communicate these notions and save them on the page to be revisited from time to time, perhaps, even to parcel out for others to enjoy along with me.
