Erykah Badu performs in Belgium in 2006.
A recent, in-depth profile in the New Yorker explores Erykah Badu's evolution as an artist, from a leading figure in the '90s R&B renaissance to present-day godmother of soul.
It reveals that both as a mother and child, Badu has taken advantage of schooling options that embody the new definition of public education.
Growing up in a working-class section of Dallas, she went to a Catholic school, which provided a refuge before she found her way to a performing-arts school where she began to blossom musically.
Badu was a sensitive girl in a city that could be tough; for her protection, her mother enrolled her in a Catholic school, where Badu learned to think of herself as “weird.” She found a tribe of fellow-weirdos at Booker T. Washington, a performing-arts school that has produced Edie Brickell, Norah Jones, and Roy Hargrove, the trumpeter, who became an occasional collaborator.
Later, the article reveals that as a single mother of three at the center of an unconventional but supportive family arrangement, she taught all three of her children at home in their early years, before turning to other options as they grew older (parentheses mine).
All three fathers live much of the year in Dallas, and they have formed a tight community, which has Badu’s lakefront house—built, like her family, through accretion—as its hub. All three children were homeschooled through second grade, with Badu holding forth in her converted rec room or, when necessary, on her tour bus. Now they are enrolled in local schools; Seven [Badu's first child, whose father is Outkast's Andre Benjamin] is headed to college in the fall.
Sometimes traditional schools can't accommodate the lifestyle of a touring artist. Sometimes unconventional schools can help nurture a child's creativity. For those and other reasons, the music industry is full of figures who benefited from a range of educational options beyond their neighborhood schools — from established moguls like Sean "Diddy" Combs (who attended a Montessori school as a child and now is helping launch urban charters) to budding stars like Shalyah Fearing of "The Voice."
Photo by Yancho Sabev, licensed under Creative Commons.
