Global Black Art Educator Blog

Part One: My Journey to China (2017)
My name is Fatimah Taj White My journey all started in 2017. I was working two jobs Brooklyn Museum and Assistant Director at a small museum in Long Island. I was commuting from Long Island to Brooklyn to teach and to work at two different jobs. Back and forth. Train. Bus. Train again. Long days. Long nights. One day I was on the N6 bus and I almost passed out. I was exhausted. I was tired. And my soul felt like it just wasn’t being fed as an educator and as a teacher. On paper, everything looked good. Titles. Responsibility. Respect. But inside? I felt drained. Spiritually empty. Like I was pouring from a cup that had nothing left in it. And I remember thinking this cannot be my life. So I decided to quit my job in Long Island, which was my full-time job, and figure out a way to teach abroad. Of course, the first place I wanted to teach was Africa. All day. It always has been and still is to this day. Africa was the first place in my heart. But first, Atlanta. I found a teaching abroad company called ISS and flew to Atlanta in the middle of winter for a conference. Huge ballroom. Schools from all over the world. Interview tables everywhere.
I got the job in China. And mind you, this was 2017. I also got the job in Dubai. And the line to Dubai? Wild. Around the corner. Packed. So many people of color applying for Dubai. It was buzzing. You could feel it. People wanted that job bad. It felt electric. And there I was blue hair, tattoos, artist energy knowing that whatever school hired me would have to take me exactly as I am. As an artist. As a creative. Or I just wouldn’t take the job. I wasn’t shrinking myself for a contract.
China hired me quickly because I was new to teaching abroad. Dubai hired me too. I had options. I had to pray on it. Dubai was glamorous. Fast. Prestigious. But something in me wanted trees. Mountains. Discipline. I really wanted to study martial arts. I wanted nature. I wanted to regulate my nervous system. I needed to get some anger out of my body. So I chose China.
Before I left, I went on a small pilgrimage with my art friends to Marfa, Texas. Then I went on a road trip to New Mexico and Colorado and hung out with art friends and did some soul-searching. Desert air. Open skies. Mountains. Silence.
Because at that time, I was angry.
My uncle and family had sold our grandmother’s family home in New York. My grandmother was an art teacher an arts educator and selling her home was really tough for me. I wanted to try to keep it. But you know, Black people, legacy, owning homes, generational wealth it gets hella complicated. And that grief was sitting in my chest. So I went to China early. I studied martial arts for four months Shaolin kung fu. Not for show. Not for ego. For meditation. For relaxation. For discipline. For healing. It was a full-day schedule of only taking care of yourself. Stretching. Training. Breathing. Repetition. Stillness. Sweat. Silence. I studied in the north of China. And at that time, China was a different place. China is always a different place. It changes over the years. I had an amazing kung fu master who taught me so much about discipline and relaxation that there are certain things my body will never forget. Certain movements. Certain breath. Certain stillness. I made friends I still have to this day.Then I started working at a brand new school. Literally brand new. I was there to cut the ribbon. I was part of the beginning. New building. New energy. New chapter.
And that was the start of my life teaching abroad.
That was 2017.
That was Part One.

Truth be told...I didn’t just wake up one day and decide to teach abroad. My journey began in 2017, burned out from working two museum jobs in New York, sitting on a bus so exhausted I almost passed out. That moment forced me to ask a deeper question: What would it look like to actually live?Since then, I’ve taught and worked across multiple countries China, Thailand, Malaysia, Kenya, and beyond. I’ve navigated new cultures, new classrooms, language barriers, loneliness, joy, community, and the quiet power of starting over. As an art educator and as a Black woman living abroad, my experience has been layered. Beautiful. Complicated. Expansive. Sometimes isolating. Often transformative.Living abroad changes you
Teaching abroad changes you even more.
If you want to know what it’s really like not the Instagram version, not the recruiter version but the honest version, the embodied version Book a session with me.We can talk about:
• How to start teaching abroad
• Choosing the right country for you
• Contracts, conferences, and interviews
• What no one tells you about cultural adjustment
• Navigating identity abroad as a Black woman
• Building a creative life internationally
This isn’t theory.
This is lived experience.
If you’re ready to expand your life beyond borders, I’m here.
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