The Thing Before the Thing
Jeary Payne is an artist and educator. He received a bachelor’s focusing on music and business from ASU. A native of Arizona, prior to moving to New York to peruse a career in music spent 3 years as a Program Advisor at Mesa Community College where he helped to manage various aspects of Student Life and Leadership related programming. Upon relocating to New York in the spring of 2015 he become active in the city’s art scene. First as a performing artist and eventually as a Teaching Artist, Teen Mentor and Program Manager for Urban Art Beat, a non-profit organization that increases youth literacy and leadership skills through creative collaboration in the arts. Infusing elements of Hip-Hop and social justice into his classroom curriculum, a capacity he served in until 2018.