DEC 29, 2019 8:44 PM

Nov 9

The Masters in Applied Theatre Program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies 5th Annual Racial Justice Conference. In partnership with CUNY Black Male Initiative; CUNY Baruch College-SEEK; CUNY SPS MA in Youth Studies Program; CUNY SPS MA in Disabilities Studies; City College of New York Urban Mentoring and Achievement Network; Creative Arts Team; Goddard College Bachelors of Fine Arts in Socially Engaged Art; The Journey Theatre Project; People’s Theatre Project; Theatre of the Oppressed NYC. The conference included dynamic sessions, panels, and performances revolving around this year’s theme: Sign of the Times: The Role of the Arts and Education in Advancing Racial Equity and Combating White Supremacy.

I loved revisiting Creative Artists Team whom I trained with in the early 2000’s, attending workshops and having great conversations in between sessions with participants on best practices for producing performances of justice. I most enjoyed the performance from Playback Theater NYC and the great decolonized land acknowledgement.  

I led the following session which included theory and performance, was practical and deeply moving. . 

Collective Embodied Reading and Reflection for liberation

The exercise of collectively reading a text together and then reflecting upon it can be a powerful generative tool for group learning, creative response, and deeper community cohesion. This workshop/performance/social justice space is a non-hierarchical way of sharing the knowledge in the room and producing action. Includes an overview of the form with examples of it in practice historically ; a group reading of The Every 28 Hours Plays: Community Reading Format; a reflection of racial justice, discussion of specific aspects of room design, accessibility, inclusion, invitation, curating a text and directorial facilitation, are the most useful.

Racial Justice Weekend 2019 Schedule.pdf

#conference #every28hoursplays #racialjustice