OCT 15, 2019 9:26 AM
When a community is in crisis we provide The Every 28 Hours Plays to them for free. Several theaters sent their thanks.
FORT WORTH
In 2012 a study found that every 28 hours a black person was extrajudicially killed by vigilante, security guard, or the police in the United States. This statistic was immediately contested and the country is still embroiled with addressing a problem it struggles to acknowledge. We offer this project in our spirit of radical generosity to communities in need.
Produced by Claudia Alick and CALLING UP, The Every 28 Hours Plays project was originally developed with The Oregon Shakespeare Festival and The One-Minute Play Festival with over one-hundred artistic collaborators across the country. Collaborators include Tony award-winning artists, activists, family members directly affected by police violence, politicians, cultural organizers, and law enforcement. These short plays reflect the current civil rights movement, and tools to help your community address these issues, grow empathy, and become healthier.
The Every 28 Hours Plays were created with the goal of capturing the history in the making of our current Civil Rights Movement and giving us something to respond to tragedy and injustice with. The title of the project is inspired by the contested nature of the statistic that every twenty-eight hours a black person is killed by security guard, vigilante, or police by extrajudicial violence. When the Malcolm Grass Roots Movement released their report, the claim went viral, inspiring denial and questions about their methodology. For us this raised the larger question: every 28 hours, every 48, every 98, how many hours would it take for this not to be a national issue of vital importance? #BlackLivesMatter was created in 2012 after Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman, was acquitted for his crime, and dead 17 year old Trayvon was posthumously placed on trial for his own murder. We use #Every28Hours because as a nation #BlackLivesMatter is still being treated as a question.
This project centers those that have been marginalized within Black liberation movements such as black queer and trans folk, undocumented, and black women as a tactic to (re)build the Black liberation movement. They are broadening the conversation around state violence to include all of the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state, and acknowledge the ways in which Black lives are deprived of basic human rights and dignity.
While all theater is a political act, we have always been very clear that this piece of theater was created without a singular political viewpoint. Our curatorial process was open, and we asked our playwrights to reflect on the civil rights movement that is happening today and the events that inspire the Black Lives Matter movement. The process has included dialogue with both law enforcement and activists, and it continues to. Theater, culture workers, and law enforcement are designed to serve the community in their own unique ways. Theater offers a space to explore our differences, find our commonalities, and practice empathy.
Fill out our IN TAKE FORM to engage with the plays: https://forms.gle/37Yjj3gVfPnrNqEZA
Find out More! Read out info sheet or visit our website http://every28hoursplays.org
Read the our Producing Guidelines and/or Community Reading Guidelines
Connect with your community and make change!
Every 28 Hours Plays Full Collection 2018.pdf
Producing Guidelines for The Every 28 Hours Plays 2018.pdf
The Every 28 Hours Plays Community Reading Facilitation Guide draft.pdf
INFO SHEET Every 28 Hours Plays 2018.pdf
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