Collective Liberation Practice

We are a weekly study group focused on the Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed.  We are interested in how embodied social justice practice in the form of Theater of the Oppressed techniques can be used to address issues in multiple communities.  We are also interested in looking at the practice in concert with numerous efficacies (contemplative, political, theatrical, educational, technological) that members of the group use or have mastered.  Part of our practical work will be exposure to embodied techniques and how they (or lessons learned from using them together in the workshop) can be applied in our work in community settings.

We are a weekly study group focused on the Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed.  We are interested in how embodied social justice practice in the form of Theater of the Oppressed techniques can be used to address issues in multiple communities.  We are also interested in looking at the practice in concert with numerous efficacies (contemplative, political, theatrical, educational, technological) that members of the group use or have mastered.  Part of our practical work will be exposure to embodied techniques and how they (or lessons learned from using them together in the workshop) can be applied in our work in community settings.

I am actively developing new works in theatre that uplift voices and stories that have been historically subjugated.  This is the only kind of art that I am interested in making.

While this type of theatrical storytelling is not new to me,  I am only in my infancy when it comes to restructuring the creative processes and producing models in an anti-oppressive.

I am just now learning which groups in the producing community are having conversations about this.

I have particularly enjoyed the material put out by the Playwright’s Realm and art Equity.

The Broadway Advocacy Coalition is leading the way in some of this thinking and theatre-making.  I am interested in their work, although I have not worked with them yet.

Owning Dissonance, a devised theatrical performance, came out of the desire to explore the intersection of somatic healing, body-based theatre, and performance.

This exploration made way to explore the questions: “In what ways does trauma lodge in the female body?” and “How can we heal women’s bodies and narratives?”

Our desire as a collective was to reclaim our bodies and narratives through performance and somatic work, without the white male gaze of traditional American Theatre.  Ultimately we built a deep sense of complexity around what it means to build interracial community in rehearsal and performance, to look at trauma and transmute it together, and how relationships can build and shift over time.  This work was funded by a LAB grant from The Boston Foundation and by Emerson College.

Owning Dissonance, a devised theatrical performance, came out of the desire to explore the intersection of somatic healing, body-based theatre, and performance.

This exploration made way to explore the questions: “In what ways does trauma lodge in the female body?” and “How can we heal women’s bodies and narratives?”

Our desire as a collective was to reclaim our bodies and narratives through performance and somatic work, without the white male gaze of traditional American Theatre.  Ultimately we built a deep sense of complexity around what it means to build interracial community in rehearsal and performance, to look at trauma and transmute it together, and how relationships can build and shift over time.  This work was funded by a LAB grant from The Boston Foundation and by Emerson College.

In May 2019, a group of dancers gathered at Earthdance for a workshop called Fissure. The facilitators and participants in our group were Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), and White.  They came together with the explicit intention of looking at how race, racism, and whiteness shape our dancing.

During Fissure, our group experienced and witnessed both systemic and informal racism that, unless addressed, will continue to get in the way of Earthdance’s pledge of racial equity and repair.  With Earthdance’s historical importance in Contact Improvisation, we would like to see Earthdance become a place where BIPOC and anti-racist Whites can train, gather, and engage in somatic inquiry.

Our group of white dancers met regularly from May of 2019 through October of 2021 to examine how race, racism, colorism, and whiteness affect our art-making, teaching, dancing, and somatic practice.

One main objective of our meetings was to put pressure on Earthdance to make systemic change within their organization, and we have been disappointed by their lack of followthrough.  Namely, not doing what they said they’re going to do.

Although our group no longer meets regularly, we are in ongoing dialogue about the specific role white people can and cannot play in anti-racism work, as well as the way that racism shows up in white people’s bodies, tension patterns, somatic experience, habits, and reactions.  We have an ongoing inquiry about how changing our physical patterning could affect how we engage with race in the world.

As an organization, Parcon Resilience is committed to cultivating anti-racist embodied praxis for all people, especially for people of the Global South diaspora across intersections of ability and age.

We provide opportunities for fellowship, training of leaders to support their communities and companies, and curricular development. Learn more here.

I participated in the first-ever training by Parcon Resilience in New York City and am inspired by this community’s interest in the intersection of somatic practice, dance, and anti-racism work.

As an organization, Parcon Resilience is committed to cultivating anti-racist embodied praxis for all people, especially for people of the Global South diaspora across intersections of ability and age.

We provide opportunities for fellowship, training of leaders to support their communities and companies, and curricular development. Learn more here.

I participated in the first-ever training by Parcon Resilience in New York City and am inspired by this community’s interest in the intersection of somatic practice, dance, and anti-racism work.

As part of the 2014 Faculty Fellow Cohort, I was exposed to anti-racism pedagogy techniques, syllabus building, and lesson plans.

After the fellowship, I collaborated with Robert Amelio, Director of Diversity, to create an acting class with my students designed to use acting and movement techniques as a way to look at, and break apart, stereotypes.

The department of performing arts recognized me multiple times for developing curriculum around teaching equity and anti-racism.

Unfortunately, like many institutions, Emerson’s model did not actually allow for the kind of change that would be needed to implement this kind of teaching or structural change system-wide.