Anti-Oppression Practice

Collective Liberation

Anti-Oppression is a practice.

We live in a world where oppression and systems of violence are the water we swim in and the air we breathe. These systems were put in place before we were here, and changing them requires ongoing, dynamic creativity.

Developing alternative models of creating, engaging, and relating requires sophisticated emotional awareness, stabilizing practices, willingness to make mistakes with grace, and the ability to be transparent about systems as they exist and how we envision them changing.

There is a complexity in naming what is without reinforcing structures we wish to liberate ourselves from. If we don’t name them, we can be in denial about how the system is operating. If we do name them, we risk believing that these systems are fixed or immutable.

As we move toward models of exchanging equitable resources, we need to continue to imagine multitudes of ways systems could change to put people (and loving relationships) at the center.

Harnessing Creativity & Ingenuity

My hope is that we continue to use our creativity and ingenuity to find ways to transform our fundamental practices, structures, and models.

I am constantly learning in this work and realizing past mistakes and assumptions I’ve made

My hope is that we continue to use our creativity and ingenuity to find ways to transform our fundamental practices, structures, and models.

I am constantly learning in this work and realizing past mistakes and assumptions I’ve made.

“If you trust the people, they become trustworthy. trust is a seed that grows with attention and space. the facilitator can be a gardener, or the sun, the water… there is a conversation in the room that wants and needs to be had. don’t force it, don’t deny it. let it come forth… the connection between the individuals is what makes the whole group/community strong.”

-adrienne maree brown

I've been a part of the following Anti-Oppression groups, relationships, and practices:

I am actively developing new works in theater that uplift voices and stories that have been historically subjugated. This is the only kind of art that I am interested in making. Most recently I have done this in Boston with help from a LAB grant for the project "Owning Dissonance" as well as Off-Broadway with the project "Trevor." I'm now working on a new project about Black Female Abolitionists called "Truth: A BioFictional Choreopoem."
I have met regularly with therapists who are committed to anti-racist/anti-oppressive clinical practice for many years.
I participated in a Theater of the Oppressed Joker Cohort for several years. We used embodied social justice techniques for community settings and studied anti racist and anti oppressive praxis.

I participated in a workshop in 2019 called "Fissure," which was made of an interracial group of dancers committed to exploring how racism showed up in our dancing. After the workshop I continued to meet with the group of white allies and accomplices on a weekly basis for several years.
I participated in the first-ever training by Parcon Resilience in New York City. Parcon Resilience, now called Moving Rasa, is an improvisational movement organization committed to cultivating anti-racist embodied praxis for all people, especially people of the Global South across intersections of ability and age.
I was part of the 2014 Emerson College Inclusive Excellence faculty fellowship. In this fellowship, I was exposed to anti-racism pedagogy, techniques, syllabus building, and lesson plans. After the fellowship, I collaborated with the Director of Diversity at the college to create an acting class designed to use theater and movement as a way to look at and break apart stereotypes.

Sub Menu

Joker Cohort

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.

Sub Menu

Anti-Racist Theatre-Making and Producing

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.

Sub Menu

Owning Dissonance

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.

sub heading

Fissure Allies

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.

sub heading

Parcon Resilience

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.

sub heading

Emerson College Faculty Fellow: Inclusive Excellence

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.