Dear White American Theatre Response #WeSeeYou - Part 1 (Intro)
Black Lives Matter.
“I Can’t Breathe”
These two phrases with three worlds are at the center of a historical uprising of epic proportions. Amidst Covid-19, our world has been pressed with the phrase “I Can’t Breathe” for multiple reasons. One reason is that black and brown bodies continue to be killed and slaughtered for no reason right in front of our eyes. Covid patients cannot breath because their lungs are being attacked by a virus that is not contained. However, black people have not been able to breathe in American for 400+ years because the virus of racism has attacked the minds and hearts of Americans since its inceptions. The words “I Can’t Breathe” are uttered over and over again, literally and figuratively, with no reprieve. Now we as a community (with many allies )are fighting not just for air, but for our space to stand our ground and live as free as we should have been since day one.
Racism runs deep in our country but also in artist communities. Some theatre artists wrote about the pain and indignity of being a BIPOC artist in the theatre community. They entitled it Dear White American Theatre with a hashtag of #weseeyou. For all of diversity theatre touts, the theatre community has had its part in creating spaces that perpetuate racism and the oppression of BIPOC artists from its inception as well. Artists are sensitive souls. We weep. We cry and wail. But then we create work that tells our story and the story of others who may have no voice. Now Black people, indigenous people, and people of color do not just want to matter but want to have an authentic voice and space, on stage and off. We are demanding to be heard.
The #weseeyou video series, is a beginning to that process for me to publicly grieve for my black community and wrestle with what to do as an artist and teacher , ways I have failed, and ways the theatre community can do better. The above video is my raw and honest response to the letter. The series has four parts and tackles my history, experiences, and hopes for what theatre education classrooms have and should be from my perspective.