Devising Hope: Racial Equity
Challenging Racism and Educational Theatre Company have embarked on a ground-breaking partnership to create original theatre pieces on topics of race and racial justice.
ETC has been awarded an AWARE (Artists Working to Address and Reimagine Equity) grant from the Arlington Commission for the Arts to expand their partnership with Challenging Racism (CR).
This project, Challenging Racism and ETC Devising Hope present The Stories that Bind Us: Race, Reflection, and Resilience, is an extension of a partnership between CR and ETC which began in late 2020. Both organizations are passionate to disrupt the cycle of racism in our community by sharing stories, which will truly change lives through the arts.
Community members will join ETC and CR in discussions surrounding their own experiences with racism and oppression. These conversations will be used as inspiration for ETC's Teaching Artists to create a series of original theatre pieces that will culminate in live performances for the community. Audience members will hear the participants' words, stories, and ideas being performed. Each performance will be followed by a deeper discussion of the stories and topics presented with a Challenging Racism facilitator to empower attendees to disrupt racism in their daily interactions.
The first of these sessions was held with AHC Inc, with community members joining ETC & CR at the Serrano Apartments to work towards a final performance based on their discussions. The final live performance was recorded and can be viewed below.
The second session of Devising Hope: Racial Equity was held at Gilliam Place in partnership with Our Stomping Ground and Challenging Racism. You can view the final performance below, and read about the experience from session leader, Ashley Hammond, here.