[rsc] Re: Fwd: Application for RSC Workgroup
- From: Hope Clark <hopeclark@xxxxxxx>
- To: Hannah Adams <hannahdadams@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:14:28 -0400
Hey-
I pdf'd it. Does that help?
-Hannah
Yes. thank you Hannah.
Your experiences and honesty are appreciated.
Hope
Application for Resources for Social Change Workgroup
Hannah Adams
HannahDAdams@xxxxxxxxx
781-801-0072
New Orleans, LA
Submitted: 9-9-09
1. Describe a specific community arts project you were involved in.
Since moving to New Orleans two years ago, one of the most rewarding
relationships I have built is with Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools
(Rethink), a group of youth activists who use media and art to
express ideas about their education. I actually met the Rethinkers
through a theater project that taught me a lot about the importance
of community-based art through its own failure to truly engage with
community. I was working with a theater company in the winter of
2008 to generate an original comedy about public education in New
Orleans. We began by using story circles and Boal image exercises to
reflect on our own experiences with education, but we were hitting a
wall. About halfway through the process we realized we needed to
begin conducting interviews with folks who were more affected by the
New Orleans public education system than we were. I had heard two of
the Rethinkers speak about their experience at a forum on education,
and so I got in touch with them and began attending meetings.
Ultimately, their stories and ideas, and those of other youth,
educators and parents that we spoke to, formed the core of How to
Draw the Sun; or, Kiss Me Paul Vallas. But we had come to them too
late- the most valuable lesson I learned from working on that play
was that I shouldn't try to speak for kids in New Orleans schools-
they are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves. And it wasn't
enough, ultimately, for their words to appear in our script. Our
exploration of education would have been far richer had they been at
the table with us from the beginning.
After the show closed, we talked a lot about how we could make our
contribution sustainable. It seemed narcissistic and entitled to
think that the best thing we could do with our show was tour it
around to Teach for America presentations and education policy
meetings. Spending time with the Rethinkers made me realize that I
needed to spend more time listening and less time acting like I was
the expert. I decided that I would attempt to cultivate an ongoing
relationship with Rethink. For the last two summers I've led theater
workshops with the Rethinkers that have focused on communicating
through images and visioning solutions to problems they experience.
We use a lot of Theater of the Oppressed techniques and
improvisation. The first year the youth generated skits about food
justice to perform at a press conference they were holding, and the
second year they created a "tableau museum" representing their ideal
school to help illustrate their ideas. Working with the Rethinkers
has reaffirmed my belief in theater as a powerful movement-building
tool, both in the Boalian sense of providing techniques to rehearse
possibilities for transformation, and in the Brechtian sense of
taking the status quo and making it "strange."
2. What are your Guiding Principles as an artist working in community?
Living in New Orleans post-Katrina has been a challenging experience
and one of great growth and transformation for me. Working for a
housing justice organization, I am hyper aware of the ways in which
my demographic (white, college-educated young people with middle to
upper-middle class roots who are not from here and moved here after
the storm) has appropriated communities and sparked a devastating
wave of gentrification. I recognize the ways in which my
institutional privilege and mobility allow me to live in this amazing
city when thousands of families are homeless or still displaced. I
struggle a lot with how to support an anti-racist movement for a Just
Reconstruction without reproducing the very systems of oppression
that I want to fight.
My identity as an artist interested in theater as a tool for social
change has been deeply impacted by my growing understanding of
interlocking systems of oppression and how they intersect with my
privilege. Recently when helping to organize the State of the Nation
festival in New Orleans I realized first-hand what it meant for my
intentions not to match up with my impact on a community. My failure
to communicate a piece of information to another festival organizer
translated into a power play and appropriation of her community's
space. In fair housing law it doesn't matter what your intention is,
only your impact. Similarly, in the situation at State of the
Nation, it doesn't matter that I didn't mean to reproduce an
inequitable power structure, but that was the impact of my actions.
In general, I have shied away from taking much artistic initiative in
New Orleans to date because I don't feel that my methodology is
strong enough yet to make me a fully responsible and accountable
artist in this community.
My guiding principles? I believe in humility and shared power. I
believe that I have things to share with communities I am not from,
but that mostly I have things to learn. I believe that everyone has
assets they bring to the table. I believe in creating art that
supports existing organizing efforts. I believe in respectfully
sharing stories and space rather than mining for sound bites and
images. I believe in listening more than talking. I believe that I
am not central to the movement, nor should I be central to any art
project aimed at movement-building. I recognize that my presence in
a space changes that space because of my privilege and historical
access to power, and I believe in being honest about that fact. I
believe that our artistic collaborations can be laboratories where we
imagine how to live and work more equitably.
3. What do you want to learn?
As I mentioned before, I want to develop a methodology around
community-based theater and theater as a tool for social change. I
am interested in working with other artists (especially those who
have much more experience than I do) to examine our artistic
communities and processes and develop a set of best practices. I
would like to explore accountability, and how artists can be
accountable to communities they are not from. I would like to learn
more about the history of theater's role in social movements and the
legacy of Roots.
4. What do you know and can share?
My educational background (for better or for worse) is in theater,
and I focused a lot on radical theater movements and community-based
theater practices in college. I know something about Theater of the
Oppressed and generating work from personal stories and experience.
Right now I'm taking a class on community-based theater with John
O'Neal and the Free Southern Theater Institute. I can share my
honesty, enthusiasm, deep commitment to the work, and willingness to
get up and be creative.
5. Why are you interested in joining RSC?
Being part of Roots has felt like coming home. I feel like RSC is at
the heart of what Roots is all about, and I would be honored to
participate in the workgroup and continue to develop my understanding
of the role of artists in community and the role of art in movements
for social change. By also participating in the Annual Meeting
workgroup I hope to contribute to both substantive and administrative
work within Roots.
On Sep 16, 2009, at 11:07 AM, Hannah Adams wrote:
On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 8:48 AM, Hope Clark <hopeclark@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi there,
I was just trying to read some of the declarations, and for some
reason I can't open this one from Hannah.
Anyone else having that problem?
Hope
On Sep 10, 2009, at 10:45 AM, Kathie de Nobriga wrote:
Fabulous! thanks Hannah....I'm particularly excited about having
a Boal practitioner join us, and your NOLA experiences sound like
a very ripe field for learning....
Can you join us for the TN retreat the weekend of October 9-11?
We should be able to underwrite travel.
I'll ask Carlton to add you to our listserv -- next phone call is
Friday, September 25 at 6pm Eastern. In the meantime, check out
the RSC tab on the ROOTS website --- and feel free to call with
any questions!
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 23:00:04 -0500
Subject: Application for RSC Workgroup
From: Hannah Adams <hannahdadams@xxxxxxxxx>
To: kdenobriga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Kathy,
Attached is my application to join the RSC workgroup. Please let
me know when you receive it, and if you need any additional
information.
Thanks so much and hope you are doing well!
Best,
Hannah Adams
781-801-0072
HannahDAdams@xxxxxxxxx
Content-Type: application/msword;
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<HannahAdams_RSC_Application.doc>
Hope Clark
<HannahAdams_RSC_Application.pdf>
Hope Clark
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