Earlier this month, France’s lower house of parliament approved a bill to ban Islamic face veiling, or the burqa.* Though not yet law, the bill is expected to pass through the French senate in September. Lawmakers have somehow framed this proposal as a boost for security and women’s rights, but—as anyone who reads into the social implications will realize—it is neither. Read the rest of The French Burqa Ban and its Theatrical Exemption »
The world wide web was supposed to usher in an era of connection between various cultures, opinions, and voices around the world. However, according to Ethan Zuckerman, the overwhelming majority of online users simply access domestic media and surround ourselves with people just like us.
Logging onto the internet may give us an illusory feeling of cosmopolitanism, but when we look at the demographics (racial or ideological) of our facebook/twitter feeds, or the country of origin of most media we access, it begs the question: Are we really using the internet to break down barriers, or is the unprecedented ability to “choose” which people and information sources we interact with ironically allowing us to sequester ourselves in exclusively like-minded-media?
How can we more effectively unlock the connective functions for which we extol the communication age?
http://www.ted.com/talks/ethan_zuckerman.html
Zuckerman explores this idea at TED 2010. This talk is well worth the time of anyone interested in communication, journalism, or social media.
Much of the work we highlight here at thambo.org focuses on the influence of external audiences through performance and other art forms. However, art is often used for or results in an internal transformation as well. Nowhere more apparent is that fact than San Fancisco, CA where a small organization called Community Works is changing the lives of all those it touches.
Community Works aims to change the lives of men, women, and children affected by incarceration and it is doing just that. Read more about this incredible organization here.
How can social justice artists make their work true, both to specific injustices portrayed but also to a larger truth?
Forum Theatre, developed by Augusto Boal, is most effective when an experience drawn from the spect-actors is reproduced and played. To work, it must be real. It does not, however, have to adhere exclusively to the facts.
Read the rest of Telling True Stories »
They’re one of the world’s leading practitioners of Theatre of the Oppressed. And with nearly 20 years of performances from the streets of London to the Royal Shakespeare company, they’ve got a track record like none you’ve ever seen. If there’s ever inspiration by great (erm…brilliant) example, Cardboard Citizens is at the top of the list.
Lead by Adrian Jackson, best known for his English translations of Boal’s texts, the group began as a Forum Theatre project with the homeless and displaced of London. Keeping that original core intact, the group has expanded and evolved to include workshops in schools and prisons, theatre performances ranging from ensemble created productions, to Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera and Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, collaborations with an array of international groups like Combatants for Peace, and classes on everything from improvisation to Samba drumming.
For those interested in a great organization vision and mission statement, check out their About Us page. It’s, frankly, brilliant.
The website is a treasure trove of great resoureces, information, photos, production histories and a compelling blog.
Check out their work today!
Even if you can’t make it out to Serbia this August, this group organizes an inspiring program. Check out the site to preview their work in music, street art, and theatre for non-actors to see if it can inspire ideas for your own summer art workshops.
http://artcamp.ktowngroup.org.rs/?page_id=22
From the website:
1. SOUNDING (music workshop) The idea for the music workshop is based on picture and sound interaction and wider communication as well as possible collaboration with other workshops that take place in Kosjeric camps…. Read the rest of International Art Camp 2010: Kosjeric, Serbia »
Think social justice and the arts don’t go together? Think that college campuses are the only venues for tackling difficult social issues?
Think again!
Grantmakers in the Arts is a leading organization of arts related grants and they have a special page dedicated to social justice. Here you can find various articles on the intersection between the arts and the pursuit of social justice – exactly what Thambo is all about!
Check it out!
(Also find Grantmakers in the Arts at www.giarts.org)
Welcome to The Thambo Project! For a half-decade the Project has been working across the globe to find answers to the question, “How can we change the world through art?” In that time, we’ve worked with teenagers in Iowa, school children in India, peace workers in Morocco and artists in Minneapolis. Now, we’re excited to launch our newest endeavor. Thambo.org is a new home for artists of all mediums who want to grapple with the social, moral, and political issues of our time. We believe that anyone who wants to change – their community, their home, their school, their world – can bring about a new reality through the creative arts. Thambo.org will gather ideas and techniques, people and groups, and work to connect our artists and our art in a community of strength, imagination, and hope. Our new home will feature writers posting on various issues surrounding social justice art and performance. I encourage you to bookmark the site and check back often for daily updates. You can also find links to our facebook page, twitter account, and link to our RSS feed! With our new website launch we are also looking for more writers to join The Thambo Team. If you are interested in writing with us, or getting involved in another way, please let us know!
Thambo.org is planning to expand as quickly as possible! We’re developing an online forum for artists to connect, a training center to gather techniques and helpful information on making a difference through the arts, a Yellow Pages for you or your organization to be recognized and much more!
We hope you will join the Thambo family and the dialogue that inspires us all.
The Thambo Team,
Chris Bacon
Chris Edelbrock
Lindsay Fox
Evan Hilsabeck
We’ll kick things off by looking at three organizations whose work in Theatre of the Oppressed is exciting and innovative. Meet the people behind ImaginAction, The Forum Project, and Mixed Company Theatre.
ImaginAction, based in Los Angeles, CA, is led by the incredible, intimidating, inspirational Hector Aristizábal. To meet Aristizábal is to come face to face with an artistic whirlwind- he’s always moving, trying something new, pushing the boundaries. The range of projects that ImaginAction is involved with at any moment is very exciting, combining more traditional Forum theatre and TO workshops and performances with an eclectic blend of circus, single-performer pieces (especially Aristizábal’s NightWind, a performance based on his experience as a Colombian torture victim), and intercultural and inter-religious dialogues and workshops. Aristizábal has just released a book titled The Blessing Next to the Wound: A Story of Art, Activism, and Transformation and I look forward to reading it and passing some thoughts on in the near future. If you live near LA, you owe it to yourself to attend one of ImaginAction’s frequent Awakening the Imagination workshops.
The Forum Project is a newer group based in New York City and run by Alexander Santiago-Jirau and S. Leigh Thompson, both of whom have served on the board of the International Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed conference. Leigh’s work with LGBT and trans topics has been a real inspiration to me and this group ought to be providing some really interesting work in the city. Offering a variety of TO and TO-inspired workshops, The Forum Project is a good place to get some training, especially if you’re new to the work!
Mixed Company Theatre, based in Toronto, Canada, was recognized by Augusto Boal as an official Forum Theatre center within Canada. They have been continuously active since 1983 and continue to expand and explore Boal’s original Forum Theatre models by bringing them into dialogue with other artistic practices. Mixed Company has a very active workshop schedule, and a variety of different workshops suited to educators, students, business professionals, and community leaders. Unless you’re planning a trip to Brazil to study with Boal’s own CTO-Rio, your next best bet to experience really innovative, powerful performance activism and forum theatre is Mixed Company Theatre.
The death of Augusto Boal in 2009 left a hole in the theatre community felt around the world. One year after his passing, the work of the Theatre of the Oppressed, the CTO-Rio and the many manifestations of his techniques in places far and wide continue to challenge authority and inspire those who struggle. We explore some of the new developments in TO and reflect on the many new directions of his work.