Friday, February 10, 2017

Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project February 27 at Black Ensemble Theatre

Black Ensemble Theater proudly announces a special, one-night-only event to screen Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project (LLCVP), which features interviews with BE Founder and CEO Jackie Taylor. The event will be held at the Black Ensemble Theater Cultural Center, 4450 N. Clark Street in Chicago, on Monday, February 27, 2017, with a reception at 6pm and film screening and panel discussion at 7pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Following the screening, Tyronne Stoudemire, Vice President of Global Diversity & Inclusion for Hyatt Hotels Corporation and board chair of Black Ensemble Theater, will moderate a panel discussion with Angelique Power, President of the Field Foundation and co-founder of Project Enrich, Elena Chang, Associate Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for Theatre Communications Group (TCG), Gus Schulenburg, Director of Communications and Community Engagement of TCG, and Teresa Eyring, Executive Director of TCG. Additional panelists to be announced. The distinguished panel will address the importance of the arts as it relates to healing the racial divide and dismantling racism.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, created the Legacy Leaders of Color Video Project (LLCVP) over a two-year period. Working with video production company MOPED, and with support from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, TCG filmed a series of interviews chronicling the stories of founding leaders of theatres of color, including Black Ensemble Theater’s Jackie Taylor. Screening events will be held in the leaders’ communities to further celebrate their legacies and galvanize support for their enduring impact.

The interviews in the film reveal how these leaders were inspired to create opportunities lacking for artists of color; to challenge appropriation and misrepresentation through staging the full richness and complexity of racial, ethnic and cultural identities; to gain political power and creative autonomy; and to contribute their unique aesthetic and social perspectives to our culture. The LLCVP will serve as a roadmap for future theatre leaders and raise broader cultural awareness of the impact of theatres of color.

In addition to Jackie Taylor, other leaders featured in the video project include: Lou Bellamy, Penumbra Theatre, St Paul, MN; Tisa Chang, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, New York, NY; Frank Chin, Asian American Theater Company, San Francisco, CA; Miriam Colón, Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, New York, NY; Woodie King, Jr., New Federal Theatre, New York, NY; Muriel Miguel, Spiderwoman Theater, New York, NY; Luis Valdez, El Teatro Campesino, San Juan Baptista, CA; and Douglas Turner Ward, Negro Ensemble Company, New York, NY.

The screening series will be led by Elena Chang, TCG’s associate director of equity, diversity & inclusion, and August Schulenburg, TCG’s director of communications & community engagement, and will roll-out over an 18-month period in the leaders’ communities.

No comments: