Antiracism at work in Theatre, Dance and Performance
Shifting the labour of antiracism
“Racist actions, left unchecked, become racist structures”
(Revolution or Nothing Network 2020)
ABOUT
We witness and acknowledge the call for action by the Revolution or Nothing Network.
As a collective of white and white-passing colleagues, we recommend that before engaging with the materials offered here you first read the Revolution or Nothing Network’s statement.
The material on this website is designed to augment the call for further actions and future platforming of antiracist practices in our disciplines detailed in that statement.
Who are we?
We are an ever-growing collective of theatre, dance, and performance researchers who are committed to realising antiracist futures for our disciplines.
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The collective is not associated with any institutions. Many of us do work for institutions that have made antiracist commitments. We will hold those institutions to account on their promises for change and action.
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If you would like to join and/or share resources, all are welcome. The focus is on offering white and white-passing colleagues resources and guidance for realising antiracism in the first instance.
Antiracist Resources
The resources offered here are ongoing. We recognise the types of ‘ally’ that Dr Muna Abdi offers in her training sessions. In the ‘How to be an Ally’ session, she distinguished four kinds of ally: the helper; the advocate; the rebel and the organizer. She also noted that it is key to ascertain who is our audience: a genuinely ignorant, a willfully ignorant or a deliberately racist.
These types may be useful to bear in mind as we think of what sort of work we can do, what kinds of events/resources may be required, who is being invited and how.
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OUR COMMITMENTS
As colleagues, professionals and artists in theatre, dance and performance, we are exploring methods for holding ourselves accountable. Over the next few months, we plan to agree commitments in the spirit of listening to the Revolution or Nothing Network and adopting Dr Royona Mitra's idea of 'making space'. As white and white-passing colleagues, we invite others to join us in composing and sharing these commitments.
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Our commitments are not exhaustive and can be updated, reviewed and built upon to ensure accountability and offer guidance.
EXAMPLE COMMITMENTS:
"Commitment: As peer reviewers for journals and books, it is legitimate for us to ask authors to state that exclusively euro-centric positions are presented as limited in their scope and application"
"Commitment: Fund Black and Global Majority PhD students and hire Black and Global Majority staff members "
"Commitment: curriculum design / validate learning outcomes in all required modules / courses that address racism and anti-racism "
Antiracism at work Theatre, Dance and Performance
SHIFTING THE LABOUR OF ANTIRACISM
UK