ArtsPraxis Volume 5 Issue 2 has been published.
Last April, at the 15th annual Forum: Performance as Activism, I was heartened to meet practitioners, artists, educators and scholars from around the globe who were enthusiastically engaged in using the art form of theatre to address pressing social and cultural issues. This edition of ArtsPraxis includes fourteen inspiring and pertinent articles that report on activist theories and practices that have been initiated, explored and successfully implemented in communities and classrooms.
At the Forum, we asked, “How is activism defined or redefined in 2018?” Through panel discussions, workshops, performances and paper presentations we explored how activism can disrupt, subvert and transform dominant social and political narratives. More than sixty presenters from twelve different countries relayed inspirational and revelatory methods towards the goal of promoting enduring social change through aesthetic expression. In this global space of open dialogue and exchange, we, as activists learned about organizational methods, pedagogical tools, aesthetic devices that, in responding to the complexities of our time, push past boundaries and binaries to redefine cultural innovation.
I hope that you will be inspired by the following theories and practices offered in this volume, ranging from the metamodern to dialogical activism to personal resilience, and surrounded by artistic innovation.
This issue of ArtsPraxis is available for download.
Contents
Volume 5 Issue 2 March 2019
Editorial by Nancy Smithner
FORUM HIGHLIGHTS
NYU Keynote, 2018 by Ping Chong
Deaf Talent: Richness within Our Stories by James W. Guido
Ximonïk: The Unbound Performances of Maya Women’s Group Ajchowen by Chelsea Hackett
IDENTITY
Hope with Dirty Hands: Community Theatre Participation as Activism in Everything is Possible by Bridget Foreman
Energize, Resist, Re-Purpose: An American Theatre Responds by Penelope Cole
From the School to the Educating Community: Practices of Social Theatre in Italy as a New Form of Activism by Giulia Innocenti Malini
YOUTH
Leaping into the Disassociated Space: Unknowing Activism, Agency and Youth Identity in “Notes From Nowhere” by Gustave Weltsek and Clare Hammoor; Illustrator: Kylie Walls
Students as Arts Activists: Insights and Analysis from a Politically Engaged Assessment by Matthew Reason
Inciting Solidarity through Plural Performativity and Pedagogical Aesthetics in Ethnodrama with Marginalized Youth in Toronto by Rachel Rhoades
PROTEST
Beyond the Wall: Borderland Identity through Puppets by Ana Diaz Barriga
The Aesthetics of Activism in Korea: The Utopian Performative and Communitas by Jisun Kim
A Silent Shout: Metamodern Forms of Activism in Contemporary Performance by Tom Drayton
RESILIENCE
“It Did Get Rid of the ‘These People Are Old People’ Thing in My Brain”: Challenging the Otherness of Old Age through One-to-One Performance by Bridie Moore
Inday Dolls: Body Monologues and Lullabies for Freedom in Prison: Scripting Possible Futures in Justice Art in Iloilo’s Correctional System by Ma Rosalie Abeto Zerrudo and Dennis D. Gupa
Media Practice and Theatre in Conversation: Co-Creating Narratives for Positive Social Change by Jackie Kauli and Verena Thomas