Co-Facilitation
I lead community conversations and anti-racism sessions with Black co-facilitators, most often Faith Jones-Jackson. We have worked with boards and staff of service organizations, theater groups, dance companies, arts education programs, and other non-profits, co-facilitating sessions on dismantling systemic oppressions.
Faith Jones-Jackson (she/her) is an educator, theater artist, and facilitator.
She works to disrupt oppressive power structures within and throughout an array of organizations and groups. In addition to co-facilitation on multi-racial facilitation teams, Faith works as a consultant for organizations whose commitments to change surpass just a few conversations. As entities work toward more equitable policies, Faith is available to assist with the evaluation, planning, and implementation processes. Her creative work is fueled by her passionate pursuit to create space for marginalized voices. Her teaching values student voices, advocating for student needs in and out of class settings. She is a proud alumni of artEquity’s 2017 National Facilitator Training and continues to work with her cohort members to inspire and implement change.
Accomplices Leadership Institute
The Accomplices Leadership Institute was a program of the Arts Administrators of Color Network. I helped develop the curriculum and co-facilitate the ALI with Kris Smith. The goal of the ALI was to train white arts leaders to dismantle white supremacy, so they can learn to be accomplices to their colleagues of color.
My work with artEquity
In 2017, I attended Art Equity’s Facilitator Training program. That experience helped me sharpen my racial analysis and connected me with a national network of folks doing this work in their own communities. I am so profoundly grateful to have had that experience, and it continues through my engagement with the Art Equity alumni convenings, and through my ongoing work co-facilitating with Faith Jones-Jackson, who I met at the training. My Art Equity training also affects the interactions I have with students, clients, and colleagues in every setting. If you work for a theater or educational institution, please consider hiring Art Equity as consultants, or apply to be part of one of their future trainings. They also have a wonderful page of Resources (linked on my own Resources page).
Statement on White Privilege
Whiteness, white privilege, and racism were created by white people. All who benefit from it, namely white people and those racialized as white, should hold ourselves accountable and take action to dismantle white supremacy. Even before the Black Lives Matter uprising, we were in a state of emergency in this country. I call on my fellow white leaders to do everything in our power to acknowledge and dismantle the racism in our society. Racism puts Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) in danger every day.
When white people talk about doing anti-racism work, as I do, it’s important that we have clear, transparent accountability measures. We must do our work in solidarity with, not on behalf of, BIPOC. My accountability measures come from my deep ties with artists, activists and community organizers of color, locally and nationally. When I take action it is often at the request of BIPOC, and my hope is to always center those with the most to lose. I acknowledge that I can take risks personally and professionally that others cannot, due to my positional power and my white privilege.
I come to this work following a legacy of activism in my family. My uncle Alex was an early member of SNCC. My parents were members of the Progressive Labor Party and protested the Vietnam War. I am grateful for the teachings of my progressive family, but I also understand that I spent most of my adult life in the comfort of not knowing much about racism and my whiteness. Only in the past several years have I have prioritized my journey of self education around racism and systemic oppression. I believe in the possibility of undoing racism. I believe in the possibility of collective liberation, and I know that my work is only a small piece in a journey that is generations long.
Land Acknowledgement
I am a visitor on the ancestral lands of the Lenni-Lenape people. I purchased land from someone who, like me, is settler-descended. I built my house in a township that is now known as Alloway NJ, named for Chief Alloway of the Lenni-Lenape. I often work in Sakimauchheen Ing, now known as Philadelphia, PA. Some of the ancestors of the people in this area now were brought here against their will, some settled here from distant lands, and some have lived on this land for more generations than can be counted. I pay respect to the Lenni-Lenape elders past and present. I honor the many legacies of violence, displacement, migration, and settlement that are present today and remembered from the past. For more information about the Lenni-Lenape people, please visit their learning center website or their tribal government website.