May 31, 2021
We recognize that the United States as we know it was built at the often-fatal expense of forcefully enslaved Black people. We must acknowledge that much of what we know of this country today, including its culture, economic growth, and development has been made possible by the labor of enslaved Africans and their descendants who suffered the horror of the transatlantic trafficking, chattel slavery, and, later on, dehumanization through segregation and Jim Crow laws.
We acknowledge and remember those who did not survive the Middle Passage, those who were beaten and lynched at the hands of White Americans, and those who are still suffering while fighting for their freedom. We remember those who toiled the ground where many theatres have been built and resurrected.
We are indebted to their labor and their unwilling sacrifice, and we must acknowledge the tremors of that violence throughout the generations and the resulting impact and generational trauma is still felt and witnessed today.
Thank you to R. Christopher Maxwell and the Black Theatre Caucus, as well as all the authors of the We See You, W.A.T. Demands, and Dr. TJ Stewart from Iowa State University for providing the framework for this language.
*click here to read our Black Lives Matter Statement*
*click here to read our Land Acknowledgement Statement*
*click here to read our Commitment to Oppose Racism*
