While we all struggle to create and organize in the middle of a global pandemic , it has become more pressing than ever to be as innovative and imaginative about how we can gather and connect across difference . As millions across the globe endure screen fatigue by way of Zoom meetings and live streams , we are choosing to meet the future with transformative approaches to performance and storytelling .
VOICES will be an interactive audio play that encourages the listener to tap into one ’ s empathy and active witnessing . The play will serve as a mind theater piece encouraging participants to go inward and deeply contemplate the voices and stories shared by Black women . By creating a map of sound we hope to decenter human narratives and to guide listeners to think more intentionally about their role in society and in relationship to the planet around them . Listening creates trust and opens a door to human relationship and understanding . We want to listen to what goes said and unsaid .
Inspired by Augusto Boal ’ s “ Theater of the Oppressed ,” we choose to encourage V-Day organizers and supporters to use “ theater as rehearsal for revolution .” We follow in the legacy and tradition of Black Radical feminists who know that the revolution begins with the self . This play will encourage us all to explore our own psychic terrains and to be an engaged witness to the interior worlds of Black women uniquely expressed .
In addition to a audio play , we plan to create a solidarity journal that will serve as a tool kit for those who do not identify as Black but choose to do the work to show up strategically in collaboration with and support of Black people across the globe . VOICES is an embodied theater piece that will serve our communities as we organize to end violence against women and girls across the globe .