Can you say Chi City?

Favorite facilitator! Alex Santiago

About a month ago I attend my second leg of my fellowship at the Pedagogy and Theatre of Oppressed Conference in Chicago Illinois. Amazing experience!  The theme was "We are each other's Harvest", and I truly felt that theme resonated throughout my stay there. I attended different workshops and heard remarkable, accomplished key note speakers related to Theatre of the Oppressed, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and many other social justice related topics. One of my most favorite workshops was led by Mr. Alex Santiago who I met during my class at NYU for the Intro to the Theatre of the Oppressed Class and Leigh Thompson from the Forum Project in New York. The workshop was titled "Queer Concientizacao: Foundations for Understanding Anti-Queer Oppression". Since they have done extensive work with Queer youth and LGBTQ communities, I got a real sense of which activities I can use with my students who struggle with their own identity. Whether or not a student is gay or straight, many students have trouble expressing how they feel, and I found the work we did with theatre gives them a diffrent medium that the students may really respond to. After we engaged in a discussion about Queer terminology, we learned how to accept and combat homophobia with Theatre of the Oppressed activities like Sculpting and creating a group Tableau. 

Key Note Thursday, Omi Osun L. Jones

All the key note speakers were incredible, but the one I remember the most was by a woman named Omi Osun Joni L Jones entitled "The Role of Allies in 2011."  Even after lunch when most people are tried and full, she kept the audience engaged by listing several key ideas that we should remember as social justice educators, activists, and allies to those who are marginalized. Among the key ideas were "be loud, so we don't have to" and "being liberal is not enough." Her speech made me reflect about my actions not only a teacher, but as a human. Do I turn the blind eye when put in an uncomfortable situation? Do I speak up enough for those who have no voice? It inspired me to be more mindful about my actions and more conscious about the struggle of others. It may be hard for me to voice my opinions at times, but for others it may be even harder. 

Cartonera Workshop

Another memorable experience from the conference was a workshop entitled "Cartonera Project: Human Rights, Literacy, Arts, and Engagement" by a woman named Maggie Guntren. Based on her experience in Argentina, one part of the workshop focused on creating "cartoneras" which are books made from old boxes. People in Argentina learned to recycle "trash" as a way to give voices to unpublished authors and creating a work force to combat the  growing trash problem. After creating our own books, the second part of the workshop was centered around reading and responding to a short story using modified T.O. techniques. We stopped throughout the story to create alternative plot scenarios that may be suitable to the protagonist, similar to the way forum theatre is performed. Although I wasn't looking to find English Language Arts techniques related to T.O., i'm glad I found it! It seemed like the perfect way to engage my students in the process of forum theatre before they have to perform it. 

Overall, the PTO conference was by far the best conference I have ever attended. Honestly! It was not only the content, philosophy, location, but also the people. I know I have said it before, but being around like-minded individuals truly invigorates me! I met so many amazing individuals-- teachers, facilitators, community organizers-- that I know I will keep in touch with. I also enjoyed that the conference was so diverse in the workshops they offered. It was not only solely focused on Theatre of the Oppressed but other human right topics related to social justice and/or theatre. Many workshops utilized T.O. activities and icebreakers, where others were more discussions and dialogues. One session I even attended a screening of a  documentary entitled "Arna's Children" which highlighted the efforts of a mother and son to use theatre and art as a way of engaging the children caught in the middle of the  Palestinian and Isreali conflict. I hope to attend this conference in the future because I walked away with a plethora of ideas and experiences to take back to my work in the classroom. 

Still to come... the rest of my Chicago experience!