Comedy is a genre and artistic mechanism for expression that aligns deeply with social justice. By expressing social critique and creatively engaging in tough social issues – in ways that can either skewer the status quo or infuse motivating hope and optimism into dismal problems – comedy can attract attention and engage audiences in ways that are memorable and effective, and it also can supply resilience and healing for marginalized communities dealing with the daily trauma of injustice. Given the importance of public engagement with the world’s most urgent challenges, the strategic use of comedy is not insignificant. Research across disciplines shows that comedy is uniquely persuasive, memorable, enlightening, and attention-getting when it comes to serious issues and engaging publics in social challenges.

The contemporary moment is powerful for social justice – and urgent. Contemporary activism in the networked media era has changed public engagement dramatically; social justice and civil society groups are newly empowered as content producers taking control of telling their own stories. They are also influencing entertainment industry marketplace trends. Today’s media environment means that social justice groups can, and must, engage the public through creative, entertaining ways – not through one-dimensional strategies of information and journalistic framing alone – if they want to be effective.In this talk, the author of “A Comedian and An Activist Walk Into a Bar” (forthcoming, University of California Press) will address how comedy works, and how and why contemporary social justice organizations are embracing comedy for public engagement, from environmental issues to racial justice.

Biography

Caty Borum Chattoo is Executive Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI), an innovation lab and research center based at American University’s School of Communication in Washington, D.C., that showcases and studies media and social change. Her book, "A Comedian and An Activist Walk Into a Bar: The Serious Role of Comedy in Social Justice," with co-author Lauren Feldman, is forthcoming from University of California Press. Her documentary book, "Story Movements: How Documentaries Empower People and Inspire Social Change," is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. In 2017, she launched The Laughter Effect, a research and creative initiative, and in 2019, she co-created and launched, with Moore + Associates, the Yes, And Laughter Lab, a creative incubator of comedy for social good, in partnership with Comedy Central. In 2016, she launched Story Movements, a biennial national convening at the intersection of civic storytelling and social change. As a film and TV producer, Borum Chattoo’s social-justice documentaries have aired internationally and nationally, and her creative and research work has been funded by more than 35 grants and contracts from the MacArthur Foundation, Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Open Society Foundations, many more. A former philanthropy director and producer with legendary TV producer Norman Lear, program officer at the Kaiser Family Foundation, and senior vice-president in social change communication at global agency FleishmanHillard, Borum Chattoo serves on the Board of Directors of three leading organizations working at the intersection of mediated storytelling and social justice: The Peabody Awards, Kartemquin Films, and Working Films.

American University Dance Faculty will introduce and lead participants through three practical tools for use in classroom, conversational and community settings. Participants will leave the workshop as a justice seeking body ready to encounter the unexpected and process individual experiences of collective resolution. No dance experience needed.

Biography

Britta Joy Peterson is a dance artist who choreographs, performs, designs, and collaborates on contemporary dance works. A native of the thriving Minneapolis arts community, BJP is now a DC-based creative, working locally, nationally, and internationally with travel informing and shaping both process and product. As a dance maker and educator working primarily in contemporary and jazz forms, BJP’s current research interests includes the intersections of responsive media and movement, prioritization of macro structure in the choreographic act, and in spatial/spacial design. BJP also specializes in dance for the theatrical stage, developing fresh material for classic plays and musicals, and devising choreographies and movement languages for new theatre works. Currently, BJP is the Director of Dance at American University in Washington DC, is choreographing several new works, regularly teaches across the nation, is in process with +++, a creative team producing performances, installations and workshops. She holds her BA in Dance and Communications, magna cum laude, from Gustavus Adolphus College and her MFA in Dance, summa cum laude, from Arizona State University. bjpdance.com.

During time of division, communities can transcend divisiveness by focusing on addressing timeless issues. Having recently completed a large multi-media public art installation work on gender-based violence, artist Marta Pérez-Garcia will share her experience of how, through the involvement of hundreds of participants, she was able to create an aesthetic space to stimulate reflection and conversations within the community on how gender-based violence has become an integral part of society. She worked with dozens of local survivors’ organizations in the District of Columbia and throughout Puerto Rico, creating a large and immersive 30 ft by 24 ft installation with a variety of features including a 10 ft metal structure supporting hundreds of nylon and fabric dolls created by survivors of gender-based violence during workshops.

Her presentation will cover the creative process, the project’s outcome, and the participant’s and public’s ownership of the issue. Through the piece, participants contributed, not only by giving a voice to women in marginalized communities, but also by fostering a cathartic and empowering dialogue through art. This installation was a call to action so that, through art, the community goes from silent witness to becoming an active healer.

Biography

Marta Pérez-Garcia was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She is a printmaker (reduction process), and also works on drawing, painting and installations. In 2017, the Library of Congress acquired several of her large-format color woodcuts. Her works have been exhibited in museums in the United States (including the Perez Art Museum in Miami) and in Puerto Rico, where she recently opened a new Installation on gender-based violence. Pérez-Garcia’s works are in the collections of the main museums of Puerto Rico, including the Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico, the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico, the Museum of Art of Bayamón and the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, and have been acquired by private collections such as the Chase Manhattan Bank, (New York, NY), the Reyes Veray Collection, (San Juan, PR), Jaime Fonalledas in Plaza Las Américas, (San Juan, PR) among others.

Pérez-Garcia has been awarded the First Prize at the Biennial Arte Joven, Chase Manhattan Bank (San Juan, PR, 1989), the first prize at the XIII Biennial of San Juan in Latin America and the Caribbean (2001). In 2003 I was awarded the Alfonso Arana Scholarship to study in Paris for a year, where she exhibited at the Grand Palais at the "Art in Capital" Salon, among others. Over the years, she has received the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities grants and notably, in 2018, was awarded a public Arts Grant to work on a project focusing on gender-based violence. She has exhibited in galleries in Washington DC such as the Inter-American Development Bank Gallery, among others. She has a Master of Fine Arts from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and has resided in Washington DC for more than 10 years.

AU has recently undergone a series of painful racist incidents that have torn at the fabric of our community. This summer, a group of faculty, staff, students, and administrators began to explore how using restorative practices could serve as a vehicle to (re)build the authentic relationships needed to hold ourselves and each other accountable. In this interactive workshop, we invite participants to engage in a series of restorative circles to explore how this practice could play a role in bearing witness to the harm and building the space for healing our community so deeply needs.

Biographies

Dr. Amanda Taylor's research and teaching focus on the intersection of culture, power, and education in domestic and international contexts. She earned her doctorate of education and her master's in education at Harvard University, where her dissertation focused on antiracist educational policy implementation. Her research on antiracist education and transnational and multicultural community organizing for educational justice has been published in top peer-reviewed journals and presses including the Harvard Educational Review, Oxford University Press, and the Peabody Journal of Education. She is currently serving as Assistant Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at AU, where she works to collaboratively implement the university’s plan for inclusive excellence. For the past five years, Dr. Taylor has been a faculty member in the School of International Service, where she served as Program Director of the MA in Intercultural and International Communication. She has won several awards for her student mentorship and teaching, which focuses on cross-cultural communication, international education, and culturally responsive program design. She is also the education team lead for AU's new Antiracist Research and Policy Center led by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. Most recently, Dr. Taylor worked as a Faculty Fellow for AU’s Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning where she developed and co-led several faculty learning communities focused on building culturally sustaining classrooms. She began her career as a K-12 teacher in urban, rural, and international schools, and served as the Director of Graduate Enrollment Management in SIS. Along with her supportive partner, Dr. Taylor is the proud mom of two active young sons.

Sybil R. Williams is a playwright and dramaturge who currently teaches in both the Theatre/Musical Theatre Program and the Critical Race and Gender Studies Collaborative where she serves as program director for African American and African Disapora Studies. Her areas of research include African and Caribbean indigenous performance and women’s performance; as well as theatre- for- social change. Her research has taken her to South Africa, Tanzania, Cuba, and Jamaica as well as the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia.

Her work has been professionally produced by Chicago’s ETA Creative Arts Theatre; New York’s National Black Theater; Pittsburgh’s Kuntu Theatre; University of Pennsylvania; CALARTS; and Harlem’s Rebel Theatre and the Red Shirt Reading Series in New York City. Her latest work I Am a Drum was presented as part of FRESSH Theatre’s inaugural season in March 2016.

As a dramaturge, she completed a three-year project creating a docudrama to celebrate the lives of the Little Rock Nine titled It Happened in Little Rock and the Latino/African-American Theatre festival Voices at the River at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. She served as dramaturge for Three Little Birds at Adventure Theatre . Her latest projects include a new musical titled U.G.L.Y. at Sigworks Summer Musical Theatre Development Series, and a new hip-hop musical at New York City’s Flea Theatre titled Synching Ink to premiere at Houston’s Alley Theatre in January 2017. She most recently worked at Signature Theatre as dramaturge on The Scottsboro Boys in June 2018. Her play From U Street to the Cotton Club produced by the In-Series January 2019. An additional play, Gloria and Rwanda was produced as a reading by FRESHH Theatre in July 2019. Her commissioned play tentatively titled Stormy Weather will be produced by the IN-Series in October 2019.