“I will hold you up, I will not let you fall.”
I will hold you up, I will not let you fall.
I’ve been listening and holding space with the artists of About Face Theatre over the past few weeks. Today, I spent the afternoon with the youth ensemble discussing how making theatre overlaps with activism and we participated in the Day of Virtual Protest organized by The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR). We talked about the languages of protest.
NAARPR was founded in Chicago in 1973 to organize actions against political and racial injustice. Today’s call to action highlighted ways to raise our virtual voices in support of Black lives. Some took to the streets, some made phone calls, and some of us decided to write.
We are processing a lot. The emotional, physical, and financial costs of the pandemic and ongoing violence are high and experienced most deeply and directly by Black, trans, and undocumented members of our community. We have been sharing our experiences of grief, dismay, terror, and rage in response to the forces of white supremacy culture that continue to undermine our dreams of the world that we are trying to bring forward on and off stage.
The languages of protest are some of our most powerful tools and we stand in solidarity with agents of change around the world today and every day who are using protest in all its forms to demand justice. Although the media and officials may try to twist the narrative, as artists, we have the power to counter by telling the truth. We cannot serve our mission to advance dialogue on gender and sexuality without demanding that American police forces stop criminalizing, brutalizing, and killing Black people.
At the end of the workshop today, we pledged to each other from our Zoom boxes, out loud, one at a time, I will hold you up, I will not let you fall. As artists and agents of change, we will do everything we can to hold up and protect Black life and Black love.
Megan Carney
Artistic Director
May 30, 2020