Reclaiming Play for Radical Organizing | 96 Acres
An extension of my current research around Art and Transformative Practices, I am involved with the project 96 Acres as a teaching artist and education initiative committee member. During the Fall of 2014 I also co-hosted a playshop with other educators interested in utilizing art, organizing and radical play in resisting systemic oppression. Reclaiming Radical Play for Organizing was a "playshop" hosted for 96 Acres which is an artist initiative comprised of educators, Little Village stakeholders, students, activists, and artists seeking to address how incarceration affects black and brown communities, specifically how Cook County Jail affects the black and brown community in Chicago. The workshop was proposed under the provocation set by the 96 Acres Education Initiative seeking to understand ways we come together to in resisting systems of oppression using celebration and radical love as a means of playful, caring, and accountable resistance. This workshop was a kick -off for two upcoming workshops that also address power (whether it is systemic, individual) and they are grounded in praxis or reflection-action necessary when doing socially engaged work. Reclaiming Radical Play for Organizing consisted of three Chicago based artists and educators, Coya Paz a self described poet, lip gloss connoisseur and artistic director of Free Street Theater, socially-engaged artist, organizer and education coordinator at the Jane Addams Hull House Irina Zadov and myself, photographer, cultural worker, and teaching artist at the Village Leadership Academy.