Open to Public
The World on Fire: Ecology, Poetry, and Disability Justice.
Free Event
Please RSVP through the link provided. The event Zoom link will be distributed via email, and available to registered attendees starting 2 days prior to the event.
Wed, Mar 31.2021
Virtual Event
An intergenerational performance and discussion. An evening of readings and a dialogue among distinguished poets and young poets of tomorrow— a chorus of diverse voices exploring the transformative power of words at the intersection of disability and climate justice.
Presented by Theater of War Productions, Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, Interdisciplinary Programs and Outreach at the Burton Blatt Institute, Nine Mile Art Corp, Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature, and The International Writing Program.
Supported by the Academy of American Poets with funds from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Explore Projects
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RacismThe Drum Major Instinct
Commissioned by BRIC, The Drum Major Instinct engages audiences in dialogue about racism and inequality. The performance features a dramatization of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final sermon, embodied by prominent actors and supported by a large gospel choir, composed of singers, activists, police officers, and musicians from St. Louis, MO, and Brooklyn, NY.
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Racialized Police ViolenceAntigone in Ferguson
Antigone in Ferguson is a groundbreaking project that fuses dramatic readings by acclaimed actors of Sophocles’ Antigone with live choral music performed by a diverse choir, including activists, youth, teachers, police officers, and concerned citizens from St. Louis, Missouri and New York City, culminating in powerful, healing discussions about racialized violence, police brutality, systemic oppression, gender-based violence, health inequality, and social justice. Antigone in Ferguson was conceived in the wake of Michael Brown’s death in 2014, through a collaboration between Theater of War Productions and community members from Ferguson, MO, and premiered at Normandy High School, Michael Brown’s alma mater, in September of 2016.
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Pandemic & Climate CrisisAn Enemy of The People
An Enemy of the People presents acclaimed actors, public health leaders, scientists, journalists, elected officials, and local community members performing dramatic readings of scenes from Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play An Enemy of the People to help frame powerful, guided audience discussions aimed at generating connection, understanding, compassion, moral repair, and much-needed healing. The play tells the story of a doctor who discovers the water supply in his small, rural town has been poisoned by a tannery. Despite his efforts to convey the truth to the public, the doctor fails to save his community from environmental disaster and is ultimately scapegoated for his whistleblowing. An Enemy of the People was first performed in Norway in 1882, and yet it speaks to the present moment as if it were written for our times — to the corrosive influence of power and money in politics, the distortions of the media, and the many other challenges to public health in our culture today, especially during times of crisis.