Ohlone College Diversity, Inclusion, Advisory Committee (ODIAC) in collaboration with NAKA Dance Theater present:
5th Annual Social Justice, Inclusion, and Equity Symposium
Radical Resistance, Radical Imagination
A monthly series of virtual performances and discussions with prominent local artists exploring the intersection of contemporary art and social justice, ritual and community empowerment. This is the final event in our 7-part virtual series.
Cat Brooks - I am SHE
A history of racialized violence against Black women in America from the 1600s to the present day
Thursday, May 6, 2021. 3-5pm PT
Written by: Crystalle Crain and Cat Brooks
Directed by: Cat Brooks
Click here to join the Zoom Webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87092841722...
Meeting ID: 870 9284 1722
Passcode: Ohlone
Created in partnership with Dr. Crystallee Crain, I am SHE is a new theater work that explores racialized violence against Black women’s bodies in America from the 1600s to the present day through the stories of eight Black women (both real and created).
As we continue to march down the road toward Black liberation, far too often the stories of the Black experience on these shores is told only through the lens of the Black man. Telling half our story will only get us half-way free.
We will present excerpts from the piece and host a Q&A session.
Cat Brooks Bio:
When an Oakland family is experiencing the trauma of police violence, when young people of color need encouragement, when elder neighbors are in pain, Cat Brooks has been a force for change as she engages in the work of accompaniment and struggle. Inspired by her own lived experience, she has spent her life organizing to bring an end to unjust systems which were built to sustain the privileges of the status quo. Whether she’s serving the People in their fight for justice, collaborating with State Assembly members to pass progressive legislation, writing, directing or acting in theatrical pieces that force raw conversations about the human condition, or raising her daughter in West Oakland, she brings with her the combined forces of compassionate grace, resilient tenacity, and laser focused vision which are rooted in and nurtured by the fierce love of her activist mother who raised her and energized by the injustice of a system that incarcerated her father instead of providing him with healthcare support to fight his addiction.
Born in segregated Las Vegas, NV, Cat learned about what it means to fight from her mother, who was on the forefront of the domestic violence movement and from her father was the first Black stagehand with IATSE Local 720 on the strip. She was only 8 years old when her father’s struggle with substance abuse landed him in a Nevada Correctional Facility. But she learned how to stay strong from her mother who raised her on very little income in their one bedroom apartment in the deserts of Las Vegas. Her eighth year was important in another way - it was the year she found and fell in love with the theater. Theater would be a grounding force for Cat. The training and performances sustained her throughout her school years and led her toward a Bachelor’s Degree in theater from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. After graduation, she studied briefly with the National Royal Studio in London before moving to Los Angeles to pursue her dream to become an actress.
What happened next would change her life forever. Instead of finding full time work as an actor, she was hired as communications coordinator for Community Coalition, an organization founded by now Congresswoman Karen Bass. In many ways, this role prepared her for everything that would follow. Not only did she build her skills as a communications professional, she gained vital “on the ground” political training as an organizer and advocate around community concerns such as: educational equity, land use, foster care, re-entry for ex-offenders, and Black-Brown solidarity
Whether honing her skills as a consummate performer and passionate speaker or serving as the Communications Director for Coaching Corps, as Executive Director of Youth Together or as Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild - Bay Area, Cat’s leadership has always been informed by and in collaboration with impacted communities. She played a central role in the struggle for justice for Oscar Grant and is the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) whose mission is to rapidly respond to and ultimately eradicate state violence in communities of color. With APTP she shepherded the development of a “First Responders” process which provides resources and training for a rapid community-based response to police violence. This model is currently being replicated across the state of California and the country.
Cat lives in West Oakland with her daughter.
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Crystallee Crain, Ph.D. is a social and political critic with academic roots in sociology, political science, and psychology. Dr Crain has developed radical curriculum and taught courses at the university level for 15 years. She specializes in exposing the layers of institutional inequity while supporting communities to shift ways of being and practice to improve life chances. Bridging the worlds of academic and activism, Crystallee’s body of work represents the strength of transformative solutions to problems of violence, the need for liberation, and an imperative focus on healing as a revolutionary strategy for change.
Her artistic debut of I AM SHE is a theatrical piece that codifies the realities of the character Everly who recounts her experience of physical and emotional violence. In this play, Everly describes her experience of being victimized, but never a victim - the realities of being harmed while actively working to heal the communities she resides in. I AM SHE is a story that represents the experiences of black women that are often overshadowed by the experience of black men.
For the past eight years, she has worked in the Political Science department at California State University - East Bay. Dr Crain is a human rights scholar and advocate for government accountability globally. She has traveled to 23 countries on the continents of Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Australia/Oceania. Recently, she has done research in the South Pacific (Republic of Marshall Islands) on domestic violence survivors and plans to conduct an equity-based evaluation of LGBTQ people's experiences, policies, and practices in Indonesia in 2021. She reported on the World Festival of Youth & Students in Caracas, Venezuela in 2005 for daily newspapers in her home state, Michigan.
Crystallee is the Founder & Director of Prevention at the Intersections that works to prevent violence through community-based research and intersectionality policy based analysis. At Prevention at the Intersections, she publishes two open access journals CATALYST and The Beauty of Black Creation.
This event will be ASL interpreted by Cat Riddley and Nora Rodriguez.
Photo credit: Curtis Jermany of MooD-ology Photography https://www.moodologyphotography.com/
Diego Ortiz / Creative Designs @juanfelipedetodoslossantos