Mapping a counter-topography through Popular Theatre: Sistren Theatre Collective’s feminist activism

This paper draws on Cindi Katz’s concept of mapping topographies and counter-topographies to analyse Sistren Theatre Collective’s transnational feminist activism. It analyses the creative process behind and the performance of two of the group’s plays: Domestick (1982) and A Tribute to Gloria Who Overcame Death (1983). I will argue that each of the plays addresses the impact of colonialism, global capitalism and neoliberalism on the lives of working- and under-class Jamaicans to confront middle-class Jamaicans with the reality of poverty from the perspective of those who live in it. By performing the plays throughout Jamaica, the Caribbean and internationally, Sistren trace the contour lines, to use Katz’s concept, between Jamaica and other places where similar oppressions were/are occurring.

Music as a Weapon for Social Change

As Filipino migrants, victims of forced migration our journey of discovering ourselves away from our native land, discovering our own self-worth, and being faced with racism, classism and all those silent killers, we tend to base our own self-worth on other people and on other people's culture. But to discover one’s self is to learn, relearn, unlearn, remember and reclaim one’s history, culture and language. The most tangible and accessible way of relearning and reclaiming our history, culture and language is through pro-people music. Music that speaks about the realities of the Filipino people and Filipino migrant. Music is a vehicle of inspiration, and we believe that inspiration precedes change. And while we believe in free speech, we also believe that negative expression feeds the cycle of oppression. Our role as cultural workers is to be critical of these messages as well as our own, confront our contradiction and understand that we do not get liberated by chance, it is about recognizing the fight to get it.

This presentation will feature two music videos of original Bagwis music.
The first is the song Dugo ng Tubo (Blood of the Sugarcane). Dugo ng Tubo was written as a response to the violent dispersal of strikers and the killing of seven farmers in Hacienda Luisita on November 16, 2004 under the Arroyo administration. After the Hacienda Luisita massacre, more farmers, workers, human rights activists and church leaders fall casualties to extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. Sadly, these extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances are still prevalent under the current Duterte administration. The song is written in Tagalog and both music and video features sounds and footage from the documentary about the Hacienda Luisita massacre. Analysis of the song by high school students from the Philippines will be discussed in the presentation.
The second video will feature the song Young Brown Warriors. This song was written in January of 2010, 5 months before the death Randy Maguigad, the MC/rapper of Bagwis Collective. Randy was not able to record his vocals on the song. Being the youngest member of Bagwis, the title is dedicated to Randy. Randy has been organizing since he was twelve years old until his untimely death. He was 20. Performing the song has been a way for the collective to grieve. The lyrics of the song is a battle cry to our young youth of color to keep on organizing and fight the US war machine. It also talks about the struggle of Palestinian people and their right of return and lyrics includes a chant, usually heard in an anti-war protest. Falling under the reggae genre, Young Brown Warriors also speaks about the economic war in Jamaica.

Nobody rewrite my histories: women of colour, art and social change

Against the backdrop of a highly unequal and volatile world, hundreds of artists, activists and communities create art as a way of making sense of their realities, challenging the status quo and imagining new ways of being. Art for Social Change (ASC) is a community-based creative practice associated with social justice and the empowerment of communities. Inspired by thinkers from the Global South, these emancipatory practices have become broadly accepted, seen as contributing to community participation, and as a way of engaging with minoritised communities.
This paper focuses on the processes of ASC in the context of a colonial settler society and women of colour. From a feminist perspective from the Global South and using a case study of women of colour, this paper examines how ASC unfolds at the intersection of complex racial relations, where art making and story-telling shape unique possibilities for personal and community connection. The paper argues that whilst the ongoing dominant power relations embedded in Australian coloniality continue to be extremely challenging, the processes of ASC encourage women of colour to find their own voices when anchored in their culture, identity, and sense of place. The paper further demonstrates that ASC can be empowering and decolonizing especially for women, as it encourages them to use their own arsenal of gendered resilience to foster resistance to domination, as well as critical hope, through the reinvention of personal power and alternative narratives.

Performing arts as vehicle for community transformation in two community scenarios

Performing and community arts could catalyse significant transformation processes at various different levels of intervention – individual, group, community, institutional, political, cultural and ideological. This study focused on the analysis of the processes of community transformation through the performing arts (i.e. dance and theatre), in two Puerto Rican communities.

To compare the transformation processes and analyse its particularities, two types of communities (one geographic, one institutional) were selected. The selected scenarios were a public housing project and a community art program. A comparative study was designed based on the analogue roles that the participants performed in each of the scenarios. The study participants were community leaders, project coordinators, facilitators, participants, and art spectators. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted, and complementary data was obtained through ethnographic observations. Qualitative content analysis was performed, and its reliability estimated by using judges.

The findings of the public housing project show the following elements as part of a process of community and social transformation: change in art perception as an ornament to a community recognition of its protective-preventive function, development of individual and collective empowerment, social networks, social capital, structural changes and the impact on social systems (i.e. educational and family). Findings in the community art project included: cognitive transformations of social prejudices and stereotypes, increased interest from relatives about the abilities and achievements of art participants, institutional transformations, and significant aesthetic achievements.

Engaged and long-term participation in the performing arts generated important bridges of solidarity – even mitigating inherited disputes that previously led to violence – transforming this into solidarity bridges and a sense of family. Community based-arts developed a new sense of identity and belonging by engaging different community sectors in a common goal. Finally, art was the vehicle for the restoration of relationships at multiple community levels and for the development of significant new bonds.