Artists are the Vanguard of Revolution

Cara Mía Theatre’s Mellon Playwright in Residence Virginia Grise presents Talleres for Dreaming: Episode 3 livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network on Tuesday 22 March 2022 at 4 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 6 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 7 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

Artists are the Vanguard of Revolution: An Artist Talk by Kristiana Rae Colón
Episode 3 of Da Grove: Un Taller for Dreaming

Kristiana Rae Colón is a poet, playwright, actor, educator, producer, curator, creator of #BlackSexMatters, co-director of the #LetUsBreathe Collective, the inaugural Sam Roberson Fellow at Congo Square Theater, and a staff writer on season 4 of The Chi. A foundational premise of Kristiana’s organizing is that “artists are the vanguard of revolution, it is the social duty of creatives to envision, imagine, rehearse, design, and embody our liberated future; we cannot achieve alternatives to the existing harmful, violent systems and institutions if we can’t first imagine them. Liberation is a curatorial act, a creative act; revolution is inherently speculative in nature and we can create opportunities to rehearse the future together through science fiction, Afrofuturism, and speculative media.”

Da Grove: Un Taller for Dreaming is a Siembra Fellowship Commission, curated by Virginia Grise, produced by Cara Mía Theatre in association with a todo dar productions and Pleasant Groove, with the support of the Mellon Foundation’s National Playwright Residency Program administered in partnership with HowlRound Theatre Commons, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Communities Foundation of Texas through North Texas Cares 2.0.

About the Series
Facilitated by Cara Mía Theatre’s Mellon Playwright in Residence Virginia Grise, Talleres for Dreaming are performance labs that explore artistic and creative processes driven by the insurgent possibility of collective dreaming. Equal parts political study group, artist salon, community action committee, and theater, the talleres focus on embodied inquiry, facilitated conversations, curated gatherings, and art-making workshops that honor the lived realities, daily practices, rooted wisdoms, and embodied knowledge of local communities, culminating in a public performance and artistic provocations designed by taller participants.

In collaboration with a todo dar productions, Talleres for Dreaming are being developed at Cara Mía Theatre in Dallas Texas, with Books in the Barrio, Terra Advocati and Galeria E.V.A in San Antonio Texas, at Galeria Mitotera in South Tucson Arizona and at AAA3A in the Bronx, NY. This series of virtual artist talks, curated by Grise and edited by virtual technical director James Ruth, will feature guest artists from the talleres whose work centers Abolition, Liberation and Love as Art and Life Practice.

“I am interested in how we create ecologies of care in the face of state violence, how we dream when our communities are under attack and how we create spaces for movement, joy and celebration amidst all of it. As an artist, I want to craft and build spaces for collective dreaming.” -Virginia Grise

Land Acknowledgement
We would like to recognize the Native people whose ancestral lands are where Cara Mía theatre operates. We wish to acknowledgethe land of the Kickapoo (Kickapoo), Tawákoni, Wichita and Caddo people which is now called Dallas. Comanches and Kiowa have also lived in this region although it is not often recognized as their homeland. We acknowledge that Dallas is stolen land, and that this city was built with stolen labor. Cara Mía Theatre’s Da Grove honors the experience and cultures of Black, Indigenous and People of Color and we call for the unity and solidarity of all of our peoples in making a better world.

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing-arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected] or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal. View the video archive of past events.