Dr. Ayshia Mackie-Stephenson presented Confessions of a Black Intimacy Director with Dr. Ayshia livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 15 March 2021 at 3 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 5 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 6 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).
Black sex, Black bodies and Black love matter, especially during a time when Black lives are under state sanctioned attack. A lot of what Americans know about race comes from the stories artists tell on stage and on tv.
As advocates, intimacy directors have a special opportunity to tell stories in ways that value all bodies. I’d like to share my story as one of the very few Black female intimacy directors in the country. I will share two experiences of race as an intimacy director, from training to working as an intimacy director years later at The Huntington Theatre in Boston.
This talk will commence with an audience exercise and discussion on how theatre artists can support stories of Black love. The talk is one hour including discussion.
Watch on this page or register for the Zoom call here.
Dr. Ayshia E. Stephenson is an intimacy director, scholar, and award-winning writer from Brooklyn, NY. With an MFA from the California Institute of Arts and a PhD in Communication from the University of Massachusetts Amherst; Ayshia uses media and performance to investigate race and sexuality. Her critical and creative work have appeared in Black Camera, Qualitative Inquiry, Boston University Press, Open to Interpretation, Imaginary Friends Press, A Gathering of the Tribes, International Review of Qualitative Research, and is forthcoming in Theatre Topics and Research and Drama Education. She is Associate Professor of Performing Arts and Chair of the Communication Department at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, MA. Website. Learn more about Performing Fusion Theatre here.
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