“Embedded in the nature of clown is the spirit of joy and resistance to oppressive forces,” write Amrita Dhaliwal and Nathaniel Justiniano in the description of their Journal series When Clowns Fight the Power. In this section, you’ll find content about many facets of clowning, including its relationship to activism, how it can be done online, and the role gender plays in the practice.
In this week’s episode of PUHA podcast, co-hosts Bíborka and Zsófi navigate their way through a discussion of what queerness means with performer, actress, and director Veronika Szabó; contemporary dancer Kemelo Sehlapelo; and dancer, choreographer, and clubber Gergő Dávid Farkas. Together, they contemplate identities, responsibility, and the way queer people exist in society.
Clowning for a Cause: Healthcare Clowns Offer Opportunities for Holistic Healing
8 March 2022
Although healthcare clowns have existed for more than forty years, their work isn’t widely understood. Amelia Parenteau discusses the substantial patient benefits that healthcare clowns provide while diving into their history and current practices.
Iranian Blackface Clowns are Racist, No Matter How You Sugarcoat Them in Obscure Archaic Mythology
A Fragmented Argument in Five Acts
10 May 2021
Hesam Sharifian reflects on how the blackface mask of the Hāji Firuz and Siāh-Bāzi clowns in Iran is reminiscent of an ugly past and should not be used in performance today.
Sayda Trujillo talks about white supremacy’s prevalence in clown pedagogy and shares how the invincible spirit of the clown has shaped her, “seeping through every tiny crack possible to make itself present to speak, to laugh, to sing, to bounce, to witness, and to encounter.”
L.M. Bogad shares the story of the beginnings of Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, several tenets of “clownfrontational” tactics, examples of rebel clowning in a different contexts, and more.
The Experience of a Chilensis Clown Circus Theatre Company / Experiencia de una compañía chilensis de circo teatro payasx
11 November 2020
Members of Chile’s Compañía Siató—Valentina Paz Berger Correa, Jean Carlo Montecinos Carreño, Hernán Enrique Huerta Vargas, and Felipe Jesús Pereira Godoy—discuss clowning across Latin America; their show Sacrilegio, which denounces and ridicules religion, the church, and the police; the political duty of the artist; and more.
Amrita Dhaliwal and Nathaniel Justiniano speak with Lebanese humanitarian clown Sabine Choucair, covering the differences between clowning and bouffon, joining the revolution, environmental work, and more.
Nathaniel Justiniano and Amrita Dhaliwal kick off the clown, bouffon, and activism series, talking about how the clown world has a racism problem and introducing the four contributors who practice their art around the world.
Charlie Peters, who has spent the early days of the pandemic thinking about and experimenting with how physical comedy can (and can’t) live online, shares what he’s learned.
Caroline Reck, artistic director of Glass Half Full Theatre in Austin, Texas, talks about how her company uses clown and object theatre to engage people in the battle against climate change.
A Conversation at the Brick Theater in New York City
Sunday 9 September 2018
Borderlands Theater, Tuscon, AZ, United States
Clowns Ex Machina (Kendall Cornell, Artistic Director) presented the panel Clowning While Female: A Conversation as part of the Brick Theater’s New York Clown Theatre on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday 9 September at 12:00 p.m. PDT (San Francisco) / 2:00 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 3:00 p.m. EDT (New York).
This series features a selection of folx from around the world who are all part of a long and diverse heritage of clown activists who subvert bigots and in cultivate hope in hard-hit communities. From rural villages to urban centers, from popular protests to refugee camps, each of our contributors use grit and humor to activate their communities toward equity and justice.
