We commit to building and sustaining a welcoming, inclusive, and equitable community:  an antiracist and anti-oppressive space where all individuals can participate freely and honestly.

We commit to working towards decolonizing theatre.  We strive to recognize our own privilege, to use our platform to reflect the times and to advocate for historically marginalized voices at NU and beyond.

We commit to holding every member of our community accountable in moving towards a better future.

DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE COMMITMENTS:

adopted April 2020

COMMUNITY AND GENEROSITY

We commit to fostering conversations, exchanges, and experiences that empower, spark, and challenge us to think and act responsibly and empathetically among our artistic community at Northeastern University, in Greater Boston, and beyond.

ENGAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION

We commit to deconstructing the existing barriers of exclusion to motivate and uplift; we will foster relationships across cultural boundaries to facilitate an inclusive and accessible artistic community at Northeastern University, in Greater Boston, and beyond.

CREATIVITY AND RIGOR

We commit to looking beyond received wisdom to intentionally engage with high-quality and dynamic works, to ask hard questions about the world, our source materials, and who we are as people through creative exploration and self-expression.

RESPECT

We commit to acknowledging and embracing the unique identities of each and every member of our community; we promise to treat each other as equals, regardless of our differences, and to choose humanity in the face of conflict.

INTEGRITY

We commit to creating a diverse community where any individual can speak freely and honestly; we aim to recognize and use our privilege to advocate for underrepresented voices at Northeastern University, in Greater Boston, and beyond.

DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE – STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY

June 4, 2020
Adapted from DNA Works – Dialogue and Healing through the Arts

Black Lives Matter.
Black students, staff and faculty matter.
Black families, histories, futures, bodies, hearts and minds matter.

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color matter.
Under-represented groups matter.

We, the faculty and staff of the Department of Theatre, grieve the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and all lives lost and impacted by racial violence in the past weeks and in the past 400 years. We stand in solidarity with the Black students, staff and faculty in our department, our university, our city and our country.

We believe in the virtues of dialogue, patience and respect. We recognize our department’s and our field’s shortcomings and past mistakes. As educators, we are constantly learning and will hold ourselves to a higher standard. We will continue to implement and re-evaluate the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Commitments we made in April 2020.

We are both witnesses to and participants in a movement for powerful systemic change. We recognize our privilege as part of this university, and we recognize our power to effect change. This is the time to re-examine our civic liberties and duties, and to use the power of our voices and our votes to ensure that all in our society can breathe freely. Systemic transformation will not be smooth, and we will stumble. Yet, we will turn our outrage into action, with a renewed commitment to end of all forms of racism and racial violence.

We know that, ultimately, we will be judged not for statements like these but for our actions going forward. We charge all of us to personally and collectively work toward the eradication of all forms of racism and racial violence. We thank those of you who are already doing this work. We thank those of you who are supporting people who are doing this work. We believe that peace is possible in our lifetimes.