Face to Face is a performance and dialogue project about the intersections of race, class, and age, created by Rising Youth Theatre, Teatro Bravo, and Twined, three Phoenix-based arts organizations. As an ensemble, we started this project, and these community conversations in spring of 2019, and had planned to produce a full scale production in June 2020. While COVID-19 meant that our production didn’t happen as planned, we’re still talking, creating, and imagining together as an artistic ensemble. And now we want to bring that conversation to AATE. 

This two-part keynote will invite participants to dig deep into a conversation about how racism and white supremacy shows up in our field, our institutions, our artistic work, and ourselves. We’ll share our learnings and ways of working, and create something together. 

Rising Youth Theatre is a youth leadership organization that uses theatre to position young people in advocacy spaces. Founded in 2011, the company’s mission is “To create youth-driven, multi-generational theatre that is riveting and relevant, sparking conversation, collaboration, and connection in support of young people as leaders.” Rising Youth Theatre believes that storytelling is at the core of human connection, and a powerful tool with which young people can stand up and advocate for themselves and their peers. We believe that by listening to the stories of our community - particularly voices that are often left out of typical narratives - we can better understand our past, present, and future. By centering the voices and stories of young people, we can learn from the past, connect in the present, and have a positive impact on the future. 

Rising Youth Theatre believes that change happens when we listen to young people. There are very few spaces in our state where young people are positioned as leaders, working alongside adults to make a difference. Through artmaking, storytelling, and embodied research around issues that matter in our community, we are able to create opportunities for young people to advocate for themselves and their peers.