Equity, diversity, inclusion.<\/p>\n
We’re hearing these words more and more, as Canadian universities and other institutions strive to address historic, systemic biases and structural inequities. For the award-winning theatre director Ravi Jain, however, the language of \u201cEDI\u201d is already shopworn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not interested in using those words anymore,\u201d said Jain, Artistic Director of the Toronto-based company Why Not Theatre. \u201cYou either do it or you don\u2019t, and how you do it demonstrates to me how invested you actually are in the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Jain, concepts such as innovation and leadership are much more interesting. He\u2019ll be covering these topics in a keynote address, \u201cAlternative Visions of Existence,” that he\u2019s delivering as part of a series of events taking place from Nov. 9 to 10, co-sponsored by Brock\u2019s Walker Cultural Leaders Series and the St. Catharines-based theatre company Suitcase in Point.<\/p>\n
The events also include a staged reading of Pipeline<\/em>, a 2017 play by Dominique Morisseau, the title of which refers to the widespread perception of a school-to-prison pipeline for young African American men. It\u2019s the story of a black teacher\u2019s struggle to protect her son, Omari, after he assaults his high school teacher for aggressively singling him out to answer why a book character behaved like an \u201canimal\u201d and murdered a woman.<\/p>\n Toronto-based actor, director and producer Lisa Karen Cox is directing a cast largely made up of seasoned and emerging professional actors, with Brock students also participating onstage and behind the scenes. Of the six-person cast, five are people of colour. Jain\u2019s keynote runs from 3 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9, with the Pipeline<\/em> reading from 4 to 5:15 p.m., followed by a Q&A session.<\/p>\n The events, being presented under the title \u201cPipeline to a Better Way,\u201d are spearheaded by Department of Dramatic Arts (DART) Assistant Professor Danielle Wilson and Suitcase in Point\u2019s Outreach Co-ordinator Marcel Stewart, a 2007 DART graduate.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts is a place of both learning and artistic creation,” said Wilson. “I felt the play was a perfect fit as part of the Walker Cultural Leaders Series.\u201d<\/p>\n Suitcase in Point\u2019s \u201cPipeline to a Better Way\u201d programming on Nov. 9 includes a forum and panel discussion around questions of power, privilege, race and theatre in Niagara.<\/p>\n The Brock-based events on Sunday, Nov. 10 are free of charge, but tickets are required and can be found online<\/a>.\u00a0Information about the Suitcase in Point events on Saturday, Nov. 9 can be found at suitcaseinpoint.com<\/a><\/p>\n This article was written by Karen Fricker, Associate Professor in the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A series of events from Nov. 9 to 10, co-sponsored by Brock\u2019s Walker Cultural Leaders Series and the St. Catharines-based theatre company Suitcase in Point, will see Brock students participating onstage and behind the scenes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37,1,4],"tags":[8421,46,2518,8420],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61887"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69321,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61887\/revisions\/69321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}