We are committed to creating and upholding a community that welcomes people of all races, ages, abilities, sexual orientations, genders, socioeconomic backgrounds, citizenship statuses, and religions. As a theatre founded by, of, and for Middle Eastern artists, our understanding of colonialism, racism, and economic injustice is informed by a global perspective and often, personal experience.
Our communities have been deeply harmed by the systems of bigotry and prejudice that uphold white supremacy, yet we have also internalized these very same values and practices that often result in lateral violence that further harms our intersectional communities.
In our art and in our actions we aim to combat the deep-seated framework of white supremacy in the US and beyond that continues to actively endanger, silence, and isolate artists of color, and in particular to address the toxic xenophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric in American culture. We have and will continue to partner with other BIPOC organizations to amplify our mutual work of antiracism and decolonization in the US and abroad.
We support each other in solidarity and cooperation, knowing that in our scramble for scant resources we have often been forced to compete against each other. We hold that theatre production is not a zero-sum-game, and that by celebrating the work of other BIPOC organizations and collaborating to create new work, we can combat the arbitrary and artificial scarcity of resources that has been too often utilized as a tool to isolate and oppress BIPOC artists.
Together in solidarity, we take on healing structures for mental, physical and spiritual sustenance that repair our generational wounds and restore our cultural practices, traditions and ways of being. We will continue to actively work towards a truly equitable workplace and look to our artists to guide us toward new visions of liberatory theatre.
The Bay Area is the homeland of the Multiple Ohlone Tribes, including the Ramaytush in San Francisco, the Chochenyo and the Karkin Confederated Villages of Lisjan, Him’ren, Ohlone Tribe, Inc and Muwekma in the East Bay, along with the Bay Miwok, Plains Miwok in Contra Costa, the Yokuts in the South Bay and Central Valley. Whether we are immigrants displaced by political or economic events, or US-born for one or more generations, we all appreciate the human connection to land. The Ohlone have lived on and stewarded the land upon which we live and work for thousands of years. Despite the atrocities of colonization and genocide, Native communities persist today and are active in efforts to preserve and revive their culture. We are committed to supporting and celebrating our Native communities in partnership with The Friendship House in San Francisco, and the Intertribal Friendship House and the Sogorea Te Land Trust in Oakland.
We acknowledge and are grateful to WeSeeYouWAT and the Intertribal Friendship House for their help in developing these statements.