Community conversations archive
ASSOCIATED PROGRAMMING: House of gold
Journalist Clay Evans
Boulder, JonBenet, & the Media: A Community Conversation
Saturday, July 29th, 2017
In a talkback immediately following the performance, the cast and creative team is joined by Clay Evans, in a discussion of the play as well as the role the media played in the JonBenet Ramsey case, and how that continues to affect our community
About Clay:
Clay Bonnyman Evans was raised in Boulder, Colo. In the midst of his checkered college career, he worked as a cowboy on ranches around the West for seven years. After being broken while breaking a colt, he went back to his first love: journalism. He worked for such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register and Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.) — where he was one of just two journalists chosen to interview the parents of JonBenet Ramsey after her murder in 1996 — before becoming a freelance writer and PR specialist. He has published three books, and a fourth, "Bones of My Grandfather: Reclaiming a Lost Hero of WWII," will be published by Skyhorse Publishing in 2018.
Filmmaker/Producer, Mitch Dickman
Art or Exploitation: A Community Conversation
Friday, August 4th, 2017
Filmmaker/Collector, Andrew Novick
When the stories or fragments of stories of real people appear in works of art, is it exploitative? Are there rules for explorations of culture, society, and politics when real, flesh and blood people have suffered? What and where is the line, and when is it appropriate or necessary to cross that line? Let's talk about it. Together.
Please join us immediately following the Friday, August 4th performance of House of Gold, where we'll be joined by Mitch Dickman (co-producer of Casting JonBenet) and Andrew Novick (director of JonBenét's Tricycle) to discuss the use of the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey as a jumping off point for three disparate art works: House of Gold, Casting JonBenet, and JonBenét's Tricycle.
Anticipated start time: 9:15 p.m.; you do not have to attend the performance to attend and take part in the conversation, but for this one: it's probably helpful.
About the Panelists:
Recently named “Top 10 Documakers to watch” by Variety, Mitch Dickman is an award winning producer and director. Recent credits include Casting JonBenet (Co-Producer 2017 Sundance), Speaking is Difficult (Cinematogrpaher 2016 Sundance), Rolling Papers (Producer/Director 2015 SXSW), Being Evel (Line Producer 2015 Sundance), and Hanna Ranch (Producer/Director 2014 NY Times Critics Pick). Mitch has shot projects all over the word but calls Colorado home and is the founder of Listen Productions.
Andrew Novick is an electrical engineer, photographer, food artist, collector and proprietor of fun. He is the director and subject of JonBenet's Tricycle, a documentary about the tricycle (which he possesses) and candy canes we have all seen from the Ramsey house. The film investigates the ephemeral value of objects, the Ramsey crime, the media and our obsession with unsolved mysteries.
Assault & Privilege: Rape Culture in Boulder
Part One of a Two-Part A Community Conversation*
Sunday August 6th, 2017
moderated by Betty Hart and featuring panelists from iEmpathize, MESA (Moving to End Sexual Assault), and the Office of Victim Assistance at CU Boulder.
Is rape culture a problem in Boulder? Is Boulder a community that tolerates sexual abuse and violence against women? Are the children in our community vulnerable to exploitation?
Less than a year ago, Austin Wilkerson, a former student at the University of Colorado Boulder, was spared a prison sentence, and sentenced to jail-work release and probation after being found guilty of sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact. Just this year, Jack Warmolts was sentenced to a single year in jail after pleading guilty to “sexually assaulting a woman in Boulder in 2015.” A current investigation into a CU Boulder football coach whose ex-girlfriend alleges years of sexual and domestic abuse reveals a lack of accountability at the highest levels of University administration.
The Conversation will immediately following the 6 p.m. performance of House of Gold, with an anticipated start time of 7:45 p.m.; you do not have to attend the production to attend and take part in the Conversation!
About the panelists:
Panelist Sarah Dobson joined the MESA team in May 2017. Sarah earned her B.A. in Sociology from the University of Maryland where she volunteered as a peer counselor on a crisis hotline. After graduating, Sarah worked in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, where she studied at the United Nations mandated University for Peace, earning a M.A. in Gender and Peacebuilding and volunteering as a Peace Educator in schools which suffered from high rates of bullying and suicide. Sarah relocated back to the US to work for MESA in gender violence prevention, and she has a particular interest in engaging men and co-constructing peaceful, healthy masculinities.
Moderator Betty Hart is an actor, director, and facilitator who moved to Denver in fall 2013. Betty has had the privilege of facilitating talk backs and Salons for Local Theatre Company and has recently become an Associate Artist with them. In 2016, Betty played Camae in the Arvada Center’s production of The Mountaintop, for which she was nominated for an Henry award for outstanding actress. By day, Betty helps lead facilitated conversations about care equity, cultural sensitivity, conscious and unconscious bias, conflict resolution and laughter as wellness with the Experiential Learning Team for Kaiser Permanente’s Arts Integrated Resources team.
Panelist Candace Joice is the Education Director at iEmpathize, a non-profit committed to eradicating child exploitation. Candace fuses together pedagogy, academic and social research, curriculum development, and media production to increase the impact of iE’s education-based programs for youth. She is also available to deliver trainings and workshops regarding human trafficking and exploitation prevention for groups such as educators, parents, youth, community groups, and social workers. She wrote and produced iEmpathize’s exploitation prevention program for teens, The Empower Youth Program, now used in over 20 states.
Panelist Jessica Ladd-Webert, LPC, currently serves as the director of the Office of Victim Assistance at CU Boulder. She earned a Master’s degree in Community Counseling from the University of Phoenix and has worked as a contract therapist at MESA, and was a part of the victim advocates for the Boulder Sheriff’s Office. She served as a negotiator for the Department of Education's Federal Rulemaking Committee, helping inform new regulations based on the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Jessica has a background in a variety of trauma informed therapeutic modalities and has presented locally and nationally on a variety of trauma informed practices.
*Part Two of this conversation will be held in conjunction with Local Theater Company's fall production of The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B. Matthias.
All talkbacks will take place in the Black Box Theatre at the Roser ATLAS Center on the University of Colorado Boulder campus, and are FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
NIGHT OFF SERIES:
square product theatre is pleased to collaborate with Warm Cookies of the Revolution to host Intergenerational Show 'n Tell Mixtape: Privilege is REAL and Here's What We're DOING About It!
Here's how it works:
Bring a song or object that defines your experience of privilege in Boulder. We'll hear from folks of ALL ages about their experiences with privilege in our community, while we learn about what we can do to become more inclusive and work towards equity!
Holy smokes there are some incredible folks working on issues of privilege in our community. Come learn about them and share songs and stories.
7 p.m., Wednesday, August 2, 2017 @ the Wesley Chapel
1290 Folsom St., Boulder
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
And yes: there will be cookies.
Associated Programming made possible in part from support from the Boulder Arts Commission and the City of Boulder Human Relations Commission.
ASSOCIATED PROGRAMMING: SHE RODE HORSES LIKE THE STOCK EXCHANGE
About our panelists:
Originally from Portugal, Lígia Batista Silverman is a neurosurgery clinical research coordinator at Children's Hospital Colorado, on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. She is graduating with an MA in Theatre at CU-Boulder this May.
Lígia earned a BA&Sc from Quest University Canada with concentrations in neuroscience and theatre. She is interested in investigating and understanding the intersection between psychiatry and performance and is a student of Drama Therapy with the NADTA (www.nadta.org). Lígia also spends several hours at the Neuropsychiatric Special Care Unit at Children’s, where she works and learns from Dr. Elise Sannar, MD. Since living in Boulder, she has worked with Motus Theatre, Affinity Arts, and CU Boulder Performers Without Borders to deepen her love for Theatre for Social Change. Lígia is the Premed Region 8 (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, TX, UT, WY) Director for the American Medical Women’s Association.
Sam Bullington teaches at CU Boulder in the Women’s and Gender Studies department, leads Phoenix, Colorado’s Transgender Community Choir, and has a professional cuddling business. He is passionate about igniting societal revolution through the evolution of human consciousness and creating a world centered around kindness and authenticity.
Sam earned a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Feminist Studies, with an Anthropology minor, a Masters degree from the University of Minnesota in Anthropology with a Feminist Studies minor, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz, with a double major in Environmental Studies and Anthropology.
Kathryn Ross was born in Kingston, Jamaica in the 1970s, during a period of immense political turmoil. At the age of 6, Ross moved with her family the United States, where she lived for over 30 years before becoming a U.S. citizen three years ago.
During her wanderings across the American landscape, Ross managed to earn a BA in English Language and Literature from Dartmouth College and an MFA in Theater: Contemporary Performance from Naropa University. Her working life has been varied and somewhat vagrant. Primarily, Ross is an educator, and spent many years practicing the art of teaching middle school, but ultimately the walls of that particular box became too rigidly defined. For the last several years Ross has enjoyed the freedom of being an online merchant – selling clothing and vintage jewelry and housewares – and writing as much as she can about anything and everything that crosses her mind.
ASSOCIATED PROGRAMMING: THE BOX MARKED BLACK
About our panelists:
Arthur Antoine is from the Caribbean island St. Lucia. He obtained a BSc. degree in Civil Engineering from The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus in Trinidad & Tobago in 2003. On completion, he worked for a multinational engineering consultancy, tasked with Civil Engineering and Project Management duties for various projects in the Caribbean. In 2009, he graduated from Texas A&M University with an MSc. degree in Ocean Engineering, then continued his professional development in the Caribbean Engineering/Construction industry.
Currently, Arthur is a PhD Candidate in Construction Engineering and Management at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research interests are in the areas of procurement and, project delivery, in particular, alternative contracting methods. At CU, he has served in various executive roles with the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) collegiate chapter, also, he is Co-President of The Caribbean Students Alliance of Boulder. In his extracurricular activities, he enjoys mentoring students in Engineering and, meeting people to learn about their culture and share experiences.
Paris Ferribee is originally from Colorado Springs, CO and is a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder with Bachelor's in Communication from the College of Media, Communication, and Information and Business Marketing with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship from the Leeds School of Business. Paris currently works for Project VOYCE, a non-profit in Denver, CO with a mission to "develop future leaders in underrepresented communities by training and employing youth to work on real life school and community challenges." As their Marketing & Communications Coordinator, Paris is responsible for a number of tasks, including updating and maintaining Project VOYCE's social media presence, designing flyers, graphics, e-vites, and other marketing material for major events hosted by Project VOYCE. Paris has had a number of opportunities, including working for the University of Colorado Boulder Alumni Association and Decibel Marketing Group. She was the Treasurer for the Zeta Pi Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and past president of the Black Student Alliance for CU Boulder. She is extremely excited about the projects she is a part of and wishes to be a voice for the underrepresented communities present in Denver.
Vanessa Roberts is a self-titled “artivist” currently based in Boulder, Colorado. The term “artivist” refers to an intentional combination of the arts, activism, and academic practice. In Roberts’ work all three are equally valued and important, as each informs and influences the other. She believes in the power of performance to open new spaces for learning and connection; therefore her presentations are interwoven with humor, personal stories and a love of social justice, inspiring us all to go beyond our constructed limitations.
Ms. Roberts received her Bachelor of Arts from Colorado College in 2008 where she designed her own Liberal Arts and Science major entitled Critical Race Theory: Emphasis Performance Comedy, and minored in American Cultural Studies. Her major was based in the Philosophy and Drama/Dance department, but pulled its curriculum from various academic areas including Sociology, Gender Studies and English. She went on to receive her Master of Arts in Performance Studies from the Tisch School of Art at New York University in 2009, where her focus was on racial and ethnic performativity in the wake of the African diaspora.
Currently she speaks, trains, and performs nationally, traveling to a multitude of educational institutions, conferences, businesses, and also provides services as a Diversity and Inclusion consultant for private clients in Colorado. In addition, the majority of her time is absorbed with her PhD pursuit and teaching duties in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder where her concentrations are cultural sociology and feminist qualitative methodology. The crux of her work as a whole is held together by a steady belief in the power of theatre as a tool for transformative social change.
ASSOCIATED PROGRAMMING: 44 PLAYS FOR 44 PRESIDENTS
Sunday, September 25th, 2016:
square product theatre will host a talkback immediately following the 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, September 25th. The discussion, co-hosted by the Boulder branch of SURJ (Showing up for Racial Justice), will focus specifically on where we see historical racism reflected in the play and how our Nation's racist roots affect today's political process. By understanding and acknowledging the impact of our collective history, we can take steps towards dismantling systems of inequality and oppression - together. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Monday, September 26th, 2016:
We're hosting a Presidential Debate Watch Party for the first debate of the 2016 Presidential Election! Join us at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, September 26th at the Lazy Dog Sports Bar & Grill on the corner of Pearl & 14th in downtown Boulder for food, drink, and possibility of heated discussion!
Mark Collins, Chanel Karimkhani, Bradley Spann, and Michelle Moore in square product theatre's 2012 production of 44 Plays for 44 Presidents