Equity and Racial Justice

Our Community Conversation on
Equity and Racial Justice

March 22, 2021 

 

We are heartbroken by the tragic murders in Atlanta last week that highlight the intertwined racism and sexism deep in the fabric of our country, specifically against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. This violence is not okay. 

 

Hate crimes targeting Asian Americans rose by nearly 150% in 2020, according to the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism, with Asian American women twice as likely to be targeted. Over 700 have been reported in the Bay Area alone including the murder of Vicha Ratanapakdee and the assault of Xiao Zhen Xie in San Francisco just last week. We recognize that the Atlanta shooting is a culmination of the increased violence against the AAPI community. We also recognize that this type of racialized violence is not new and has a long and deep history within the United States. 

 

We honor and mourn the loss of the eight victims: Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Xiaojie Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Yong Ae Yue, 63; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Soon Chung Park, 74; Suncha Kim, 69; and Paul Andre Michels, 54. Read more about their lives here.

 

At Playwrights Foundation, we recognize the power of words. They matter. Dehumanizing language or reinforcing stereotypes leads to violence. We all have a responsibility in the words that we use. The xenophobic rhetoric of the past President is directly linked to the increased violence on the AAPI community during the pandemic, and we must actively fight against it. 

 

Take action by educating yourself and not staying silent. Here are some Anti-Asian Violence Resources as a starting point and we have highlighted a few below: 

 

We must all stand up for our AAPI friends, neighbors, and family members. Start today with clicking on one of the above links, but don’t let it end there. There is much work to do.

 

In Solidarity, 

Playwrights Foundation Family

Nov 15, 2020

New Anti-Racist Trainer Program: Making Good Trouble

 

Playwrights Foundation is excited to continue our work to being an anti-racist organization. As part of this work, Magic Theatre, Crowded Fire Theater, and Playwrights Foundation are launching a training program series for SF Bay Area theatre practitioners funded by NNPN’s Collaboration Grant with the goal of empowering more anti-racism trainers within the SF Bay Area community. Inspired by John Lewis, the program is called Making Good Trouble: Anti-Racist Trainers, and will launch in February 2021.

 

In partnership with Beatrice Thomas and Authentic Arts & Media, Making Good Trouble will create more anti-racist trainers within the Bay Area to support deep change within each organization and the Bay Area community at large while providing artists who complete the program with new potential income streams.

Learn more about the program & apply here.

August 13, 2020

In response to the Bay Area BIPOC Living Document  and We See You White American Theatre action plans released in July 2020, Playwrights Foundation supports and acknowledges the labor, thought, and demands put together by local and national members of our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities calling on our industry to do better at fighting racism and white supremacy within our organizational structures, frameworks, and lived values. 

 

At Playwrights Foundation, we commit to seriously look at each of the aforementioned action plans with our staff, artists, and board to create our own short and long term action plan during our upcoming strategic planning process starting in August 2020. As an organization who has historically served a majority of BIPOC artists with a majority of white staff and board members, we know that we continue to have things to learn and actions to take in becoming a more equitable workplace and being a part of the solution.

 

First and foremost, we commit to antiracism training that will influence our values, structures and processes. We commit to actively decolonizing the new play development process itself and reflecting on our learned behaviors and patterns to shift how we serve our core mission. We also recognize that there are many intersectionalities of oppression in terms of gender, sexual orientation, ability, ageism etc, and this focus on racial equity does not detract from our commitment to equity in these areas as well. We believe that it will support a journey towards a more safe, inclusive, and equitable culture for all. 

 

For accountability, we will communicate publicly on our website, at least quarterly, the specific actions we are taking. Leadership will also participate in local accountability conversations and be in conversation with leaders on a national level towards seeking collective action and knowledge. In our strategic planning process, we will also create thoughtful internal strategic accountability structures. 

 

We desire to not pay lip service to these commitments, but be thoughtful, strategic, and honest about the journey towards long term change. We understand it will be a hard and messy road but one that is also full of joy, reconciliation, and larger success for us all. 

 

During our current crisis of the pandemic, we have an opportunity to be a part of the current social revolution and rebuild a more equitable organization. We are committed to rising to that challenge. 

 

Please contact us if you have questions or would like to have a dialogue.

 

In Commitment to Action, 

 

Jessica Bird Beza, Executive Artistic Director 

Markham Miller, Board President

BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Playwrights Foundation stands with our Black community in this moment of pain and fear that is all too familiar to our American History. We stand with our community to call for justice and systemic change. In February and March George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor were a few of the most recent murders, now Tony McDade, Dave McAtee, and others have joined that list along with many who have come before, some of whose names are known and others unnoticed. We are grieving, outraged, and stand in remembrance and solidarity with our Black artists and larger community. The time to stand up to help those that will come after, to change the course of history, is now. 
We believe that through the power of storytelling, we can change the narrative of our future, shape the world we want to live in, and provide healing. Playwrights Foundation pledges to live up to our values to create a safe place for marginalized voices to explore bold, important stories. We pledge to listen deeply to our community and to transform our systems, structure, staff, and board to become an anti-racist organization for transformational change. We commit to doing the long, hard, and messy work to get there.