We Must Do Better

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We mourn the loss of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, George Floyd, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, Tony McDade, Trayvon Martin, and too many others. The murder of George Floyd has been a horrific reminder that systemic racism and state-sanctioned violence is not a new fight, but a fight that has been ignored due in part, to our uncomfortableness.

 

We, at The Morgan-Wixson Theatre need to do and be better for our Black friends, neighbors, colleagues, artists, and community. We must do better. We need to do more than make a blanket statement of solidarity with those doing the work. We need to do the work. 

 

In support of Black Lives Matter, we will be using our platform to amplify Black voices and visions. To do this, we are creating an action plan for how we, The Morgan-Wixson Theatre, will be a better ally by supporting, uplifting, and learning from Black artists. 

 

The Morgan-Wixson made a big mistake last year, but it started the hard conversation that we needed to have. This has not been our only mistake. That conversation exposed all the ways that we have failed to be allies with our Black community. We took a deep look at our institution, our policies, and ourselves. We only broke the surface when we started that work, and we know that what we’ve done so far is not enough. The Board is going to do more, to do what is right. We want to fully embody the promise of our mission statement to be a cultural hub for the entire community. We can only do that when we ally with the Black community through listening, uplifting their voices, and celebrating their art.

 

We vowed to work on making the important changes, and we started. We didn’t do enough…quickly enough. Now we are even more determined.

 

This is just the beginning of our action plan that we will enact now and continue once we open our doors again. 

 

• Monthly Community Zoom Workshop with the focus of education on ally-ship, white fragility, bias in

casting, and anti-racism vs. not racist.

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• Producing and uplifting the voices of BIPOC (Black+Indigenous+People of Color) in our season.

 

• Promoting BIPOC Artists in our lobby’s Art Gallery.

 

• At every first rehearsal for a new production we will give an introduction to our action plan and the

DEI Committee, through a workshop in anti-racism.

 

This is just our beginning. We want these first steps to fuel a larger action plan and meet the gap between the theatre we are today and the theatre we aim to be. We will have more to share. 

 

Know that we will continue to listen, to think, and to work.