Although 2020 has seen some very loud public protests, in many private settings people remain silent about the devastating and ever-present legacy of systemic and individual racism in our culture.  The only way to end the silence is to begin speaking and to begin listening.  Our project, It's Monumental . . . Ending the Silence will engage our campus and community in a public dialogue using Art and Communications to explore the dynamics of racism/anti-racism, anti-blackness, white supremacy culture and the fluid concepts that develop as we expand our understanding of these phenomena in our culture. Works created across our campus and community will be featured in a virtual festival, late in the Spring Semester of 2021. We hope you will want to get involved.

The Performing Arts Department is currently reaching out to all those who wish to express support for or participate in this project. Supporters include Faculty, Students, Staff, Administrators and Community Members.  We are building a list of supporters in any of the following categories:
• Creative Collaborators
• Individual Contributors
• Dialogue Partners
• Project Volunteers
• Public Outreach Amplifiers


The Festival will cultivate original acts of communication from all corners of our community. We imagine:
• Short plays & Monologues
• Spoken Word Poetry
• Songs and Musical Compositions
• Solo and Ensemble Dances
• Visual Art in all Media
• Video Art
• Short Stories
• Essays
• Tik Toks
• & More . . .

The concept of It's Monumental . . . Ending the Silence is that the starting point for the creation of each work is a "Monument" using an expanded understanding of monuments as:
• Literal structures that call to be dismantled
• Conceptual monuments that exist in our founding ideas and documents, value systems, personal and family
        narratives etc.
• Recent monuments that deserve greater attention, such as the Equal Justice Initiative Lynching Memorial
• Imaginary monuments that we envision replacing the old ones
• Others to be discovered

We hope to inspire creative ways to fill the vacuum of silence. We hope that Faculty will encourage and invite students to use this topic for individual or group assignments.  We hope that other educational institutions and organizations will add their voices to the dialogue as collaborators, creators, or dialogue partners. We hope that individuals will find a brave community of support to communicate their lived experiences and complex perspectives. And we hope to foster an environment of compassionate listening.

Please use this form to share your interest in participating.