4. RISE
In Cooped, which Jamar Roberts choreographed, danced, and filmed, his inverted body rights itself.
It's powerful.
Here’s the video link.
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Yvonne Emmanuel is one of the actors who called out Persephone Theatre’s black-tile post on Blackout Tuesday. (Photo by Daniel Nwabuko)
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5. OFF-THE-JOB TRAINING
This Tuesday, June 9, Del Surjik announced that he is stepping down from his position as artistic director of Saskatoon’s Persephone Theatre, a job he’s held for almost 13 years. The move comes amidst a Black Lives Matter controversy.
As CBC reports, “Last week, Persephone replaced its regular avatar on its Facebook page with a black square, meant to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Some actors began publicly criticizing the theatre for its lack of diversity.”
Performer Yvonne Emmanuel asked, “How are you as a company going silent for blackout Tuesday when you have not really been vocal about anything?”
Then Persphone’s post was deleted, which provoked even more anger in the community.
One commenter responded, “Persephone Theatre unacceptable. You don't get to ignore, delete and then mute voices, completely erasing these artists and their voices so rightly calling you out.”
On Facebook, Surjik and Persephone’s general manager Kristen Dion wrote, “At Persephone Theatre, we made mistakes this week with our social media posts. For this we deeply and sincerely apologize. It was not intended to be disrespectful, tone deaf, or meant to silence. But it was and it did and that is not acceptable. The post that was deleted was done so in error. We had meant to replace the image, not silence the comments. Nevertheless, that egregious error resulted in pain and harm was done.”
In a statement posted on Persephone’s site, Surjik added, “We know that our organization has much work to do in appropriately supporting, respecting, and amplifying the voices of our Indigenous artists, Black artists, and artists of colour. As the artistic leader I am responsible for these shortcomings. Now, given the urgency of this moment in our society, it’s clear that the best thing I can do to help Persephone move forward is to step aside and make room. I welcome the coming change, but I am not the right person to make it happen. I am doing my own work and self-assessment, and look forward to seeing how Persephone will evolve.”
Surjik’s last day on the job will be June 22.
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