Responding to Systemic and Collective Trauma with Community Partnerships:

Addressing Culture and Community in a Regional Conversation

JUNE 15th 2PM-4PM EST via Zoom

This panel discussion invites organizational representatives from MASS MoCA, Berkshire Museum, The Mount, Shakespeare & Company, IS183, CATA, and WAM Theatre to discuss current efforts, challenges and opportunities. Co-facilitated Gwendolyn VanSant from BRIDGE Inc., Quenna Barrett and Rebecca Martínez from the Center for Performance and Civic Practice (CPCP), this conversation explores the importance of listening and responding to the community as we notice the issues that have emerged within our organizations across the county.

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About Gwendolyn VanSant

Gwendolyn VanSant is the Principal and Owner of Equity in Practice LLC. She is an experienced organizational change consultant and coach who works at the intersection of diversity leadership, equity and inclusion, and strategic planning. She is also CEO and Founding Director of BRIDGE, a minority and women-run organization dedicated to cultural competence and social justice with a race, gender, and poverty lens. A skilled community organizer and well-recognized thought leader, Gwendolyn’s leadership and work is rooted in racial justice, reparations, and extensive positive psychology training.

About Quenna Barrett

Quenna L. Barrett is the Associate Director of Education and Engagement at Goodman Theatre. She has developed participatory, theater-based programs at the University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life. As a director, performer, facilitator, and writer, she has worked with a number of organizations including NYU Steinhardt, Oklahoma State University, Ohio State University, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Sojourn Theatre, The Theatre School at DePaul, Free Street, Pegasus, Court, eta, Theater Unspeakable, and For Youth Inquiry performance company with the Illinois Caucus of Adolescent Health, where she is a company and board member.

She is a member of the new leadership circle of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice. She has developed and co-led justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion training for arts and culture practitioners with The Theatre School at DePaul (where she is an adjunct professor), Arts Force Iowa, and Arts Ed Chi.

Quenna received her BFA from NYU Tisch in Drama, her MA in Applied Theatre from the University of Southern California, and is currently pursuing a doctorate of education (EdD) in Educational Theatre at NYU Steinhardt. Continuing to build the world she wants to see/live in, her most recent artistic project was Re-writing the Declaration.

About Rebecca Martinez

Rebecca Martínez is a director, choreographer, deviser, facilitator and ensemble member of Sojourn Theatre. Originally from Denver, Colorado with deep ancestral roots in the Southwest, she’s now based in Brooklyn, NY. Recent projects include: I Am My Own Wife (Long Wharf Theatre); Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), Miss You Like Hell (Baltimore Center Stage), Wolf at the Door (Milagro Theatre, NNPN rolling world premiere), Anna in the Tropics (Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Henry Award for Outstanding Direction). Rebecca has worked with INTAR, Working Theater, Signature Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, the Lark, The Playwrights Realm, New Dramatists, the 52nd Street Project, Radical Evolution, Milagro Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre and Brave New World Repertory Theatre among others. Member of: Sol Project Collective, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, INTAR’s Unit52, SDCF Observer, Latinx Theatre Commons Advisory Committee, 2019 Audrey Resident, New Georges Affiliated Artist, 2018-2020 WP Lab, 2017 Drama League Directing Fellow, Member of SDC. She is the recipient of four Portland, Oregon Drammy Awards and the Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists. Rebecca is an artist with the Center for Performance and Civic Practice where her work focuses on co-designed, cross-disciplinary social and civic practice engagement and invitation strategies. Rebeccamartinez.org