Mandala Center community members share on social justice, arts, healing, and transformation.
Supporting the Facilitator of T.O. BIPOC Caucus Groups
By Felicia V. Black
What happens to Women of Color when we are unable to hold space as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) facilitators of embodied practice groups?
Embracing the Heat, Inviting the Fire: Doing Theatre of the Oppressed with my Son
By Lalenja Harrington
My 21 year old son, Justin has been and continues to be one of my biggest teachers in life. We do not always see eye to eye…as I write this, I wonder about that saying — is it implying that we have to literally see things from the same place to agree? Is this really a goal that I want to achieve in the first place?
Less is More: Lessons Learned through Theatre of the Oppressed
By Antonieta Gimeno Cardona
It is a Sunday in March and the weather is oppressively hot. But this factor doesn’t stop the women from Mujeres de Luz, the rehabilitation center in Jiutepec, Morelos, Mexico, from performing a Forum Theatre play.
Mobilizing Myself: The Joker as Object of Oppression
By Phui Yi Kong
I was born, raised, and currently live in Malaysia. When I was facilitating Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) workshops in college in southern Maine, USA, TO offerings were easier to set up and support. Groups would instinctively grasp the critical nature of the process, diving deeper…
Theatre Humanizes Us
By Sarah Finnell
Distrust transforms into laughter, eye contact, smiles. In theatre, we transform ourselves. We ring the bell, shivering outside in the snow. Wait in the waiting room. Couches, water fountain, old carpet. Walk through a doorway…
Taking Risks, Breaking Through
By David Puvan
When I planned to spearhead the Youth Theatre Project with criminalized youth in Singapore, I was filled with so much confusion and doubt and I will admit that I contemplated giving up more than once. Working with youth who don’t exactly think theatre is cool is definitely no easy task…
Looking Into the Mirror of Internalized…?
By Cheryl Harrison
Back as a young female of color, I was not always taken seriously or listened to at first. At times, I was challenged with a lot of defensiveness from people who didn’t want to be there or hear other perspectives.
Organizing Transformation with Legislative Theatre
By Sarah Stockholm
At the Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed Conference (PTO) conference in Omaha, NE, I was overjoyed to participate in a collective conversation that, in the tradition of these pedagogies, asked a lot of questions. Where have we been? Where are we? Where are we going?
Activism and Parenting
By Marc Weinblatt
Is it possible to be both an activist and an active parent? My to do list seems to always have several critical time-sensitive items on it – either pushing or sometimes beyond deadline…
Trusting My Fears
By Velda Thomas
“Are you speaking of me? I am not an actress,” I said after a performance. Actress sounds so LA, so Hollywood, so not me. I was the child who cringed in school if I was chosen to read aloud in class. Safety in numbers was my rule…
Reflections from a Place of Privilege
By Bethany Morrow
To be honest, I’m nervous about writing and sharing this blog post. I’m worried I’ll write something that makes my naiveté obvious to everyone but myself. I’m worried I’ll say something hurtful in ignorance, or that I’m perpetuating societal oppression…
Growing Pains and Other Joys: On Aging inside Our Troupe
By Karma Tenzing Wangchuck
In our kind of theatre, we aim to be as inclusive as possible; and also, the improvisational nature of much of our work means that elders might find themselves playing a baby, or a young person, someone very old…
Light Around the World
By Danielle Bowen
I awoke from the elated anticipation and discovered, I was in fact, thoroughly depressed; uncertain whether I wanted to see anyone at all. The sun came and went. I sloshed through my day in search of a tender joy, but when I turned inward, all I felt was inconsolable despair…
Blending Forms of Individual & Collective Struggle
By Sarah Stockholm
After a few years of focusing the majority of my energy into community activism and education, I had stepped almost completely out of all involvement in theatre. I was more interested in movement building and educating for social change than static theatre productions…