Message from Long Wharf Theatre

Dear Friends —

Our nation, our city, and our communities are grieving the continued violent murders of Black people like George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Mubarak Soulemane. At its best, theatre is a liberating instrument. The act of collectively experiencing a story both different from and familiar to our own can transform us. Theatre can hold such power that when it is not used correctly the pain is greater for the opportunity lost.

At Long Wharf Theatre, this is something we must reckon with. Our neighbors at CTCORE and Black Lives Matter New Haven, and local organizers like Kerry Ellington and Jeannia Fu, have a legacy of fighting for social justice reforms in New Haven. At Long Wharf Theatre, we’ve often been complicit in upholding oppressive systems by communicating a powerful vision but remaining inactive when called to action. Telling stories of the oppressed on our stages does not exempt us from living anti-oppression principles off of it.

We know that watching theatre develops our capacity for empathy. Therefore, we commit to working to correct a history marked by ambivalent empathies, and empathies rightly placed but wrongly quiet. Silence is a powerful way to calcify the very structures that perpetuate violence, fear, and hate. For this, we are deeply sorry.

We realize that this apology is empty if we remain inactive. Our promise is to speak up in this moment and beyond, to stand with the victims of racism and anti-Blackness who experience violence undeservedly and with fatal consequences, and to listen and support efforts to undo systemic injustice. Please hold us accountable as we pledge to join art with activism.

At LWT we are committed to justice not simply being a word we use but a value we practice, through our actions, day in and day out. We will be active, but we will also listen, evolve, and transparently report our progress.

• We will ensure that every staff and board member participate in the Undoing Racism and Community Organizing Workshop led by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB).

• We will share resources about ways our artists, staff, board, audiences, donors, and supporters can donate and get involved in the fight for racial justice.

• We will connect theatre-makers across the country during our inaugural Artistic Congress as a call to action for level setting pathways to inclusivity in our field.

• We will continue our partnership with artEquity to shift our organizational culture to one that celebrates and promotes healing, difference, and anti-racist principles.

• We will build a body of work for the new American theatre repertoire that vigorously includes the voices of Black artists and artists of color.

• We will use our resources to amplify voices of change in our community, as we facilitate virtual Town Halls where our connection to local agents of social justice will teach us how best to support those suffering in our community and beyond.

• We will call out and call in injustice when we see it and fight to correct it.

• We promise to be attentive, available, and active.

Thank you for holding us accountable.

Jacob G. Padrón & Kit Ingui
on behalf of Long Wharf Theatre

#TheatresForJustice
#BlackLivesMatter