statement from The Muse Project.
May 31, 2020
The Muse Project stands in solidarity with BIPOC artists, colleagues, audience members, & advocates. We support and stand with peaceful protesters across the country righteously requesting and insisting upon justice. The anger is not misplaced. Anger can be an incredible tool to disrupt, build coalitions, learn, instigate and sustain change.
White domination, control, and fear is a core component of the history of the United States. It is one of our culture’s baseline paradigms which affects many aspects of our lives, including our theater, film, television, and media.
Deeply embedded violence against Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQ+, and female communities courses through every fiber that makes up our nation. This violence contaminates our social contract, making equitable interdependence impossible. Additionally, it can stifle and prohibit the expansive creative work we wish to do and the vulnerable, wholehearted lives we wish to lead.
The Muse Project’s mission is to amplify a multitude of women's voices. We commit to being an inclusive organization. We are constantly examining our own roles in perpetuating inequities, and we will be active in asserting uncomfortable dialogue. We will ask questions, and we will listen to criticism. More specifically:
- We will examine our choices and practices within The Muse Project. We will continue to seek to disrupt inequity. We will actively seek to disrupt racism. We will work to find consistent, ongoing ways to do so.
- We will continue to share resources to support our BIPOC artists. We will continue to encourage other organizations to share resources with our BIPOC artists as well.
- We will call upon colleagues to examine their participation in systemic racial violence. We will continue to work to usurp majority white spaces (which continues to be a dominant space in American theater).
- We will examine how our creative rooms sustain white supremacism in methodology. We will engage and compensate our BIPOC community members to examine and modify our current content creation practices.
- We will engage representatives, journalists, and activists as a means to amplify the unseen and examine erasure.
We thank many in our theater community for their efforts to engage, be proactive and lead, and we thank those who have been working hard to fight for better representation for a long time.
With love, curiosity, & solidarity,
The Muse Project
#BlackLivesMatter
*Some language and grammar adjustments have been made and continue to be made to this statement since its original publication to more accurately reflect The Muse Project's goals and intentions.
White domination, control, and fear is a core component of the history of the United States. It is one of our culture’s baseline paradigms which affects many aspects of our lives, including our theater, film, television, and media.
Deeply embedded violence against Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQ+, and female communities courses through every fiber that makes up our nation. This violence contaminates our social contract, making equitable interdependence impossible. Additionally, it can stifle and prohibit the expansive creative work we wish to do and the vulnerable, wholehearted lives we wish to lead.
The Muse Project’s mission is to amplify a multitude of women's voices. We commit to being an inclusive organization. We are constantly examining our own roles in perpetuating inequities, and we will be active in asserting uncomfortable dialogue. We will ask questions, and we will listen to criticism. More specifically:
- We will examine our choices and practices within The Muse Project. We will continue to seek to disrupt inequity. We will actively seek to disrupt racism. We will work to find consistent, ongoing ways to do so.
- We will continue to share resources to support our BIPOC artists. We will continue to encourage other organizations to share resources with our BIPOC artists as well.
- We will call upon colleagues to examine their participation in systemic racial violence. We will continue to work to usurp majority white spaces (which continues to be a dominant space in American theater).
- We will examine how our creative rooms sustain white supremacism in methodology. We will engage and compensate our BIPOC community members to examine and modify our current content creation practices.
- We will engage representatives, journalists, and activists as a means to amplify the unseen and examine erasure.
We thank many in our theater community for their efforts to engage, be proactive and lead, and we thank those who have been working hard to fight for better representation for a long time.
With love, curiosity, & solidarity,
The Muse Project
#BlackLivesMatter
*Some language and grammar adjustments have been made and continue to be made to this statement since its original publication to more accurately reflect The Muse Project's goals and intentions.