My friends Shelah and Shamilia are both using their art and passions to bring healing to communities in Haiti and Rwanda (respectively).

Sustainable Theater Program, by Shelah Marie

This August, I will be facilitating a month-long Sustainable Theater workshop for the youth served by T.E.N. Global‘s community center in rural San Rafael, Haiti. By the end of the workshop students will:

• Understand the traditional playwriting structure
• Learn how to compose and edit original material
• Be able to transfer original writing into performance
• Have a published original play script

With this workshop, I hope to do three things:

• Provide an alternative paradigm for education and learning
• Validate the participants’ creative spirit
• Incorporate the students’ published work into the body of contemporary theater

Your donation will help bring this project to life and facilitate much-needed healing through art practices. I’ll be keeping very close track of everything I’m doing on my blog so you can see exactly how the work progresses.

Visit Shelah’s IndieGogo Campaign Page →

Theatre in Education for Reconciliation, by Shamilia McBean

So you may or may not know, I’m working on a masters degree that lets me meld my passions for theatre, community and social change in the field of Applied Theatre.
I’ve been learning so much and now I have the chance to actually -do- the work where it counts!

Enter: Project Rwanda, an exchange between my Masters program and the Kigali Institute of Education (KIE). They’ve invited us to share Applied Theatre methods with Rwanda’s teachers in training to be used in classrooms across the country for post genocide reconciliation.

Visit Shamilia’s IndieGogo Campaign Page →

I couldn’t be any more biased in promoting these projects (I’m incredibly proud of my friends), but this is my blog so I can do it unapologetically.

So if the projects resonate with you, please spread the world.

And donate if you’re inclined. Thanks.