Friday, April 10
6:30pm
Free; donations to support 4th Annual Cultural Studies in Education Conference welcome
University of Texas at Austin
Al-Kiva Room
Parking available in the Brazos Garage (BRG)
210 E. Martin Luther King Blvd.
In this original one-act solo play, the protagonist, a new fifth-grade teacher, struggles to keep hope alive. The audience witnesses the protagonist, Ms. Eden, as she teaches and shares stories from her first years of teaching, which coincide with the first years of the Obama presidency. She shares stories of her relationships with her students in a historically underserved school, and of her students' relationships to President Barack Obama. As Ms. Eden is forced to come to terms with the stubborn persistence of racial inequities in the classroom and in the nation, she questions if and how change is possible.This play is fictional, but is informed by playwright Natalie Goodnow’s experiences as a teaching artist in central Texas schools, and by research and dialogue with stakeholders in education. Goodnow is a nationally recognized theatre artist from Austin, Texas who creates and directs activist performance for stages, streets, and classrooms. This performance is one component of her M.F.A. thesis project, "Conversation with an Apple: Play Development as Movement-Building Against Mass Incarceration." Natalie is currently completing her Master of Fine Arts in Performance as Public Practice in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin.
This performance is taking place as part of the 4th Annual Cultural Studies in Education Conference taking place April 10-11 at the University of Texas at Austin. This conference seeks to explore how liberatory teaching and learning practices mobilize communities to work together for social justice. Registration available here. More information available on this Facebook event page too.
