Black Lives Matter

We See You. We Hear You. We Will do Better.

(Tuesday, June 2, 2020) There are cries in our community that we have ignored and there are injustices every day that we have not challenged. We are horrified by the violence against Black America and move forward with renewed dedication to fighting systemic racism and white supremacy. This challenges us not only as artists, but also as humans. While we have always encouraged conversations and social justice to occur within the four walls in which we operate, we have been lacking in getting these conversations to penetrate our community any further than our front door. This must and will change. Please hold us accountable as we make this commitment to match our words and our work on stage, with action. On behalf of the entire Staff and Board of ATC, we support our Black community in their revolution and proclaim loudly that BLACK LIVES MATTER.

(Wednesday, July 15, 2020) Executive Director, Chip Decker emailed our artists, past and present, about our commitment to becoming an actively anti-racist organization. Read the statement here.

Some of Our Commitments Include:

  • Review the ATC Mission Statement through the lens of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) 
  • Rebuild complicit programming habits that favor white cis voices as the “norm” in order to create space for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) voices and stories as we move forward.
  • Dedicate ourselves to color conscious casting that supports employing more BIPOC throughout our season, from backstage to front of house.
  • Cultivate partnerships and reexamine our purchase patterns to reflect our support of Black, Latinx, and minority owned businesses.
  • Create criteria to encourage submissions from BIPOC playwrights and stories through our nuVoices New Play Festival.
  • Engaging all staff and board in Anti-Racism and EDI training.
  • Provide educational support and comparative resources for ATC’s Cultural Equity Committee, which was formed in 2019 to address equity, diversity, and inclusion.
  • Diversify board and staff by actively seeking BIPOC to join our team.
  • Be willing to be uncomfortable by listening more and learning from our mistakes. 
  • Develop a set of core values to ensure these commitments are demonstrated in our daily business practices.

Photo by John Merrick  /  Artwork by Dammit Wesley, Dakotah Aiyanna, Zacc Mclean & Ty Adams w/ Najo Al-Ali, Abel Jackson, Garrison Gist, Owl & Arko, Kyle Mosher w/ Zachery Peele, Franklin Kernes w/ Lo’Vonia Parks, Kiana Mui, Marcus Kiser & Jason Woodberry, Georgie Nakima, Matthew Clayburn, Frankie Zombie, CHD:WCK!, John Hairston Jr., Dari Calamari

Resources for Continued Discussion

EDUCATE: Articles and Videos

SUPPORT: Black Charlotte Artists

SUPPORT: Eat, Drink, and Buy in Charlotte

WATCH: Movies/TV Shows

  • 13th
  • Dear White People
  • King in the Wilderness
  • Loving
  • Moonlight
  • The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
  • The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
  • The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
  • The Hate U Give
  • Reconstruction: America After the Civil War
  • Rest In Power: The Trayvon Martin Story
  • Teach Us All
  • The Murder of Fred Hampton
  • Time: The Kalief Browder Story
  • When They See Us
  • Whose Streets?

LISTEN: Podcasts

  • 1619 (New York Times)
  • About Race
  • Black History Year 
  • Code Switch
  • Come Through
  • Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast
  • The Nod
  • Pod For The Cause (from The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights)
  • Pod Save the People (Crooked Media)
  • Seeing White
  • The United States of Anxiety

READ: Contemporary Plays

  • An Octoroon
    by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
  • Between Riverside and Crazy
    by Stephen Adly Guirgis
  • BLKS
    by Aziza Barnes
  • Choir Boy
    by Tarell Alvin McCraney
  • Fairview
    by Jackie Sibblies Drury
  • Pass Over
    by Antoinette Nwandu
  • Pipeline
    by Dominique Morisseau
  • School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play
    by Jocelyn Bioh
  • Skeleton Crew
    by Dominique Morisseau
  • Slave Play
    by Jeremy O. Harris
  • Straight White Men
    by Young Jean Lee
  • Sweat
    by Lynn Nottage
  • The Niceties
    by Eleanor Burgess
  • Underground Railroad Game
    Created by Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard with Lightning Rod Special

READ: Non-Fiction

  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
    by Michelle Alexander
  • White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
    by Carol Anderson_
  • The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why
    by Jabari Asim
  • The Fire Next Time
    by James Baldwin
  • The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century
    by Grace Lee Boggs
  • Racism Without Racists
    by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
  • Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment
    by Patricia Hill Collins
  • Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
    by Dr. Brittany Cooper
  • Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People
    by Ben Crump
  • Women, Race, & Class
    by Angela Y. Davis
  • Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
    by Michael Eric Dyson
  • Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do
    by Jennifer L. Eberhardt
  • Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
    by Reni Eddo-Lodge
  • For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education
    by Christopher Emdin
  • From Slavery To Freedom: A History of African-Americans
    by John Hope Franklin
  • Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond
    by Marc Lamont Hill
  • Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism
    by bell hooks
  • Killing Rage: Ending Racism
    by bell hooks
  • The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America’s Law Enforcement
    by Matthew Horace and Ron Harris
  • This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work
    by Tiffany Jewell and Aurelia Durand
  • Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women That The Movement Forgot
    by Mikki Kendall
  • How to Be an Antiracist
    by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
  • Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
    By Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
  • Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives
    By Nia King
  • Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
    By Audre Lorde
  • They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, And A New Era In America’s Racial Justice Movement
    by Wesley Lowery
  • This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color
    by Cherríe Moraga
  • Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools
    by Monique W. Morris
  • The Construction of Whiteness: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Race Formation and the Meaning of a White Identity
    Edited by Stephen Middleton, David R. Roediger, and Donald M. Shaffer
  • Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
    By Toni Morrison
  • The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America
    by Khalid Gibran Muhammad
  • So You Want to Talk About Race
    by Ijeoma Oluo
  • The History of White People
    By Nell Irvin Painter
  • Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy
    by Darryl Pinckney
  • Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the 21st Century
    by Dorothy Roberts
  • Me and White Supremacy
    by Layla F. Saad
  • Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity
    By C. Riley Snorton
  • Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race
    By Beverly Daniel Tatum
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