ARTIVISM
Working to improve the world.
Supporting neighbors’ voices.
Shouldn’t we all be doing this?
What is artivism? Wikipedia to the rescue!
Co-Creator | Curator
An initiative that trains veterans to present innovative public performances based on ancient literature.
Funded by a University of Southern California Arts in Action grant, and in collaboration with Southern California Grantmakers, the Warrior Bards project gives approximately twenty veterans the opportunity to study selected Greek dramas and discuss them in light of their own experience.
Co-Creator | Curator
An immersive, web-based, documentary theatre and film project with environmental justice at its core.
SZ:LA is a collective of environmental justice advocates, USC faculty, and students who are collaborating on an interactive and original documentary theatre project that addresses our city’s sacrifice zones (places that have been devastated by oil drilling and industrial toxins), and elevates the work of local residents who are fighting to change that reality.
360° Immersive Docu-Narratives
Creator | Professor
Housed in a class I designed for the Media Arts + Practice division at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, each year I lead a group of students through the process of creating a 360° docu-narrative, performance installation designed to examine and challenge social justice issues within a chosen community.
These projects have explored personal identity, the construction of a fence surrounding the USC campus, the United States incarceration system, and the mental health effects of the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) pandemic.
Borrowing techniques from film, theatre, and other arts and media practice, these immersive performances have proven to be an effective way to encourage deep dialogue among participants, while attempting to make positive social change.