ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE:
On July 30th, Truthworker Theatre Company will perform excerpts from their popular show BAR CODE: A performative analysis of the school to prison pipeline (directed by Samara Gaev). BAR CODE is an original work written and performed by the company that draws connections from Willie Lynch to Trayvon Martin, sources interviews with formerly incarcerated youth, and cites research from New York City's key lawyers in the Stop and Frisk trials. BAR CODE interrogates cycles of systemic oppression through a compelling narrative that weaves rhyme, multimedia, hip-hop theatre, dance, and personal testimony.
Truthworker will also debut new works inspired by Jarvis Jay Masters’ remarkable capacity for liberation within confinement. Masters is an innocent man on death row who has been incarcerated since the age of 19 in San Quentin Prison, and institutionalized since he was a young boy. Jarvis is in collaboration with Truthworker from the inside through their creation process. These excerpts expose the invisible practices and impacts of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons, and explore how those incarcerated survive such inhumane conditions everyday.
The performers will incorporate several of the pieces featured in CUE’s current exhibition "To Shoot a Kite", and connect them to the larger themes of selective justice and oppression. The performance will be followed by a Q&A with the actors and director.
This event is FREE & open to the public. RSVPs are required.
ABOUT TRUTHWORKER THEATRE COMPANY:
Truthworker Theatre Company is a social justice-based, hip-hop theatre company for high school and college-aged youth in Brooklyn, NY. We are intent upon providing free programming and professional stipends for young visionaries and performers to receive rigorous training. Truthworker is a safe space for young people to be the subjects, not the objects of their stories-narrating their own experiences and unique perspectives in ways that unpack, problematize, and shift the dominant, often stereotypical narratives in mainstream media. Using theatre and media to examine history and learn about models for creating social change, Truthworker Theatre Company calls upon language and critical thinking skills as tools to develop solution-driven citizens of the world.
For more information on Truthworker Theatre Company, click here.
www.truthworker.com