The Racial Justice Summit, formerly known as the Summit Against Racism, is a flagship event for Pittsburgh organizers. The Summit creates opportunities for attendees to learn, connect, and act on behalf of racial justice. This year, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, all Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit events will be held on Zoom.

Affinity Group (Dialogue/discussion for attendees of a specific identity group)

The Breathing Room Affinity Group is a space created by black womxn for black womxn to breathe, heal, create, & affirm. Using Theater of the Oppressed & Playback Theater skills we will counter the harm that the session facilitators have experienced in white-led spaces, & together we will affirm one another’s experiences, perspectives, concerns and observations. This space will foster community & healing during the summit & beyond, as members return to the exhausting work of dismantling, resisting, & activating in their own communities.

Important: This space is reserved solely for attendees who identify as Black womxn.

FACILITATORS
Mary Parker She/her/hers – | | |
Just Collaboration, LLC

Sisi Reid (she/her) – Actor, Playwright, Director, & Teaching Artist

Dr. Lalenja Harrington –

Sisi Reid (she/her) is a vibrant Black and Queer theater artist from Wheaton, Maryland who practices theatre as a tool for joy, healing, youth empowerment, and collective liberation. She embodies creation through many roles; as an actor, writer, playwright, director, spoken word poet, facilitator, teaching artist, arts administrator, and applied theater practitioner. She currently serves as a Producing Playwright with The Welders and was recently awarded a 2020 Maryland State’s Arts Council Independent Artist Award.

Dr. Lalenja Harrington has been involved in the movement for access to higher education through inclusive academic program development and advocacy since 2007, & has been actively using arts-based approaches (including applied theatre) to community engaged/participatory research for the past 5 years.. She is a performer with 20 years experience in spoken word, collective poetry facilitation, & devised works, & she is a teaching artist who incorporates TO/Playback practice into her work with youth.

Mary C. Parker combines dialogue facilitation with applied improvisation to facilitate workshops addressing everyday oppression through comedy. Mary collaborates with individuals, educational institutions, and corporations who are ready to deepen their self-awareness, interrupt bias, and actively engage in dismantling oppression through services of playshops and coaching sessions informed by Theatre of the Oppressed and Playback Theatre.