Guerrilla Theatre Front

25 June, 2020

As a company member of GTF I stand by the statement we’ve made and the actions we’ve outlined to make in order to dismantle our own systems that are complicit in racism, colonialism, and misogyny.

As currently the sole person/woman of color in the core leadership, I acknowledge that I am equally responsible in the situations that have hurt our core members who have resigned. I felt compelled to make a separate statement, and examine my labor for an almost entirely white core leadership. As a non-black person of color - a Filipino woman - I am not exempt or get a pass for bad leadership and judgement when it came to these situations.

In short, as a woman and as a fellow brown person - I failed these collaborators in a different and painful way. I am so sorry. It is my personal responsibility to unlearn white supremacist systems, misogynist sympathizing, and decolonize my formal artistic education.

Therefore, as a company member I will not be counted in the metric of our goal in creating a core leadership of 50% BIPOC. Additionally, so I can further take stock of my biases, I will not be contributing to the curation of artistic projects and serve as production support for the steering committee/artistic collective. I believe in the mission, values, and people of GTF. And I believe we have to work harder to live up to the ideals we’ve set for ourselves.

I am truly humbled by the immeasurable things I’ve learned about myself, our theatre industry, my own company, and the way my actions contribute to the trauma of the most vulnerable to racism & misogyny.

I am so sorry and I promise read, listen, and follow.

Donna Ibale

GTF Company Member

Day 5 of the Black Artists' Lives Matter Showcase (evening edition): Tatiana Nya Ford

Artist Tatiana Nya Ford is interested in creative processes that require immense and intricate intimacy, vulnerability, and truth and artworks that may not have finality and are not associated with traditional standards of beauty or worth. The often-opaque themes in Ford’s works have in common the artist’s obsession with society’s forced obsolescence of emotion and the relationship between the subsequent cognitive dissonance this invites. “If we accept the idea that self-expression doesn’t have to be pleasant and doesn’t have to mimic a commercial form, or process, then what are the limits of that?” Ford asks. Interested in the intersectionality of identity and darker themes of disguising trauma, Tatiana Nya Ford always conveys the link between womanhood and having a voyeuristic relationship with pain, the universal impulse to split oneself into a million pieces for the ease of someone else’s consumption, and her own inclination to make any experience of her self a carefully crafted performance piece.

To see come of her stunning paintings click here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/TheArtOMat/photos/?tab=album&album_id=161857955394060

"I have spent a great majority of my life resisting the urge to end it. For many years, for many reasons, I felt a discomfort I felt in my self, in my skin, in my gender, in my s*xuality, and in all other facets of my identity. It was through my art that I learned how to love myself and to love life despite that discomfort. It was through art that I learned to turn that discomfort into something greater than enjoyment. It was through art that I learned not to accept what society has taught is normal or acceptable or comfortable. I encourage all of us, as natural born artists, to listen, speak up, and amplify voices of the quieted in order to unlearn that normalcy. Whether that be through art or any other means."
-Tatiana Nya Ford

Want to donate to Tatiana?
Venmo: tatianaanyaa

Please consider also donating to her two selected charities:
Baltimore Safe Haven https://donorbox.org/bmoresafehaven
The Innocence Project https://www.innocenceproject.org/donate/?f_src=FY20_web_x_gen_nmat_campTop000Button_Main

Come to the The Art-O-Mat and make protest signs! All supplies included. Located in Highlandtown - 3522A Bank St.

Protesting? Need a sign? Stop by The Art-O-Mat we have free supplies for you to make a sign or have a sign made for you. 3522-A Bank St. (Side entrance on Conkling)