AMERICAN THEATRE: As people in Minneapolis and nationwide grieve the murder of Renee Nicole Good, and both activists and ordinary citizens struggle to resist and recover from targeted raids by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of Somali, Southeast Asian, and Latine immigrants in the Twin Cities, advocacy is coming in many forms, including the artistic.
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I’m continually and constantly disgusted and outraged by the deployment of ICE and ICE’s actions in Minnesota and around the country, and I’ve been thinking lately about how our work as theater artists can play a role in resistance messaging. I think this article does a really good job of emphasizing how that can happen by using theaters as community resource organizations, as they were originally designed to be. Theaters have long been small hubs of information messaging that is uniquely tailored to specific community audiences, and I think Minnesota theaters joining in solidarity with ICE Out of Minnesota movements is an echo of that history. By joining in the strike and expressing solidarity with immigrant communities in Minnesota, these theaters are serving their communities and can hopefully align their art with that sentiment as well. This comment also reminds me of something that I commented on last week in the article about the “nation’s only conservative theater.” I feel like the key difference between that artistic/community vision and the one in this article is that the “conservative theater” is based on ideology, while this is based on community, and thats a palpable and remarkable difference.
In my dreams, art is enough to save lives and change minds. When I see a play dissecting fascism or a photograph of families being reunited, I imagine the leaders of our country and countries around the world being moved to change their ways. I imagine that seeing the destruction of human lives that they have caused will spark empathy deep in their hearts. And then I leave the theater, I turn away from the frame, I put down my brush. Maybe I could live in a world where those hungry for power tear down those around them on their path to the top. In my mind we are separate, and their loss of morality is more a negative on their souls than it is on me. But in this world, a world where ICE shoots protestors dead in the streets, where cops turn off their body cams, and where presidents pardon, those hungry for power don;t just take out their peers. They step on the people below them, building mountains of their bodies to reach higher into the frigid sky where they think true power lies. What can art do? It can’t bring anybody back. It can’t shield the next generation from the bullets.
It’s absolutely insane to me that there is essentially a warzone happening in one of our major cities, and I hear few people talking about it, few news outlets treating it as serious as it is, and tactless presidential accounts of it. (Maybe that last part isn’t as surprising.) I think that theaters stopping performances and helping by going out into the communities says a lot about how bad the state of things is in Minneapolis - fascism is the death of art, and for things to be so perilous that theaters are stopping performances? Why don’t we talk about this everywhere? Why did I have to find out from TikTok that ICE tear gassed a car with a six month old infant in it, and that the baby stopped breathing? I think these theaters are showing that life is dangerous. They’re serving their community more than the government itself–in fact they're protecting the people from the government.
It’s truely heartbreaking to see what is happening in Minnesota and all around the U.S right now with ICE. I have family in Minneapolis, who are fully citizens of the united states, but they aren’t white and therefore they have to be careful when they go out because it could be dangerous. It’s so bad that my generally fairly conservative grandmother has been texting the family groupchat paragraphs of text about how it’s heartbreaking to see what ICE is doing, and that it needs to stop. Theater has and always will be political, and offer opportunity to express feelings and stand up for what is right through art. I love that as part of continuing protests against ICE, the theaters have been using their voices to fight what is happening. In 2020 when BLM protests were happening in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s death, activism beginning in Minnesota was able to have a huge impact, and I sincerely hope that this can spark real change, because a world in which Cops and ICE agents can shoot innocent people is a world that really fucking sucks.
I do think that a theatre like any other organization should attempt to play a part in the current climate that we are in especially if that theater has a mission statement about race inclusivity and acceptance. It doesn't need to be the biggest action but it should be a genuine attempt at supporting the communities that watch their shows and work on their teams. The situation in Minnesota is at a high currently so now is a time where support is needed so im glad to some theatres showing their support by sharing resources ( i do think that verbal support is helpful but it does have the possibility to not be as meaningful due to actual action being took so sharing resources is a smart way to give while not getting the theater in trouble and while I do think action is important i recognize that a theater often cant delve in to that side of activism)
Historically, art has always been fundamental in political movements counteracting fascism and promoting progressive civil right causes. It brings me an immense sense of pride to see theatres in Minnesota, particularly theatres of color, stand with the people and participate in protests. With that said though, the fact that theatres have felt the need to intervene for such an insane situation is sad to say the very least. It goes to show the state of our nation for the fact that our neighbors and innocent civilians are being murdered for the crime of documentation paperwork, a process that has often been systematically against migrants while relying and exploiting off their labor. I’ve seen a lot of people comparing the “ICE OUT" protests to “Black Lives Matter”, but this time feels different as it has truly brought communities together in standing up for one another in a way BLM couldn’t achieve as highly. As great as it is to see people coming together, our local officials need to do better in standing up for their citizens instead of sitting back and letting protesters put their lives on the line.
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