The EDIII Summit: Small Gathering Update and Next Steps

On August 10, 2020, Theatrical Intimacy Education, in collaboration with Princeton University, hosted the first gathering of TIE’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Intimacy Initiative (EDIII) Summit to explore intersections of race and intimacy choreography. This summit included leaders in the Theatre community, as well as History, Gender Studies, Education, English, Journalism, and African Diasporic Studies.

In recognition of Black Women as the originators of the philosophy of intersectionality and origins of the Me Too movement, centering the voices of Black Women has been integral to this work. We are processing the tremendously important conversations that we began in August and we are moving forward with the next phase of the EDIII Summit, which will be a larger gathering in March 2021. 

We are honored that the following participants have joined us as thought leaders to begin this conversation at our initial gathering in August and we are grateful to Princeton University for their ongoing support and participation.

Participants 

Silma Sierra Berrada, Class of 2022
Department of English, Certificates in African American Studies, Creative Writing, Theater, & Visual Arts, Princeton University

Belinda (Be) Boyd, MFA
Associate Professor, BFA Acting Coordinator, University of Central Florida 
KCACTF Region IV Vice-Chair

Nicole Brewer, MFA
Acting Faculty, Yale School of Drama

Indira Etwaroo, Ph. D.
RestorationART and The Billie Holiday Theatre

Bliss Griffin, MBA, JD candidate
National Diversity & Inclusion Strategist, Actors’ Equity Association

Nicole Hodges Persley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of American Studies~African and African American Studies, University of Kansas

Ann James
CEO, Intimacy Coordinators of Color

Janaka Lewis, Ph.D. 
Associate Professor of English, Director of Women's and Gender Studies Program, University of North Carolina-Charlotte 

Kelundra Smith
Freelance Theater Critic and Arts Journalist
Co-Chair, American Theatre Critics Association,  Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee

Meredith Suttles
Director of Development, TheaterWorksUSA 

Shontelle Thrash 
Director of Theatre, Professor of Theatre/Communication, Clayton State University

Delicia Turner Sonnenberg
Director, Founding Artistic Director of Moxie Theatre, San Diego (2004-2017)

Joy Vandervort-Cobb
Actor, Director, Voice Actor, Coach

Organizers

Kaja Dunn, MFA
Assistant Professor of Theatre, Head of Acting, Affiliate Africana Studies, UNC Charlotte
Affiliate Faculty, Theatrical Intimacy Education 

Brian Eugenio Herrera, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Theater and Gender & Sexuality Studies, Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University 

Chelsea Pace, MFA
Assistant Professor of Theatre, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Co-Founder and Head Faculty, Theatrical Intimacy Education 

Laura Rikard, MFA
Assistant Professor of Theatre, University of South Carolina Upstate 
Co-Founder and Head Faculty, Theatrical Intimacy Education 

Update: Theatrical Intimacy Education’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Intimacy Initiative (EDIII) Summit

In early 2019, Laura and I partnered with Kaja Dunn, a noted and respected scholar on the subjects of Decolonization and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). We wanted to work with her on addressing the overwhelming whiteness in the developing field of intimacy specialization and in TIE’s own workshops . 

The first idea we pitched to Kaja was for an EDI scholarship, giving away two no-cost spots in all of our workshops. Kaja said it was a nice idea, but that throwing money at the problem wasn’t enough. We needed to ensure that our pedagogy was anti-racist and counter-traumatic. We needed to stop assuming that what we had was of value to the communities that weren’t in the room. We needed to deepen our practice and do a lot more listening. 

Working together with Brian Eugenio Herrera, we developed the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Intimacy Initiative, or The EDIII. The goal of The EDIII is to change who is in the room for conversations about theatrical intimacy, taking an intersectional approach, but centering the racist, colonialist power structures that prop up inequity in our field. 

When we launched the EDIII, we announced four major projects: that scholarship (The EDIII Scholarship), a partnership program (The EDIII Organizational Partnership), a program to develop intimacy trainings for self-identified BIPOC, and a gathering of scholars, artists, and practitioners to talk about race, intimacy, and building a counter-traumatic arts pedagogy (The EDIII Summit). 

We were days away from the EDIII Summit when the pandemic began to show up in the US and Princeton University, our host, announced that they were closing campus. We postponed the Summit and turned our attention to moving our courses, and our lives, online. 

In the throes of three major concurrent, and ongoing, events: a pandemic, an economic disaster, and a national reckoning around Anti-Blackness, racial injustice and police violence, the conversation we intended to have in March is more critical than ever. 

We had always envisioned The Summit to be a small gathering that would center the voices of Black women and be a seed for other larger gatherings and conversations. In that spirit, we are planning two small gatherings, the first a seed for the second, to eventually move into a more public space. 

The first event will be a very small group of Black women, gathered to discuss the role of theatrical intimacy and Race in this moment of reckoning. The second event will be for invitees of the original Summit, building off of the conversations from the first gathering. In recognition of the value of their time, labor, and expertise, all of our participants are being offered an honorarium as well as an additional amount to offset incidental costs. 

We remain committed to transparency and good citational practices. With the consent of participants, we will be working with the participants of both events to create publicly available documentation out of these conversations with findings that we think will be valuable to the broader community. 

We will continue to update as we move forward over the coming months. 

Best, 
Chelsea and Laura