LACS 20.12 Performing Activism in the Américas
In this course we will examine the intersection of activism and performance in the Americas. “Performance” will refer to a wide range of embodied artistic practices from street theater, community-based theater, site-specific performance art, interventionist art, Hip Hop, and muralism. We will study the ways in which performance has been used as a forum that not only raises political, social, and cultural consciousness, but also interrupts daily life and rehearses notions of community in the 20th and 21st centuries. Theoretical articles on performance and activism will serve to complement the varied modes of performance studied and explicate how they have sparked civic dialogue and social change. We will pay special attention to the ways Latin American and Latino activist practitioners have engaged civil society as well as government and corporate structures through their praxis. Throughout the term, we will revisit the questions: why be an activist, where, how and when; and how can performance be placed at the service of activism. Class discussions and activities will underscore the critical interconnection between theory and practice (praxis). In addition to studying the power of performance as a tool for activism students will have the opportunity to experience hands-on performance techniques that can be used to engage social and political issues of concern to the class. Working in groups, students will take a stance on one of these issues before creating a public intervention. These interventions might draw from street/guerilla theater, installation art, invisible theater, performance art, dance, protest poetry, photography, muralism, or digitally mediated performance. This course is open to all students with or without experience in the arts.