PerformancerUS will be presenting, Performing Ourselves, Performing our Histories, a series of poems, monologues, and dialogues inspired by the Oral Narratives of Latin@ in Ohio (ONLO) archive, and each of the ensemble members personal and collective stories. This performance piece engages with the archive and finds common ground on the stories/histories of other Latina/o/x by creatively devising a piece that is centered on our collective experience with loss, gain, acceptance, and belonging as it relates to identity, language, culture and/or immigration status. This project incorporates participants cultural ways of knowing and doing, as integral to storytelling and empowerment.
This workshop, after the performance, will provide a culturally engaging model for Latina/o/x students that enhances our sense of belonging, bicultural and bilingual experiences, and racial or ethnic identity, while also providing opportunities for self-expression. The workshop uses oral history as a tool for creating spaces of trust and communal sharing of knowledge. We will discuss steps on how to devise an ethnographically-informed performance and offer a model for using oral histories as knowledge production that highlights community collaboration as a source of pride and honor. The workshop is highly interactive and will ask the audience to reflect on best practices for engaging in fruitful conversations about language, culture, and belonging.
The "Performing Ourselves Performing our Histories" Facebook event page with additional information can be found here.
