Each year on #GivetoTheMaxDay, I typically donate to causes that friends or colleagues personally ask me to financially support. Strangely, that did not happen this year, so I had to make choices! Gasp. This year I have decided to support two organizations that have personally and recently changed my life for the better. 1) I am proud to say I am supporting Ananya Dance Theatre, first and foremost - never in my life have I had the privilege to witness an organization with such integrity, passion, and strength. I have yet to see a performance (and I cannot wait) but they have already transformed me for the better and are a true case study in how community should work. All informal arts organizations (and humans) should take notes. I know I am. Ananya Dance Theatre was instrumental in ensuring the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts publicly announced they would never produce Miss Saigon again under Patricia Mitchells leadership. Fi-nal-ly. Not only was the Miss Saigon incident personally painful for a variety of reasons, the biggest reason I still engage with this work at all is because it was the most professionally painful incident I have experienced in my early career. Seeing the way so many nonprofit institutions and individuals I considered close to me respond last year - or rather, did not respond at all, choosing to stay silently neutral - this is not something I will soon forget. This is a community I thought I was a part of and an area of research and evaluation I care for deeply. So what happened was not only disappointing, but marginalizing. The way things have unfolded and continue to unfold is not kind, welcoming, or just. While I have experienced more serious trauma in my life on more serious issues, I guess I expected less from those sources of trauma and expected more from an organization that is supposed to stand for what the Ordway claims it stands for. The blatant disregard for my humanity by the Ordway is not something I am willing to professionally forgive until public apologies are made and action steps are taken for our communities. As someone who acts as a consultant to many organizations, sometimes on issues of diversity and inclusion, I am disheartened to see the way the Ordway has used and tokenized these folks; I am not interested in this kind of treatment and the issue is something I have to push back on constantly in this line of work. Not okay. What I want from the Ordway is institutional change, funding for Asian American communities, and actual relationships built with both the Vietnamese and Asian American communities in a transparent and accountable way. There is more to say, but I shall leave it there for now. But I will say there is little good faith to show that any of this has yet to happen on a meaningful level. However, at least that conversation is on the table because of Ananya Dance Theatre. অনন্যা চট্টোপাধ্যায় and Gina Kundan, you have my deep gratitude, respect, and cheer. 2) My second organization of choice is the Animal Humane Society, simply because this is where Brian Ayers and I adopted our youngest kitty, Olive. #TBT 2011 kitten forever! It is also where we used to take our bunnies, Ara and Scratch (may they rest in peace) for Hoppy Hours. Which were amazing. (...the end.) - Also! I am involved with a ton of organizations, but here are a few additional ones I actively support either directly through volunteering and/or financially... and where you might consider donating your monies: Catalyst Foundation (Vietnamese adoptee issues), College Possible (college access and completion for low income first generation youth), The Loft Literary Center (words and social justice
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 05:35:33 +0000
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