Who are we inviting into Rooted this year?

“The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place”.  

-  James Baldwin

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For the next 9 months, we're inviting you into a play incubator the intention of which is to infuse movement, joy and experimentation into what can become sedimented and calicified in our perception and experience — in a digestible format of one Sunday Session a month.

If you’ve been receiving our emails and are feeling curious about what we’re up to, this letter outlines the most important things to know about the Play program.

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First of all, there are two pathways for you to choose from for this Play Incubator:

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You can join us as part of Rooted’s broader membership

This includes the monthly Sunday session PLUS other monthly events and ways to connect with each other.  The Rooted Global Village membership is a space where we’ve been playfully embracing cultural dexterity practices for years now. This membership is an incubator for emergent dreaming in the very way it exists and reacts to the needs of the space itself. We’ve developed a playful capacity to bend and shift to the whispers we hear echoing amongst us, it’s pretty cool.

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Or you can only join the Play Incubator (just the one Sunday a month).

The Play incubator takes place on the second Sunday of each month, (all the dates are listed on the registration page) and each Sunday ‘play shop’ will set a ‘lens’ through which we can collectively explore the month.

In between each session, we will provide one ‘mini quest’ that you can take with you into your daily life and personal reflection.

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No matter which branch you choose, (course + membership OR the course only) you will also be able to participate in an optional research project of your own design.

We are excited to see how the play we do together online might influence, impact or direct our attention, virtually and in-person – and we'll be offering gathering spaces in June, August, October, and January 2025 for us to inspire each others' projects!

This program will be amazing for anyone who:

+ is in the midst of a creative endeavour, and wants to ‘aerate’ their imagination and bring new perspectives to their project or local art / activism / community organizing. (You don't have to be involved in anything, but may feel inspired through exposure!)

+ has spent a long time feeling a block between themselves and labels like “artist” or “creative-action” — but are curious about bridging the divide.

+ feels caught in cycles of despair over the enormity of our collective crises. Anyone who feels themselves 'bottoming out' of energy and stamina, or feels the density in their bodies as a result of what feel impossible to change.

+ wants to experience more of life through the lens of their 6 year old self.

+ is desiring consistency and ritualized ways of connecting to the energy of PLAY while in and amongst the life we're actually living.

This is a project that is being hosted by Rooted, but is made possible by a medley of voices and perspectives that are helping shape the incubator.

If you join us, you will experience:

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Amrita Dhaliwal — Comedian and Clown!

Amrita is an award-winning Punjabi American comedian, arts leader, educator and devising artist based in Los Angeles, whose work spans multiple mediums, from stage to TV & Film. Her work explores the core themes of humanity, like death and love, through a lens of the current social-political climate.

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Caroline Reck & Gricelda Silva

In our work at Glass Half Full Theatre, we have found that imaginative reenvisioning of objects is key to breaking open the complex work that must be done to recognize and upset power dynamics.  We use the puppetry of human-made objects as a tool to re-envision a sustainable, equitable future. There is great joy and healing to be found in helping an object reject its human-intended purpose and become the protagonist in its own story.

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Alixa Garcia — artist, poet, activist!

Working towards just and thriving worlds requires profound imagination.

To have a strong liberatory practice, we need to diligently exercise our visionary and somatic muscles.

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Trickster Makes the World with Bayo Akomolafe

Bayo Akomolafe will be joining us for a special guest playspace - welcoming in the energies of the trickster for making and re/making the world.

He is an author, celebrated speaker, teacher, and self-styled trans-public intellectual (a concept imagined together with and inspired by the shamanic priesthood of the Yoruba healer-trickster) - whose vocation goes beyond justice and speaking truth to power to opening up other spaces of power-with, and queering fond formulations and configurations of hope.

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Yvette Murrell — Playback Theatre!

Yvette Murrell is a co-founder, and Connector of the former Playback Milwaukee Theatre Company. A powerfully-gifted facilitator and shaman with over 30 years of practice, Yvette weaves a deeply embodied approach to social, racial, and restorative justice into the lives of individuals, organizations, and institutions seeking transformative change.

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Rebecca Struch — scholar · educator · community-engaged artist.

Rebecca (she/her) is a theatre maker, educator, and performance studies scholar focused on the politics of race and space in performances both on and off the stage. Her work is driven by a passion for community engagement and a commitment to social and cultural transformation.

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And of course, these anchoring hosts are only one part of this experience. How it lives in and through EACH OF US is where the gold lives.

You, me, and anyone who joins us from around the globe will be co-creating this space and this experience.

We would love for you to be among us - registration is open until June 8th. All the info lives here:  https://www.rootedglobalvillage.com/through-the-kaleidoscope

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