Episode 61: Rad Pereira - Healing Justice Rising

Rad Pereira is an old soul-young heart theater artist, writer, educator, and community activist with a very clear sense of purpose and direction --- defined by questions like: How can we imagine, and manifest alternate futures together? Was my body conditioned to survive in a world not made for me? and Can the natural world function as a moral compass?

I am a multi-spirit mixed Black, Indigenous Brazilian, Jewish (im)migrant artist currently based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn). My creative practices range from social sculpture, to popular theatrical and TV/film performance, to participatory liberatory artmaking and healing that weaves together an Afro-futurist longing for transformative justice and queer (re)Indigenization of culture.

I put in a lot of hours to get to where, how and why I am today, with the guidance of many mentors and dedication to cultivating an ancestor led, faithful intuition. I was trained up in Eurocentric theatre and dance on scholarship at Interlochen Arts Academy and Pace University. I kept the parts of that training which were useful and shed the constricting parts. Since then I have been building connection with my ancestral modes of creativity, storytelling and next world building.

With my community I created The (Im)Migrant Hustle and produced Bang Bang Gun Amok I + II at Abrons Art Center. With their artner at You Are Here, LILLETH, they created Media Tools for Liberation at JackNY, Decolonization Rave and Cosmic Commons. In 2017 I was NYC Public Artist in Residence with my collaborators (Keelay Gipson, Britton Smith, Josh Adam Ramos), at the Department of Cultural Affairs and Children’s Services working with LGBQTIA foster youth;

As an actor and director, I have contributed to stories at HBO, CBS, MTV, National Black Theatre, MITU350, The Public Theater, La Mama etc., Shakespeare Theatre in DC, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, ART Boston, The Bushwick Starr, Target Margin, Ars Nova, New Ohio, Clubbed Thumb, The Flea Theatre, Sesame Street, Theatre 167 and various online media platforms.

As a cultural organizer and facilitator, I have collaborated with the Disney Theatrical Group, United Nations, Queens Museum, Rio de Janeiro Museum, Instituto Republica, MOCA, SITI Company Thought Center, A Blade of Grass, SUPERBLUE, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, The 8th Floor, Working Woman of Color Conference, Dance/NYC Symposium, and Culture/Shift. I have taught performance classes and workshops at Pace University, Interlochen Arts Academy, NET, Americans for the Arts and The Door.

Currently, I’m the Director of Engagement and Impact with New York Stage & Film, while shifting between cultural work in performance, education, social sculpture and community organizing. My book on socially engaged performance and social justice with Jan Cohen-Cruz came out in June 2022 by New Village Press.

Recent Work:

Meeting the Moment, Socially Engaged Performance, 1965–2020, by Those Who Lived It by Jan Cohen Cruz and Rad Pereira

NOWNESS: Every Step is a Prayer: Miami’s newest innovative arts venue, Superblue, first opened its doors in May 2021 to invite in a new era of perception-shifting art. To honor this beginning, Superblue, alongside local community members and in partnership with NOWNESS, created a short film that honors the

Rad Pereira is an old soul-young heart theater artist, writer, educator, and community activist with a very clear sense of purpose and direction --- defined by questions like: How can we imagine, and manifest alternate futures together? Was my body conditioned to survive in a world not made for me? and Can the natural world function as a moral compass?

I am a multi-spirit mixed Black, Indigenous Brazilian, Jewish (im)migrant artist currently based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn). My creative practices range from social sculpture, to popular theatrical and TV/film performance, to participatory liberatory artmaking and healing that weaves together an Afro-futurist longing for transformative justice and queer (re)Indigenization of culture.

I put in a lot of hours to get to where, how and why I am today, with the guidance of many mentors and dedication to cultivating an ancestor led, faithful intuition. I was trained up in Eurocentric theatre and dance on scholarship at Interlochen Arts Academy and Pace University. I kept the parts of that training which were useful and shed the constricting parts. Since then I have been building connection with my ancestral modes of creativity, storytelling and next world building.

With my community I created The (Im)Migrant Hustle and produced Bang Bang Gun Amok I + II at Abrons Art Center. With their artner at You Are Here, LILLETH, they created Media Tools for Liberation at JackNY, Decolonization Rave and Cosmic Commons. In 2017 I was NYC Public Artist in Residence with my collaborators (Keelay Gipson, Britton Smith, Josh Adam Ramos), at the Department of Cultural Affairs and Children’s Services working with LGBQTIA foster youth;

As an actor and director, I have contributed to stories at HBO, CBS, MTV, National Black Theatre, MITU350, The Public Theater, La Mama etc., Shakespeare Theatre in DC, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, ART Boston, The Bushwick Starr, Target Margin, Ars Nova, New Ohio, Clubbed Thumb, The Flea Theatre, Sesame Street, Theatre 167 and various online media platforms.

As a cultural organizer and facilitator, I have collaborated with the Disney Theatrical Group, United Nations, Queens Museum, Rio de Janeiro Museum, Instituto Republica, MOCA, SITI Company Thought Center, A Blade of Grass, SUPERBLUE, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, The 8th Floor, Working Woman of Color Conference, Dance/NYC Symposium, and Culture/Shift. I have taught performance classes and workshops at Pace University, Interlochen Arts Academy, NET, Americans for the Arts and The Door.

Currently, I’m the Director of Engagement and Impact with New York Stage & Film, while shifting between cultural work in performance, education, social sculpture and community organizing. My book on socially engaged performance and social justice with Jan Cohen-Cruz came out in June 2022 by New Village Press.

Recent Work:

Meeting the Moment, Socially Engaged Performance, 1965–2020, by Those Who Lived It by Jan Cohen Cruz and Rad Pereira

NOWNESS: Every Step is a Prayer: Miami’s newest innovative arts venue, Superblue, first opened its doors in May 2021 to invite in a new era of perception-shifting art. To honor this beginning, Superblue, alongside local community members and in partnership with NOWNESS, created a short film that honors the land and people the center aims to engage with and announces its inaugural program, Every Wall Is a Door.

Iron Path Farms is a Haudenosaunee Two Spirit led food sovereignty project that that is growing ancestral foods for indigenous people.Notable Mentions.

Pindorama: Before colonization "Pindorama" (Tupi for "Land of the Palms") was the native name of Brazil, given by the local indigenous peoples.

 Abya Yala: The Bolivian Aymara leader Takir Mamani argues for the use of the term "Abya Yala" in the official declarations of indigenous peoples' governing bodies, saying that "placing foreign names on our villages, our cities, and our continents is equivalent to subjecting our identity to the will of our invaders and their heirs."[3] Thus, use of the term "Abya Yala" rather than a term such as New World or America may have ideological implications indicating support for indigenous rights.

Fort Lauderdale Children's Theater: Teaching the art of life through the magic of theatre The theatre's goals are to: •DEVELOP the full potential of young people as members of the community •ACHIEVE the highest possible standards of theatre through artistic excellence •CELEBRATE the diversity of South Florida's population through collaboration and the arts •ENCOURAGE public appreciation of the art form while developing future audiences and patrons of the cultural arts Hubert. (From the Website)

Interlochen Center for the Arts A true artist's retreat, Interlochen invites students grades 3-12, as well as adults of all ages, for once in a lifetime arts education programs designed to hone their skills and nurture their humanity. The depth and breadth of our offerings is unmatched. Our community transcends backgrounds and beliefs, borders and barriers: here, we are united through the universal language of the arts. (From website)

Jerzy Grotowski: was a Polish theatre director and theorist whose innovative approaches to acting, training and theatrical production have significantly influenced theatre today. 

Occupy Wall Street: was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011.[7] It gave rise to the wider Occupy movement in the United States and other countries. (See Also: Occupywallstreet website)

Jan Cohen Cruz: If you are a regular listener you will recognize Jan from our Episode 35 where she shares stories of her work in the 1960's and 70's in the early days of the community arts movement, and her continuing role as one of the fields most respected historians. 

Meeting the Moment, Socially Engaged Performance, 1965–2020, by Those Who Lived It: The experiences of a diverse range of progressive theater and performance makers in their own words. Curated stories from over 75 interviews and informal exchanges offer insight into the field and point out limitations due to discrimination and unequal opportunity for performance artists in the United States over the past 55 years. In this work, performers, often unknown beyond their immediate audience, articulate diverse influences. (See also Change the Story / Change the World Episode 35 )

Dah Teatar Research Center for Theater and Social Change is an independent, professional, contemporary theater troupe and artistic collective that uses modern theater techniques to create engaging art and initiate positive social change, both locally and globally. (See also, Change the Story / Change the World Episode 54 54) 

Dancing Trees: In the piece Dah Teatar company members and audience occupy an urban forest, and over the course of the performance, incorporate the trees not only as characters in a story about fighting deforestation and corporate greed, but also, as members of the theater company. (See also, Change the Story / Change the World Episode 54)

Anne Krassner: Friend of Rad’s. A strategic thinker with 10 years of experience in community-driven planning, specializing in program and policy development and management, adept at leveraging public-private partnerships to address historical barriers to access in under-resourced communities, fundraising, and grants management. A relationship builder interested in working with communities to build more inclusive and equitable neighborhoods and cities.

Super Hero Clubhouse: OUR MISSION

Superhero Clubhouse creates theater to enact climate and environmental justice, cultivate hope, and inspire a thriving future.

OUR WORK

We make original performances and offer creative resources for communities and collaborators from all walks of life: students, scientists, artists, organizers, teachers, policy-makers, and more.

 Big Green Theater: (BGT) is an eco-playwriting program for public school students that uplifts the imaginations of young people most impacted by our new climate reality and brings their ideas to life on stage. BGT aims to inspire students to manifest a sustainable and just community by using the power of their creative voice. 

Billion Oyster Project:is restoring oyster reefs to New York Harbor through public education initiatives

New Village Press is the first publisher to focus on grassroots community building. Our independent, nonprofit press publishes books and hosts events that contribute to thriving, creative, and socially just communities. Path Farms

Haudenosaunee Confederacy: Through generations of attempted assimilation the nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy have held fast to their cultures and traditions. Today they are expressing their story through their own people with the introduction of HaudenosauneeConfederacy.ca.  

Called the Iroquois Confederacy by the French, and the League of Five Nations by the English, the confederacy is properly called the Haudenosaunee Confederacy meaning People of the long house. The confederacy, made up of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas was intended as a way to unite the nations and create a peaceful means of decision making. Through the confederacy, each of the nations of the Haudenosaunee are united by a common goal to live in harmony. 

Augusto Boal: was a Brazilian theatre practitioner, drama theorist, and political activist. He was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical left popular education movements. Boal served one term as a Vereador (the Brazilian equivalent of a city councillor) in Rio de Janeiro from 1993 to 1997, where he developed legislative theatre.[1] 

Paolo Freire: was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. His influential work Pedagogy of the Oppressed is generally considered one of the foundational texts of the critical pedagogy

Audio Acknowledgement:

Woman's Dance from Gifts, by Bear Fox,

Occupy Wall Street Audio, Democracy Now