betweenus
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Theater is a nimble art form. It can offer us solace and escape. It can distract us and take us on adventures of two hours’ duration. And it can do the heavy lifting of bringing us in immediate contact with the most demanding truths of our times. It is tempting to look away. From the news. From the marches. From the pain of stories unlike our own. And yet it is only through compassionate examination of both the source of trauma and its very present impacts that we can begin to do the utterly necessary work of breaking down systems of hate. Of exclusion. Of racism. Hands Up came into being in 2015, as a group of voices sought to make manifest their pain in the wake of the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. It is a kind of awful irony that their work remains as essential and evergreen as it does in 2021. Witnessing truth – and supporting those who speak it – is our human responsibility. And it is only a beginning. I am grateful that you’re here tonight. Susan V. Booth Jennings Hertz Artistic Director
