CCBC to Present #WHATSCOMIN2YA

A performance piece, "#WhatsComin2Ya," will be re-staged by CCBC Communication and Theatre students Thursday, May 7 at 12:45 p.m. in the Arts and Humanities Hall Room 211 at CCBC Essex, 7201 Rossville Boulevard. The performance is free and open to the public. The piece, originally presented in December 2014, is based on actual responses to more than 100 student interviews conducted with Baltimore residents on domestic violence. Its title reverberates with the common excuse that abusers give that victims got "what's coming to them."

According to CCBC Assistant Professor of Communication Arts Pete Carver, "When I relocated my family to the Baltimore area, I came for the diversity and sports. Soon as our arrival, however, the Ray Rice video surfaced. I was shocked that a class discussion revealed that many of my CCBC students fully expected to be victims of such abuse as some time in their lives."

Carver then challenged his communications' students to "own the subject of domestic violence and to do something to stop it." The resulting project sent students with audio recorders to interview domestic violence victims and abusers. After his students turned in transcripts and submitted written responses/conclusions about the interviews they conducted, the results are shared in "#WhatsComin2Ya." This theatre piece features 14 students and is directed by Carver. He hopes that performances such as this will put an end the silence surrounding domestic violence.

The timeliness of this topic was underscored recently when the 2015 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service was awarded to a small newspaper, The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., for its series on domestic violence, "Till Death Do Us Part."

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