Climate Action and Environmental Justice Summit to be Hosted by Theatre Communications Group

Theatre Communications Group has announced the inaugural Climate Action and Environmental Justice Summit, hosted online in partnership with Groundwater Arts, HowlRound, and Broadway Green Alliance on Earth Day, April 22, 2021. The Summit will convene arts industry leaders and practitioners to discuss the intersections of racial and environmental justice while centering the leadership and experience of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Through presentations, conversations and participatory workshops, the Summit will help bring climate action to the forefront of our theatre field.

Speakers include: Houston Cypress (he/him), Founder of Love the Everglades and Miccosukee Society Cultural Ambassador; Sonali P. McDermid (she/her), a climate scientist, modeler, and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at NYU; Taylor Morton (they/them) the Director of Environmental Health and Education at WE ACT for Environmental Justice; Malina Rodriguez (she/her), Co-founder and Director of Operations, Atlanta Green Theater Alliance; Donya Washington (she/her), Festival Producer, Oregon Shakespeare Festival; and Sarah Williams (she/her), Managing Director, CalShakes. Learn more about the speakers here.

"Every year, more and more theatres find themselves cancelling performances and dealing with devastating impacts in their communities from an increasing number of disasters made worse by the climate crisis," said Teresa Eyring, (she/her), executive director and CEO, TCG. "The COVID-19 pandemic itself may have been caused by the unsustainable encroachment of human activity on animal habitat. Now is the time to raise climate action to a new level urgency in the theatre field and use our collective power to address it. We're grateful to be joined in partnership with organizations who've been doing this work for years, Groundwater Arts, HowlRound, and Broadway Green Alliance."

"We're thrilled to partner with TCG, Broadway Green Alliance, and HowlRound at this critical moment in our field. So frequently, the narrative about the climate crisis is all 'doom and gloom,' said Groundwater Arts. "And that is a crisis of imagination. Who better than arts workers to re-story the future."

"It is an honor to participate in this summit with TCG, Groundwater Arts, HowlRound, and theatre practitioners and activists from around the country. We are now living with the consequences of a climate changed world - with even greater threats ahead," said Molly Braverman (she/her) of Broadway Green Alliance. "Simultaneously, our industry faces an enormous number of intersectional challenges and a series of interconnected crises, from the economic impacts of COVID-19 to a much-needed reckoning with systemic racism to the climate crisis. We are energized by this opportunity to come together as a community on Earth Day to redefine our priorities to promote social and environmental well-being."

"We are so grateful for the U.S. theatre community's commitment to interrogate its own practices and complicity in propagating systems of oppression, inequity, and extraction - as evidenced by this event that we're proud to partner on," said the staff of HowlRound Theatre Commons. "It is looking like the year 2021 is the year that the US theatre field collectively decides to stop making art at the expense of others and our future while simultaneously learning how to include, reduce harm, and repair."

Read more about TCG's commitment to Climate Action, here.