Theatre of the Oppressed NYC presents the 5th annual Legislative Theatre Festival, May 10th, 2017 at University Settlement. RSVP here!

Make creative policy change with a performance by Concrete Justice addressing cultural equity and access for low-income New Yorkers. At 6pm, join us for an Advocacy Fair with community partners and activists. At 7pm, watch original plays based on actors’ lived experiences, act onstage to brainstorm alternatives via community action and public policy, vote with representatives from City Council, the Mayor’s Office and other elected officials to carry these ideas forward, and get activated with post-show breakouts and brainstorms! This Legislative Theatre session will evaluate and respond to the drafted policies of the Cultural Plan, in collaboration with CreateNYC. This event is wheelchair accessible.

This play addresses access to arts programming, and the struggle to access even Theatre of the Oppressed rehearsals, when dealing with bureaucracy of housing, homelessness, support services, etc.

We’re so excited to have University Settlement hosting the event! They are an organization over 130 years old that provides services to immigrants and low-income families, including education, housing, access to open space for exercise and health, and support for the aging. They work to strengthen our communities by strengthening the families through a comprehensive program full of services and support.

Concrete Justice, TONYC’s flagship troupe, is made up of New Yorkers, adults with experience of homelessness, who use Theatre of the Oppressed as a medium for communal problem-solving around the issues of homelessness, joblessness and related discrimination. The troupe began as the Jan Hus Theatre Troupe in 2010. The troupe has also been hosted by the New York Society for Ethical Culture, and is now based at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Harlem.

For our Advocacy Fair one hour before the performance, we’ll have representatives from Hester Street Collaborative, the Mayor’s Office Of Immigrant Affairs, Arts & Democracy, Fourth Arts Block NYC, Hemispheric Institute, and many more joining us to table.

To help us bring our policy ideas to life, we’ll be joined by policy advisor Kevin Hansen from PolicyAtlas.

Kevin Hansen is a public sector professional whose work experience includes policy, management and budget-focused roles for the State of New York, the GovLab, the City of Chicago, the City of Washington (DC), and the international strategy consulting firm Bain & Company. As a writer, Kevin has authored blog posts and op-eds for the Huffington Post, the NYU Wagner Review and the Governance Lab at NYU. As part of an open government initiative in 2012, Kevin live-chronicled the first internet access-enabled meeting in the history of 10 Downing Street, office and residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. A resident of Brooklyn for the past several years, Kevin received his M.P.A. degree on a full scholarship from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, where he was one of two students to be awarded the prestigious Bohnett Public Service Fellowship. He previously earned a B.B.A. in accounting and a B.S. in political science with honors and distinction from The University of Iowa, which he has served as a member of the Tippie College of Business’ Young Alumni Board and as a member of the successful 2011 Dean Search Committee. Independent of his professional work, he also has conceived and is co-founding PolicyAtlas, a growing, non-­partisan project to develop a user-contributed encyclopedia of known public policy solutions.

Stay tuned for more information, and we can’t wait to #WatchActVote with you next month!

RSVP! #watchactvote