Dael Orlandersmith, Monette McKay, James Lecesne and More Write LETTERS TO THE REVOLUTION

Everything changed on November 9th. The wake of fear from the recent election left many marginalized communities asking: 'How can we possibly move forward with hope, strength and focus?' Letters to the Revolution, an intersectional online platform, offers open letters of inspiration and hope from leading artists, activists, and allies, including several from the Broadway and theatre community.

Broadway luminaries and downtown cabaret stars joined together to provide hope and inspiration for the debut drop of 20 letters on January 2nd.

Debut letters include: Dael Orlandersmith (Obie Award-winning and Pulitzer nominated Playwright), Monette McKay (Broadway: Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Memphis, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Mamma Mia!), James Lecense (co-founder of the Trevor Project), Zack Weinstein (Actor: GLEE / Christopher Reeves Foundation), Edward Einhorn (Playwright / Artist Director of Untitled Theater Company No. 61). Shakina Nayfack (Actress: Difficult People, One Woman Show) and others.

The site will continue to drop letters throughout January 2017 in order to kickstart four years of revolution.

Future letters will come from Nik Walker (Actor: Hamilton), James Radnor (Actor: How I Met Your Mother), Justin VivIan Bond (performer), Ben DeLaCreme (Performer: RuPaul's Drag Race), Dirty Martini (International Burlesque Star), Adrienne Truscott (Performer: WauWau Sisters, Asking For It) and others.

FROM THEIR LETTERS:

"we'll grieve // We'll fight / And // Then / We'll dance"

--Dael Orlandersmith, Obie Award-winning and Pulitzer-nominated playwright

"Trust that we will leave this world better than how we inherited it. That is our generation's responsibility and honor."

--Monette McKay, actress in the forthcoming Broadway production of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory

Read the letters in full at LettersToTheRevolution.com.

As an intersectional platform, Letters to the Revolution features not only letters from leading artists/activists from the stage, but places their messages of hope alongside other leading voices, from activists like leading climate change author and founder of 360.org, Bill McKibbens to allied groups like Planned Parenthood, NYC and Greenpeace. Together, voices from all targeted communities (LGBTQ, disabled, feminist, Native American, religious minorities, POC and environmental activists) remind us that focusing on who we are will keep us stronger than focusing on who we're fighting.

Letters to the Revolution is an intersectional online platform founded by Brooklyn based writer / performer Sabrina Chap that features open letters from leading artists, activists and allies from communities targeted by the upcoming administration. Focusing on messages of survival, strength, survival, and hope, these letters will be messages in a bottle to those wondering how to survive and fight in the revolution for equality in the coming months and years. Readers can also contribute their own letters.

On why she created Letters to the Revolution, Chap said:

The concept for Letters to the Revolution came to me when I saw the reactions of anger, fear and confusion from my friends and fellow marginalized people. On-line, the only reactions I saw were fear, anger, or desperation as the media reported each of the inane cabinet postings. All of my facebook friend's posts were of hate, anger and reactionary towards the upcoming administration. I felt exhausted, and hadn't even begun to fight.

"I realized then that in reacting to the upcoming administration, we had lost sight of who we were. I wanted to focus our communities. I needed to hear from our leaderes. Who are we, how will we fight, how will we protest and how will we survive these next four years? Letters to the Revolution hopes to convert these feelings of anger and confusion into powerful tools, creating a road map for everyone to be an activist."

Founder Sabrina Chap is an author, songwriter and mental health advocate. Her Lambda nominated book, Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction (Seven Stories Press) collected essays from bell hooks, Kate Bornstein, Amanda Palmer and more. She is a founding member of the Secret Variety Society (Pangea) and performs alongside the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus. Her musical Fashion Academy, debuted at Vital Theatre Company in 2015.