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Harriet Tubman Effect Presents Lantern Library Pop-Up & Storytelling Festival
In attendance at the Lantern Library were employees from City Center, MCC, Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theater Workshop,
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Dec. 22, 2023
In the efforts to dismantle systematic oppression, the Harriet Tubman Effect, a human resource center and institute for justice advocacy and research, garnered by renowned cultural and educational institutions, by producing participatory-action research and human resource initiatives and reallocating wealth to Black and Brown DEI consultants across American industries, hosted by Lincoln Center Theater (LCT) presented the Lantern Library Pop-Up & Storytelling Festival: Event to Dismantle Systematic Oppression at Claire Tow Theater at Lincoln Center Theater.
In attendance at the Lantern Library were employees from City Center, MCC, Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Entertainment Community Fund, Maestra, The Public, Business of Broadway, No Guarantees, Black Theater United, RISE, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, Claim Our Space Now, Waterwell, Rev Latina, Producers Hub and Weymouth Watson.
Lantern Library is not only a partnership with LCT but a showcase of the amazing (engaging) leaders at HTE. A pop-up museum and multi-faceted education experience for guests who are interested in dismantling systemic oppression, the library is led by a team of 54 rotating researchers called Founders, Fellows, and Justice Advocates. The two-day event was designed to help leaders engage with equity education and storytelling around healthy performing arts venues and systems change and advocacy. The Lantern Library is designed to help leaders engage with stories of the past to help our problem-solving and equity work of the future and to provide BIPOC leaders a space to network, share their work, and recruit employment opportunities. The Lantern Library serves as an orchestrated network for the practice of reallocating wealth across identities and professions. The two-days included multiple education seminars falling under three categories, healing, advocacy and history. Guests engaged in these egalitarian style facilitated sessions that offer best practices, strategies, and information for sustainability in dismantling systemic oppression.
Day One consisted of a curated group of actors, administrators and audience members given tools, scripts, dialogue prompts to navigate a variety of case studies underneath a methodology of Founder, Nicole Johnson’s doctoral research called The Playmaker Method. The Playmaker method is an immersive practice environment that allows participants to explore their storytelling techniques for dismantling systemic oppression.
Day Two consisted of Equitable Practices for Swings featuring Kellen Stancil (Lion King), Dwyane Cooper (Sweeney), Erin Rosenthal (Grey House), Joanna Carpenter (Sweeney), Megan Ort (Sweeney), and HTE Cate Benioff (Chicago Tour). Stage manager wellness, led by Manager Justin Scribner with over 30 stage managers assembled to engage in conversation about knowing one another and knowing who is committed to this work. Vanessa Pereda, playwright, Founder at HTE and educational theater leader hosted Indigenous Advocacy to theater professionals about Land Back through the HTE 4 pillars of wealth (social, health, time, financial); a concept that she has been refining to activate community members and edify indigenous communities. CSA’s Julie Tucker led the panel discussion on unconscious bias in the casting process. After lunch, Morghan from BTU and Phoebe from Weymouth Watson led a community exercise around navigating healthy ecosystems from an entry point in theater of navigating the challenges of being young leaders of color in this evolving industry and culminated with a presentation from the Entertainment Community Fund introduced resources for healthy productions in New York. The day ended with our City Center Sponsored Accessibility in Performing Arts Venues featuring Access Broadway’s Maria Porto, freelance Dazzle Kailyn-Aaron Lozano, ASL interpreter coordinator Joanne Deane, and Blind Advocate Shane Dittmar introduced by VP of Education Tia Powell Harris from City with a panel discussion emphasizing the need for disability-led consulting and departments in performing arts venues and further illuminating our industry’s struggles with ableism.
About the Harriet Tubman Effect (HTE)
The Harriet Tubman Effect, founded and led by DEI Director Nicole Johnson, is a human resource center and institute for justice advocacy and research. Their mission is to dismantle systemic oppression by producing participatory-action research and human resource initiatives and reallocating wealth to Black and Brown DEI consultants across American industries. HTE is home to 54 researchers, artists, and educators who provide workplaces and communities with consulting services and support to build capacity for effective DEI practices across five sectors: theatre, K-12, higher education, houses of worship, and corporations. In partnership with HTE, production companies are able to shift policies and practices, activate internal inclusion initiatives, and challenge traditional workplace culture to ensure equity and wellness.
HTE’s Lantern Fund
The Lantern Fund is an initiative that allows community members to reallocate their resources and wealth to support the prosperity of historically marginalized community groups, leaders, and
professionals in theater. Fiscally sponsored by Producers Hub, the Lantern Fund now houses Lantern Tix, Lantern Library, Lantern Guide, Lantern Coaching, and Lantern Orgs. HTE is committed to redesigning and transforming current systems by reallocating wealth through the Lantern Fund. Leaders of all
backgrounds can reallocate their time, health, financial or social wealth to the Lantern Fund to be redistributed to POC and marginalized communities during their bi-annual reparations season. The new programs under the Lantern Fund are the product of weekly meetings and initiatives attended by industry professionals ranging in disciplines and roles.
HTE’s Lantern Guide
Inspired by the Negro Motorist’s Greenbook, HTE Lantern Guide is a digital assessment tool that helps team members share and track individual and organizational progress in workplace wellness. The technology utilizes personal stories to illuminate pathways toward sustainable social change in your workplace. Through a monthly data-gathering session with a HTE representative, you can build the story of your company’s collective DEI values. These stories can include systemic wins, sustainable practices for equitable change, and areas of growth that are in need of care to shift systems. The technology uses a values-based data filter to help employees share their wins and observations all under the guidance of a trained HTE representative. To date, Lantern Tix has distributed 10,500 tickets and has partnered with 15 shows including. Lantern Library welcomed 250 participants at Harriet Tubman Effect’s first annual storytelling festival on Juneteenth.
To learn more about Lantern Tix, Lantern Orgs, or Lantern Library visit
About HTE’s Founder
Nicole Javanna Johnson is the Founder & Creative Director of the Harriet Tubman Effect Institute www.harriettubmaneffect.com, a human resource center and institute of research and strategy for justice advocacy. The institute seeks to usher in a new era of empathy by producing empathy-driven artistry, participatory action research, and human resource initiatives. Nicole is also Founder of Javanna Productions M.O.V.E. www.proudtobeamover.com a non-profit arts and education company that provides community members with the resources and platforms necessary to address social issues creatively. A member of SAG-AFTRA and a leader in the educational theater community, Nicole is currently pursuing her PhD at New York University (NYU) in the Music and Performing Arts Department of the School of Culture, Education and Human Development. Nicole has served as a Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, PASSOVER, Freestyle Love Supreme, Strange Loop, Dana H, Is This a Room, and A Christmas Carol. Nicole also works with Lincoln Center, Signature Theater, The University of Kansas Performing Arts Department, and Tulane University Dance Department.
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