Veteran Voices Returns With CONSCIOUS COMMUNITY AS RITUAL

Poetic Theater Productions will present Veteran Voices: Conscious Community as Ritual, a national showcase of original work by military veterans and family members of veterans.

Performances will feature new poetry, prose, and creative storytelling by veterans and military family members from twelve cities and eight states from across the country, inspired by personal life experiences and developed through a six-week series of online writing and performance workshops. Veteran Voices: Conscious Community as Ritual explores acts such as breathing, holding a child, singing songs, checking jump gear, clay making, working on a submarine, creating theatre, and keeping a journal with photos of "the enemy" as the rituals veterans and family members use in their attempt to create conscious communities. The value of veterans and family coming together to support each other in the process of humanizing the "enemy", fighting racism and misogyny, and unearthing layers of pain, joy, and loss is needed for many veterans to successfully transition back to civilian life.

Veteran Voices: Conscious Community as Ritual takes place Friday March 26 and Tuesday March 30, 2021 at 7:00 pm EDT on Zoom. All tickets are Pay-What-You-Can and are on sale through Eventbrite. Audience members are invited to join the artists following the performance to ask questions about the art, the process of creation, and the Veteran Voices program.

The program is curated by Jenny Pacanowski, Omar Columbus, Drew Pham, and Jeremy Karafin, and is directed by Karen Alvarado and Mary Jo McConnell. Conscious Community as Ritual features writing and performances by Karen Alvarado, Tara Barnwell, James Edward Becton, Stacey Bell, Zina Bethea-Dawson, Andrea Bowling, Amber Brown, Omar Columbus, Pamela Enz, Liz Hensel, Tara Krause, Todd Kruse, Anthony A. LoBue, Mary Jo McConnell, Jenny Pacanowski, Drew Pham, and Jimmy White IV. The program is produced and stage managed by Kelly Teaford with Technical direction by Ran Xia.

Poetic Theater Productions' Veteran Voices program calls upon the traditions of past warrior cultures such as the Greeks, Romans, and Native Americans, who welcomed their military home in rituals of storytelling. Reviving these practices, military veteran artists take the virtual stage to share their stories and experiences in a way that is healing and shares the moral burden of war. Based in NYC's historic East Village, the award-winning Poetic Theater Productions, under the Artistic Direction of Jeremy Karafin (2010-Current) and Alex Mallory (2011-2015), has produced 220 unique events and productions, and began including veteran-led events as an integral part of their programming in 2011 with annual showcases featuring the artistic work of more than 70 military veterans, and full productions by veterans Maurice Decaul and J.A. Moad II. You can learn more about Poetic Theater Productions and the artists involved in this project here.