ART's Final RESISTANCE MIC! of the 2017/18 Season to Be Held on May 16

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) and Carr Center for Human Rights Policy will present the final Resistance Mic! of the 2017/18 season on Wednesday, May 16 at 8PM at OBERON, the A.R.T.'s club space for cutting-edge performance. The Resistance Mic! series of five intimate performances co-hosted by director of the A.R.T. of Human Rights initiative Timothy Patrick McCarthy and celebrated Boston author Sarah Sweeney to celebrate and promote resistance began last November on the first anniversary of the 2016 Presidential Election.

Tickets now available $15 - $25, $5 for students) by phone at 617.547.8300, in person at the A.R.T. Ticket Services (64 Brattle St.), or online at amrep.org/resistancemic_tix.

Artists. Truth. Power. The 2016 election inspired a broad-based Resistance not seen in the United States in decades. People from all walks of life have been protesting, marching, mobilizing, and organizing in an effort to take back our country and create a more compassionate and just world. Artists are vital to this work. In collaboration with Pangyrus and other literary and arts initiatives, American Repertory Theater and Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University's intimate performances on the theme of "Resistance" feature diverse groups of artist-activists telling powerful stories and performing politically engaged works that read, move, sing, and speak truth to power in these troubled times.

Sarah Sweeney (@LooseGringa) is the author of Tell Me If You're Lying (Barrelhouse Books, 2016). Her poems and essays have appeared widely, including Washington Post, Salon, Catapult, Oxford American, and other venues. She works as a writer in Boston. Find her at sarah-sweeney.com.

Timothy Patrick McCarthy (@DrTPM) is an award-winning scholar, educator, and activist who teaches at Harvard University. He is author or editor of five books from the New Press, including Stonewall's Children: Living Queer History in the Age of Liberation, Loss, and Love, forthcoming in 2018. He is also the host and director of the A.R.T. of Human Rights series. Find him at hks.harvard.edu/faculty/timothy-patrick-mccarthy.

Ethan Gilsdorf is a nerd who writes a lot. He wrote the travel memoir investigation Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, which was named a Must-Read Book by the Massachusetts Book Awards. His work has also been cited in the anthology Best American Essays 2016. His articles, commentaries, essays, film and book reviews, and poems have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Salon, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Esquire, National Geographic, and The Boston Globe. Gilsdorf is the cofounder of GrubStreet's Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP) and serves on GrubStreet's board. Read more at ethangilsdorf.com.

Robert Pinsky is a poet, essayist, translator, teacher, and speaker. His first two terms as United States Poet Laureate were marked by such visible dynamism-and such national enthusiasm in response-that the Library of Congress appointed him to an unprecedented third term. Throughout his career, Pinsky has been dedicated to identifying and invigorating poetry's place in the world. Known worldwide, Pinsky's work has earned him the PEN/Voelcker Award, the William Carlos Williams Prize, the Lenore Marshall Prize, Italy's Premio Capri, the Korean Manhae Award, and the Harold Washington Award from the City of Chicago, among other accolades.

Stan Strickland is a vocalist, saxophonist, and flutist. He is the leader of the Stan Strickland & Ascension and the Stan Strickland Trio, and has performed with the Boston Pops, Take Six, Herbie Mann, Marlena Shaw, Pharaoh Sanders, Danilo Perez, and Yusef Lateef. He is a professor at the Berklee College of Music.

Shuchi Saraswat's photographs and prose have appeared or are forthcoming in Ecotone, Tin House online, Women's Review of Books, and Quick Fiction. Her essay "The Journey Home" received a special mention in Pushcart XLII 2018 and will be anthologized in Trespass: Ecotone Essayists Beyond the Boundaries of Place, Identity, and Feminism, published by Lookout Books in Fall 2018. Excerpts of her novel have won her the Gulliver Travel Research Grant from The Speculative Literature Foundation and fellowships and scholarships to Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Writers Omi at Ledig House, The Writers' Room of Boston, Tin House Summer Writers' Workshop, and Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. She is curator of The Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith, an independent bookstore in Boston, and is the Advocacy Coordinator at GrubStreet.

The True Colors Troupe is The Theatre Offensive's program for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth and their straight allies, ages 14 - 22, and the nation's largest and longest-running LGBTQ youth theater program. All Troupe plays are written and produced by youth with the guidance of experienced teaching artists and activists.

Artistic Noise exists to bring the freedom and power of artistic practice to young people who are incarcerated, on probation, or otherwise involved in the justice system. Through visual arts and entrepreneurship programs in Massachusetts and New York, the program's participants give voice to their experiences, build community through collaborative projects, and learn valuable life and job skills. Artistic Noise creates safe spaces where court-involved youth can be seen, heard, and supported on their path to adulthood and believes the practice of making art offers opportunities for young people and communities to transform.

A.R.T. of Human Rights is an ongoing collaboration with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University that uses the arts and the humanities to explore some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time. This series features public conversations with leading artists, academics, and activists, as well as educational and artistic partnerships with local schools and organizations. Building on the Carr Center's commitment to advancing human rights principles, and the A.R.T.'s mission to "expand the boundaries of theater," A.R.T. of Human Rights is designed to foster a new model for community education, civic engagement, and creative expression. It is directed and hosted by Timothy Patrick McCarthy, award-winning Harvard faculty member and director of the Carr Center's Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program.

Carr Center for Human Rights Policy (@carrcenter) at Harvard Kennedy School trains future leaders for global careers in public service and social justice. Its research, teaching, publications, and programming are guided by a commitment?to make human rights principles central to?the formulation of good public policy in the United States and throughout the world.

Pangyrus LitMag (@Pangyrus) publishes stories, poems, essays and journalism that make artful and original connections, explore the unexpected, and break the constraints that keep people and ideas isolated. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it publishes continuously online and in print twice a year. Pangyrus is currently accepting submissions for its Spring 2018 issue and a special Resistance-themed edition. Find their latest publications and news at pangyrus.com.

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University is a leading force in the American theater, producing groundbreaking work in Cambridge and beyond. A.R.T. was founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein, who served as Artistic Director until 2002, when he was succeeded by Robert Woodruff. Diane Paulus began her tenure as Artistic Director in 2008. Under the leadership of Paulus as the Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director and Executive Producer Diane Borger, A.R.T. seeks to expand the boundaries of theater by programming events that immerse audiences in transformative theatrical experiences.

Throughout its history, A.R.T. has been honored with many distinguished awards including the Tony Award for Best New Play for All the Way (2014); consecutive Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Musical for Pippin (2013) and The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (2012), both of which Paulus directed, and 16 other Tony Awards since 2012; a Pulitzer Prize; a Jujamcyn Prize for outstanding contribution to the development of creative talent; the Tony Award for Best Regional Theater; and numerous Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards.

A.R.T. collaborates with artists around the world to develop and create work in new ways. It is currently engaged in a number of multi-year projects, including a collaboration with Harvard's Center for the Environment that will result in the development of new work over several years. Under Paulus' leadership, the A.R.T.'s club theater, OBERON, has been an incubator for local and emerging artists and has attracted national attention for its innovative programming and business models.

As the professional theater on the campus of Harvard University, A.R.T. catalyzes discourse, interdisciplinary collaboration, and creative exchange among a wide range of academic departments, institutions, students, and faculty members, acting as a conduit between its community of artists and the university. The A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University, run in association with the Moscow Art Theatre School and the Harvard Extension School, offers graduate training in acting, dramaturgy, and voice. A.R.T. also plays a central role in Harvard's undergraduate Theater, Dance, and Media concentration, teaching courses in directing, dramatic literature, acting, voice, design, and dramaturgy.

Dedicated to making great theater accessible, A.R.T. actively engages more than 5,000 community members and local students annually in project-based partnerships, workshops, conversations with artists, and other enrichment activities both at the theater and across the Greater Boston area. Through all of these initiatives, A.R.T. is dedicated to producing world-class performances in which the audience is central to the theatrical experience.

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