The Breath Project Announces Initiative To Support Classroom Conversations About Slavery Reparations And Develop New Theatrical Work

The Breath Project (TBP), launched by co-Founders Gamal Abdel Chasten and Marieke Gaboury in the summer of 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, announces a new three-year initiative to support conversations around the topic of slavery reparations in academic institutions, which will ultimately lead to the development of a live theatrical work.

THREE YEAR PROJECT TIMELINE

Year 1 - In year one of the project, 2021-2022, TBP worked with Chicago-based civil litigation attorney John H. Ray, III of John Ray & Counsel, P.C., to develop the facts and evidence of a fictional lawsuit for reparations between the descendants of former slaves and sharecroppers and the descendants of the former slave owners. The packet includes all of the materials that are needed to create a mock-trial in a classroom setting, including background/historical documents, witness lists, court documents and exhibits, as well as jury and participant instructions.

"When approached to consult on this project, I felt it was an important challenge. The difficult questions presented by the timely, if belated, reparations debate are as complex and as they are necessary. And the opportunity to assist in demonstrating why this debate is not merely a historical discussion, but one that bears directly on current issues of the distribution of wealth and economic fairness, was what made this project, for me, meaningful. " - John H. Ray, III of John Ray and Counsel, P.C.

Year 2 (current phase) - In this second year of the project, TBP is seeking graduate, undergraduate and select high school educators who will implement the mock-reparations trial assignment as part of their 2022-2023 academic year curriculum. The first of the mock trials is planned to take place as a collaboration between Seton Hall University and Ramapo College of New Jersey.

This mock trial case is designed to immerse students in the difficult questions surrounding race, slavery, Jim Crow segregation, economics, labor, wealth creation and generation wealth, as well as justice and fairness, that have been central to current debates concerning reparations, poverty, public policy and politics in the
United States.

The case was designed to give students the opportunity to consider everyone's contribution to the development of wealth in the United States and how it should be fairly distributed in light of historical wrongs. The Mock Trial context gives students and witnesses the opportunity to argue the strengths and weaknesses of both sides of this debate against the real-world based factual scenario presented
by the case of emancipated slaves and their efforts to build wealth for themselves.

Year 3 - In the third year of the Reparations Project, TBP will use the information and conclusions gathered from the mock trials to develop a live theatrical work.

"The shape that this new work will take is not yet known. Whether it will be a more traditional work of theatre, along the lines of a play like Inherit the Wind, or more of a devised/immersive theatrical and/or musical experience, will be discovered as the process of reviewing the mock trial stage of the project gets underway. We are excited to see what happens in the classrooms, and to respond to the material that is generated by the students in a creative way." - Gamal Abdel Chasten, TBP Artistic Director

Educators and leadership of academic institutions who are interested in participating in the Reparations Project Mock Trial assignment should email thebreathproject2020@gmail.com. A stipend of $250 will be available to the first 50 educators who commit to and participate in The Reparations Project.

Through art, action and advocacy, The Breath Project (TBP) seeks to build a more equitable theater community in this country, and actively dismantle structural racism in the American Theater.

Art: In partnership with organizations and artists across the nation, TBP will create, develop and support original theatrical works, created by BIPOC artists. The work that is housed by TBP will be used as a tool for education and advocacy, as a living time capsule of this moment in history.

Action: TBP is working to build relationships between local artists and theaters in their community and region, creating more opportunities for BIPOC theater artists, technicians and administrators throughout the country. Working across our national partnerships, we will seek to end the notion that plays by BIPOC artists fulfill a quota or check a box for a theater, and instead become an organic and permanent part of the
American Theater landscape.

Advocacy: TBP will work to support the organizations that produce, fund and support the American Theater to eliminate the racism and biases that exist in our institutions and business practices.

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