Since 2015, BRTW has proudly incubated, created, and produced new Black work that centers Black identities, perspectives, and experiences in narratives that lay bear the realities of our society. We’ve often seen that audiences are more receptive to good storytelling than data, research, or even the news. While theatre is a powerful conversation starter and educational tool, it cannot serve every advocacy purpose. So BRTW members have joined in protest, petitions, and organizing efforts to amplify other avenues of civic engagement, and we welcome you to join our efforts.
The Pro Bono Pledge
Background
Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop partnered with Kyla Moore (Founding Advisory Board Member and NYC pro bono and DEI consultant) to organize a letter-writing campaign to encourage major American law firms to defend court-involved Black people who’ve faced, protested, or otherwise engaged with police brutality.
Black people are disproportionately court-involved, caught in a seemingly endless and expensive battle of bureaucracy for their freedom. Whether languishing in jails and prisons or out on bail, many court-involved Black people suffer for lack of a proper defense. Major law firms around our country have the resources to meet the needs of court-involved Black people, and it is time that they allocated significant resources to antiracism.
Kyla Moore developed a pledge, which asks firms to allocate 1000 or more hours to CJA cases each year. You can use the resources on this page to help circulate her pledge.
The Pledge
We presented a 2 hour workshop on Saturday, July 4, in which Kyla Moore offered the following:
- A brief intro to pro bono representation
- How to solicit pro bono assistance
- A pro bono solicitation letter template
- 1 hour free-write to customize your template/s and address it to a law firm
While the workshop has since passed, you can access the slideshow, letter template, and suggested contact via the link below.
The Submission Fee Swap
Did You Know?
It takes significant time for an organization to review submissions for programs. Submission fees help offset that impact by shifting some of the expense back onto the artists the organization serves by having each applicant pay a small fee that helps pay a portion of the salaries and operations allocated to the program.
Submission fees usually cost artists between $5-$50. Sometimes, they run upward of $100 per submission.
The BRTW Remix
Bump that.
Making programming, resources, and opportunities available to artists means finding the resources to sustain operations. It’s hard as hell, but that shouldn’t be our artists’ problem. In lieu of a submission fee to BRTW, we ask people to make a small donation to an organization that’s doing vital work. Artists can select the organization they’d like to support when they apply to one of our programs. If they can make a donation on their own, they are encouraged to do so. If they can’t, we ask our donors to make one on their behalf.
The movement for Black Lives takes several forms, and we strongly encourage you to invest however you can. Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop is committed to Black artists, Black audiences, and advocating for Black equity in spaces where the implicit work of white supremacy must be undone. But we’re not a relief fund. So we partner with organizations that do important work and need your support in this incredibly challenging time.
Families United Against Mandatory Minimums
In the last 28 years, more than half a million people have benefited from sentencing and prison reforms championed by FAMM. Your contribution helps FAMM to continue advocating better laws and policies that give families the chance they deserve. Please give today.
New York Legal Assistance Group
As New York prepares for a budget crisis and proposed spending cuts, the funding that NYLAG relies on to provide expert legal services to those who need them most is in jeopardy. This funding threat is happening as desperate calls to our NY COVID-19 Legal Resource Hotline are increasing, and once courts reopen, the need will only become even greater. We need your help to continue fighting alongside our clients with legal services at no cost to them. Can we count on you?
Brooklyn Defenders Services
The mission of Brooklyn Defender Services is to provide high quality legal representation and related services to people who cannot afford to retain an attorney.
Brooklyn Defender Services is a public defender organization that represents nearly 35,000 people each year who are too poor to afford an attorney. Our staff consists of specialized attorneys, social workers, investigators, paralegals and administrative staff who are experts in their individual fields.
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC)
For over 41Â years, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) has been building a movement to end mass incarceration. Join this movement today by making a contribution to support our legal, policy, and organizing work.
LSPC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization—all donations are tax-deductible.
Critical Resistance
Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe. We believe that basic necessities such as food, shelter, and freedom are what really make our communities secure. As such, our work is part of global struggles against inequality and powerlessness.
Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe. We believe that basic necessities such as food, shelter, and freedom are what really make our communities secure. As such, our work is part of global struggles against inequality and powerlessness.
Black Visions Collective
BVC is a Minnesota-based black, trans, and queer-led organization that believes in a future where all Black people have autonomy, safety is community-led, and we are in right relationship within our ecosystems.
BVC is a Minnesota-based black, trans, and queer-led organization that believes in a future where all Black people have autonomy, safety is community-led, and we are in right relationship within our ecosystems.
Dis/Ability Justice + Access
Background
In February, 2023, Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop was proud to partner with Treshelle Edmond to offer a community workshop about dis/ability in theatre.
Theatres around the world often fail to meet the basic needs of dis/abled theatre workers, and organized community response is one the few means we have to apply change-oriented pressure on these institutions.
The Discussion Group
A number of powerful stories arose out of this workshop, and we intend to revisit this conversation in the future.
In the meantime, if you are interested in sharing your thoughts with our community or would like to be involved in the next conversation, you can request to join the discussion group via the link below:
SUPPORT BRTW TODAY
BRTW exists to disrupt any and all oppressive systems that marginalize Black people using narrative and performance as a methodology to recenter Black people and experiences. With economic, social, educational, healthcare, housing, and political injustice facing our community, BRTW aims to tackle the issues that impact us while becoming a beacon for Black opportunity within the arts.