May IDEAs
Each month the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) Newsletter will give you updates from PNB's EDI Committee and Board EDI Task Force, along with PNB events, resources like workshop opportunities, and book recommendations.
We want your submissions to include in future issues!
Our Stories Are Your Stories
Throughout May, the Our Stories Are Your Stories campaign has been celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month by sharing AAPI stories from our community.
PNB was inspired by the #OSAYS campaign to host a special edition of our ongoing series, PNB is Listening. Naomi Glass speaks with PNB artists Emilie Choi, Angelica Generosa, James Moore, Noelani Pantastico, and Kuu Sakuragi about their AAPI heritage and the stories they share. Our gratitude to the #OSAYS campaign and Wing Luke Museum for hosting this campaign! Watch their conversation here.
Visit the OSAYS website to read AAPI stories and share on social media using @winglukemuseum, @OurStoriesAreYourStories, and #OSAYS to create a collective wave in AAPI storytelling.
TAT Lab For Us, By Us: A BIPOC Arts Educators Retreat
TAT Lab stands for The Washington State Teaching Artist Training Lab and is a professional development program with a focus on supporting arts education as part of basic education in K-12 schools. PNB’s Community Education department is a key TAT Lab partner, and our own Shannon Barnes serves as the TAT Lab program co-director.
TAT Lab is bringing back their BIPOC Arts Educators Retreat this Spring. During this two-session virtual retreat for teaching artists and arts educators who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC), facilitators Daemond Arrindell, Carina A. del Rosario and Tamar Krames (pictured) will create a brave space for us to learn about each other, share and practice ways for healing through arts, and reflect on our individual and community strengths, needs, and interests as BIPOC arts educators teaching and learning in WA state.
TAT Lab For Us, By Us will take place June 5-6 from 1 to 4:30PM PST. Find more information and register on PNB's website.
Are you ready for Pride at PNB?
The PNB team is excited to share what we've been working on for PNB's upcoming Pride celebration in June! Start Pride month early with these book, movie, and podcast recommendations from our PNB community.
Did you forget to order your PNB Pride gear? Don't fret! Pride tees, tanks, and stickers will be available in the Amusements gift shop.
En Pointe: A Conversation with Ashton Edwards
On June 6 at 12PM PST, PNB School Professional Division student Ashton Edwards will be participating in an online panel discussion with choreographer Daryl Foster presented by The Baton Foundation, CNP, and the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History.
The event is free and requires registration to attend.
PNB Friends & Family Deal
Celebrate the conclusion of a season of discovery, and explore the edges of the form with us in Rep 6. Our first-ever digital season concludes with two world premiere works choreographed, rehearsed, and filmed exclusively for the digital stage.
For the price of a standard ticket ($29), PNB friends and family will get our Digital Plus ticket. Use code stafffriend at check out or call 206.441.2424 and mention the code stafffriend to get your discount. Rep 6 streaming starts June 10, 2021. Performances will be available for five days. Join us online!
A Conversation with
Edwaard Liang
Choreographer Edwaard Liang is at PNB creating a world premiere work to debut on the digital stage next month. Principal dancer Angelica Generosa spoke with Edwaard about his new work for PNB, being the only Chinese American artistic director of a ballet company, and how beauty can help heal the world.
Gratitude to Angelica for hosting and producing this excellent conversation with Edwaard is celebaration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Celebrating Juneteenth at PNB
The PNB team is in the midst of planning for PNB's upcoming Juneteenth celebration on June 19th! We want to hear from you, our PNB community, about what Juneteenth means to you to include in a post on the PNB Blog. To be included, share your Juneteenth stories with us through this form by Monday, June 14.
Racial Equity Training Begins in June
PNB will be hosting full-day racial equity training for all employee groups beginning in June. The training will center on the documentary series Race: The Power of an Illusion and take place on Zoom. Registration will be required and exact dates will be communicated in the coming weeks.
RACE—The Power of an Illusion is a three-part series which asks a question so basic it’s rarely raised: What is this thing called ‘race’? What we discovered was that many of our conventional assumptions about race—for instance, that the world's peoples can be divided biologically along racial lines—are wrong. Yet the costs of racism are very real, and can even have biological consequences.
Join PNB's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee as an at-large member!
We're encouraging “at-large” membership in our EDI Committee in an effort to include and make use of the many valuable perspectives, life experiences and skill sets of our larger PNB community.
Some examples of ways that “at-large” members could participate include: generating and bringing ideas; offering to help with specific committee needs (ie. language translation); supporting specific events (ie. extra hands on deck for Community Engagement events); submitting stories that could be shared in newsletters.
Contact Communications Subcommittee co-leads Lia Chiarelli (she/her) at lia@pnb.org or Maris Antolin (she/her) at mantolin@pnb.org for more information!
PNB is Listening is a collaboration between PNB artists and staff, highlighting diverse voices in our community.
Since its start in June of 2020, the series has featured panel discussions covering women who choreograph, a reflection on the life of dancer and choreographer Albert Evans, LGBTQIA+ voices in ballet, and more!
Did you know?
PNB recently put the finishing touch on our first all-gender restroom at the Phelps Center!
All-gender restrooms ensure everyone is able to use restrooms that are safe and accessible. These facilities benefit many people, "including transgender and gender diverse individuals, people who require the assistance of a caregiver of a different gender, and parents with children of a different gender." (Quote from the Seattle Office of Civil Rights.)
