IDEA Newsletter - September 2021 |  View in browser

September IDEAs

 Each month the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) Newsletter will give you updates from PNB's IDEA Committee and Board EDI Task Force, along with PNB events, resources like workshop opportunities, and book recommendations.


Hispanic Heritage Month

#HispanicHeritageMonth is Sept 15 - Oct 15. Revisit highlights of some PNB artists identifying as Hispanic and Latinx sharing the many ways their heritage informs their artistry. Read more about about PNB dancers Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan, Amanda Morgan, Dammiel Cruz, and Clara Ruf Maldonado.

Celebrate Hispanic History Month by watching the latest edition of PNB is Listening featuring PNB dancers Amanda Morgan, Clara Ruf Maldonado, and Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan. The three have a rich conversation with theater artist Ana María Campoy about their respective Chicana and Latin heritages. Click here to watch!

PNB is Listening is an ongoing collaboration between PNB artists and staff, highlighting diverse voices within our community. Do you have a story or lived experience you'd like to share? Email Kristen Ramer Liang at kliang@pnb.org for more information.


Cultural Candidate Forums

Inspire Washington is hosting two Cultural Candidate Forums ahead of the November elections. The first is the Seattle Cultural Candidate Forum, broadcasted from Town Hall Seattle on October 4th at 7:00pm The forum will feature Seattle Mayoral Candidates, City Council Candidates, and Seattle School Board candidates, and will be moderated by Marcie Sillman and Vivian Phillips. ⁠

The King County Cultural Candidate Forum will be live-streamed on October 12th, 7:00pm This forum will feature King County Executive candidates and King County Council candidates and will be moderated by Janell Johnson. Click here to register for either (or both!) free livestream events.

SACA Workshops

Seattle Arts & Culture for Anti-Racism (SACA) recently announced their workshop schedule for October and November 2021. Sessions include Principles of Restorative Justice & Accountability, Continuum On Becoming An Anti-Racist Organization, and more! Each workshop specifies whether the session is for BIPOC only or white folx. 

The first workshop, Horizontal Oppression, Internalizations & White Supremacy Culture (BIPOC only) takes place on Wednesday, October 6th from 3:30 to 5:30pm over Zoom. Register today!

Click here to see SACA's full calendar, and be sure to follow them on their Facebook and Instagram channels!

Seattle Arts Fellowship

Welcome Gabriela! Gabriela Shutt joined PNB as the 2021-2022 PNB Community Education Fellow in July as a member of the inaugural cohort of the Seattle Arts Fellowship. The Seattle Arts Fellowship is a year-long fellowship program hosted by Seattle Opera, Seattle Symphony, and PNB to develop the next generation of arts leaders. The fellowship is for individuals who identify as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color (BIPOC) and are seeking leadership positions in arts administration. Gabriela is working on increasing sensory-accessibility throughout PNB's programming. As a recent graduate of the M.A. in Arts Administration program at Florida State University, Gabriela relocated to Seattle from Tallahassee, Florida. She is excited to explore the Pacific Northwest and build relationships with the community in Seattle! 

TAT Lab Connect

Join us in a conversation celebrating the successes and reflecting on the challenges in teaching and learning this year on November 3 from 4:30-6:30pm for Washington State Teaching Artist Training (TAT) Lab Presents: Connect: Black, Brown, Indigenous & Asian Teaching Artists. This is an informal gathering designed to spark conversation, share strategies with peers, and think together moving forward as a state-wide community of arts educators. This conversation is for Washington state teaching artists, school-based arts specialists, youth arts providers, and classroom teachers (and PNB faculty and teaching artists!) who self-identify as BBIA (Black, Brown, Indigenous, or Asian) or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or People of Color). We welcome intersectional identities, including (but not limited to) African, Arab, Asian, Caribbean, Latinx, Middle Eastern, Pacific Islander, mixed race, and white-passing people who identify as BBIA/BIPOC and are prepared to honor and explore the nuances of being white-passing in this context. Not sure you belong at this event and want to talk about it? Email TATLab@PNB.org with your questions. Find more information here and register today!


Join PNB's Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee as an at-large member!

The IDEA Committee is encouraging “at-large” membership 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: 

•  Bringing ideas to the IDEA Committee for any of the subcommittees to work on.
•  Offering to help with specific committee needs (ie. language translation, event planning).
•  Supporting specific events (ie. extra hands on deck for Community Engagement events). 
•  Participating in the IDEA Committee’s monthly media club activities (ie. book club readings and discussions). 
•  Volunteering as a facilitator for IDEA Committee’s trainings of PNB staff.
•  Submitting stories, events, and resources that could be shared in the monthly IDEA newsletters

Contact IDEA Committee co-leads Naomi Glass (she/her) at nglass@pnb.org or Kiyon Ross (he/his) at kross@pnb.org for more information!


Did you know?

PNB School issued an updated Student Registration Form this fall. The new forms include expanded self-identify options for gender and ethnicity and an added section for students to select pronouns, providing the opportunity to inform us how students would like to be addressed.