Anti-Racism & Protest Resources
This page is in development and will be added to and updated.
Black-Owned Bookstores from which to Purchase your Anti-Racism Books
Hint: don’t buy from Amazon
Shoppeblack: Black Owned Online Bookstores The You Should Know
African American Literature Book Club: Black Owned Bookstores in the United States
Afrotech: 10 Black-Owned Online Bookstores to Support While at Home
Mahogany Books
African American Literature Book Club: Black Owned Bookstores in the United States
Afrotech: 10 Black-Owned Online Bookstores to Support While at Home
Mahogany Books
Pre-existing Resources
Ways You Can Help
This includes links to existing petitions, ways to text or call your legislators/politicians, links to ways to donate (including by streaming), additional resources, and information for protesters
Nat’l Resource List #GeorgeFloyd+ compiled by @botanicaldyke
This Google document contains links to community bail funds, memorial funds, political education resources, organizations to put on your radar as well as general advice/tips for people attending protests or using social media as an organizing tool.
“75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice” by Corinne Shutack (Medium)
“Anti-racism resources for white people” compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein
This document is intended to serve as a resource to white people and parents to deepen our anti-racism work. If you haven’t engaged in anti-racism work in the past, start now. Feel free to circulate this document on social media and with your friends, family, and colleagues.
Justice in June LESSON PLAN by Autumn Gupta
Choose how much time you have each day (10/25/45 minutes) to become more informed as step one to becoming an active ally to the black community. On this document are links to the learning resources and a schedule of what to do each day.
5 series on Netflix to educate yourself about black oppression by @unity.celeste
Building a Police-Free Future Zine by MPD150
The answer to police violence is not 'reform'. It's defunding. Here's why by Alex Vitale
Antiracist Allyship Starter Pack, Compiled by Tatum Dorrell, Matt Herndom, Jourdan Dorell
Defund12 - Autogenerated emails to council members of several cities to defund police departments
"Email government officials and council members to reallocate egregious police budgets towards education, social services, and dismantling racial inequality."
Anti-Racism Resources compiled by Rachel Ricketts (consider becoming a Patreon to compensate her for her work)
This includes links to existing petitions, ways to text or call your legislators/politicians, links to ways to donate (including by streaming), additional resources, and information for protesters
Nat’l Resource List #GeorgeFloyd+ compiled by @botanicaldyke
This Google document contains links to community bail funds, memorial funds, political education resources, organizations to put on your radar as well as general advice/tips for people attending protests or using social media as an organizing tool.
“75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice” by Corinne Shutack (Medium)
“Anti-racism resources for white people” compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein
This document is intended to serve as a resource to white people and parents to deepen our anti-racism work. If you haven’t engaged in anti-racism work in the past, start now. Feel free to circulate this document on social media and with your friends, family, and colleagues.
Justice in June LESSON PLAN by Autumn Gupta
Choose how much time you have each day (10/25/45 minutes) to become more informed as step one to becoming an active ally to the black community. On this document are links to the learning resources and a schedule of what to do each day.
5 series on Netflix to educate yourself about black oppression by @unity.celeste
Building a Police-Free Future Zine by MPD150
The answer to police violence is not 'reform'. It's defunding. Here's why by Alex Vitale
Antiracist Allyship Starter Pack, Compiled by Tatum Dorrell, Matt Herndom, Jourdan Dorell
Defund12 - Autogenerated emails to council members of several cities to defund police departments
"Email government officials and council members to reallocate egregious police budgets towards education, social services, and dismantling racial inequality."
Anti-Racism Resources compiled by Rachel Ricketts (consider becoming a Patreon to compensate her for her work)
Anti-Racist Theater Resources
Compiled by Emmie Finckel and Lily Haje
Articles
Howlround's Anti-Racist Theater Resources
Matter and Myth: Rethinking the Body Onstage - Abbey Fenbert
In This Fine Suit - Aleshea Harris
The American Theatre Was Killing Me - Amelia Parenteau & Lauren E. Turner
Why We Need to Pause Before Claiming Cultural Appropriation - Ash Sarkar
Phrases We Should Work to Eliminate in the Rehearsal Room - Ashawnti Sakina Ford
The Ground On Which I Stand - August Wilson
Let ‘West Side Story’ and Its Stereotypes Die - Carina del Valle Schorske
Beyond “Decolonizing” the Syllabus - David Valdes
Keep Your Hands Off of My Kimono, White People - Diep Tran
I Am Miss Saigon, and I Hate It - Diep Tran
Hard Questions, Tough Truths at Beyond Orientalism Forum - Diep Tran
Letting Go Of Othello - Fred Moten
What I Think About When I Hear That Broadway Is Racist - Heathcliff Saunders
Why Hamilton is Not the Revolution You Think it is - James McMaster
How to Solve Design’s Diversity Problem - Kelundra Smith
Redefining Black Theatre - Margaret B. Wilkerson (available on JSTOR)
Silence of White Theaters on Anti-Black Violence is Deafening - Dr. Monica Ndounou
Training With A Difference - Nicole Brewer
Why 'Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion' Is Obsolete - Nicole Brewer
High Tide of Heartbreak - Quiara Alegría Hudes
New Black Math - Suzan-Lori Parks
Whiteness: A Strategic Rhetoric - Thomas K. Nakayama and Robert L. Krizek
Keeping ‘Insecure’ lit: HBO cinematographer Ava Berkofsky on properly lighting black faces - Xavier Harding
Books
Note: Because these are subject-specific, academic books, it is unlikely that small, general-interest bookstores will have them in stock, but many bookstores will place orders by request, should you prefer to buy local and/or support a black-owned business.
Black Musical Theatre: From Coontown to Dreamgirls - Allen Woll
Alibris
Online Access through Internet Archive
A Beautiful Pageant: African American Theatre, Drama, and Performance in the Harlem Renaissance, 1910-1927 - David Krasner
Bookshop
Alibris
Online Access through Internet Archive
Resistance, Parody, and Double Consciousness in African American Theatre, 1895-1910 - David Krasner
Bookshop
Alibris
Worldmaking: Race, Performance, and the Work of Creativity - Dorinne K. Kondo
Bookshop
Alibris
Online Access through Duke University Press
Online Access through HathiTrust
In The Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition - Fred Moten
Bookshop
Alibris
Online Access through ProQuest Ebook Central
Online Access through Project Muse
African American Performance and Theater History - Harry J. Elam Jr.
Bookshop
Alibris
Online Access through ProQuest Ebook Central
Online Access through Internet Archive
Black Cultural Traffic: Crossroads in Global Performance and Popular Culture - Harry J. Elam Jr.
Bookshop
Alibris
Online Access through ProQuest Ebook Central
Online Access through Project Muse
Online Access through HathiTrust
The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson - Harry J. Elam Jr.
Bookshop
Alibris
Online Access through Proquest Ebook Central
Online Access through Project Muse
Online Access through HathiTrust
The Black Circuit: Race, Performance, and Spectatorship in Black Popular Theatre - Rashida Z. Shaw McMahon
Bookshop
Alibris
The African American Theatrical Body: Reception, Performance, and the Stage - Soyica Diggs Colbert
Bookshop
Thriftbooks
Online Access through ProQuest Ebook Central.
Plays/Playwrights
Black Queer Playwrights to Support
Plays and Musicals by Black Playwrights
The Ferguson Theatre Syllabus - Claudia Alick & Megan Sandberg Zakian
Staging Black Protest: Play List by Lisa B. Thompson
Organizations/Companies
Black Theaters Across the US
Power Street
Performances to Watch Online
Black Light
Blue Spiral
Kill Move Paradise, fundraiser for Philly BLM (Wilma Theater)
Notes From The Field
Pass Over
Twilight: Los Angeles
Other
Claudia Rankine: On Whiteness
What To Send Up Resources
TCG Virtual Conference - Wednesday Plenary
Sonya Renee Taylor - Smith College School for Social Work 2018 Commencement Address
Rescripted.org
Howlround's Anti-Racist Theater Resources
Matter and Myth: Rethinking the Body Onstage - Abbey Fenbert
In This Fine Suit - Aleshea Harris
The American Theatre Was Killing Me - Amelia Parenteau & Lauren E. Turner
Why We Need to Pause Before Claiming Cultural Appropriation - Ash Sarkar
Phrases We Should Work to Eliminate in the Rehearsal Room - Ashawnti Sakina Ford
The Ground On Which I Stand - August Wilson
Let ‘West Side Story’ and Its Stereotypes Die - Carina del Valle Schorske
Beyond “Decolonizing” the Syllabus - David Valdes
Keep Your Hands Off of My Kimono, White People - Diep Tran
I Am Miss Saigon, and I Hate It - Diep Tran
Hard Questions, Tough Truths at Beyond Orientalism Forum - Diep Tran
Letting Go Of Othello - Fred Moten
What I Think About When I Hear That Broadway Is Racist - Heathcliff Saunders
Why Hamilton is Not the Revolution You Think it is - James McMaster
How to Solve Design’s Diversity Problem - Kelundra Smith
Redefining Black Theatre - Margaret B. Wilkerson (available on JSTOR)
Silence of White Theaters on Anti-Black Violence is Deafening - Dr. Monica Ndounou
Training With A Difference - Nicole Brewer
Why 'Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion' Is Obsolete - Nicole Brewer
High Tide of Heartbreak - Quiara Alegría Hudes
New Black Math - Suzan-Lori Parks
Whiteness: A Strategic Rhetoric - Thomas K. Nakayama and Robert L. Krizek
Keeping ‘Insecure’ lit: HBO cinematographer Ava Berkofsky on properly lighting black faces - Xavier Harding
Books
Note: Because these are subject-specific, academic books, it is unlikely that small, general-interest bookstores will have them in stock, but many bookstores will place orders by request, should you prefer to buy local and/or support a black-owned business.
Black Musical Theatre: From Coontown to Dreamgirls - Allen Woll
Alibris
Online Access through Internet Archive
A Beautiful Pageant: African American Theatre, Drama, and Performance in the Harlem Renaissance, 1910-1927 - David Krasner
Bookshop
Alibris
Online Access through Internet Archive
Resistance, Parody, and Double Consciousness in African American Theatre, 1895-1910 - David Krasner
Bookshop
Alibris
Worldmaking: Race, Performance, and the Work of Creativity - Dorinne K. Kondo
Bookshop
Alibris
Online Access through Duke University Press
Online Access through HathiTrust
In The Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition - Fred Moten
Bookshop
Alibris
Online Access through ProQuest Ebook Central
Online Access through Project Muse
African American Performance and Theater History - Harry J. Elam Jr.
Bookshop
Alibris
Online Access through ProQuest Ebook Central
Online Access through Internet Archive
Black Cultural Traffic: Crossroads in Global Performance and Popular Culture - Harry J. Elam Jr.
Bookshop
Alibris
Online Access through ProQuest Ebook Central
Online Access through Project Muse
Online Access through HathiTrust
The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson - Harry J. Elam Jr.
Bookshop
Alibris
Online Access through Proquest Ebook Central
Online Access through Project Muse
Online Access through HathiTrust
The Black Circuit: Race, Performance, and Spectatorship in Black Popular Theatre - Rashida Z. Shaw McMahon
Bookshop
Alibris
The African American Theatrical Body: Reception, Performance, and the Stage - Soyica Diggs Colbert
Bookshop
Thriftbooks
Online Access through ProQuest Ebook Central.
Plays/Playwrights
Black Queer Playwrights to Support
Plays and Musicals by Black Playwrights
The Ferguson Theatre Syllabus - Claudia Alick & Megan Sandberg Zakian
Staging Black Protest: Play List by Lisa B. Thompson
Organizations/Companies
Black Theaters Across the US
Power Street
Performances to Watch Online
Black Light
Blue Spiral
Kill Move Paradise, fundraiser for Philly BLM (Wilma Theater)
Notes From The Field
Pass Over
Twilight: Los Angeles
Other
Claudia Rankine: On Whiteness
What To Send Up Resources
TCG Virtual Conference - Wednesday Plenary
Sonya Renee Taylor - Smith College School for Social Work 2018 Commencement Address
Rescripted.org
Protesting Protocols
If you plan on attending the protests, here's a list of things all participants can do to be as effective and as safe as possible. Below it is an additional list for white protestors.
-wear all black (makes it hard to identify individuals)
-bring water
-bring any first aid supplies
-bring milk if you have it (it is used to help alleviate the pain of tear gas)
-bring snacks
-bring extra clothes / black clothes especially (to share or to use as medical wrappings)
-bring keys/ID/Medical info/medical insurance card and keep it TUCKED somewhere safe.
-remove anything that could be grabbed (necklaces. Tie back hair. Etc.)
-bring A MASK (preferably something generic and unidentifiable)
-bring sunglasses (for increased anonymity)
-bring sunscreen
-bring extra masks if you have any to spare
-bring an extra phone charger
-use a sharpie to write on your arm:
-TURN OFF FACE ID/TOUCH ID. Go to settings “Face ID/Touch ID & passcode.” For Face ID, reset Face ID, it deletes the face recognition info. For Touch ID, there’s a button that simply deactivates the use of touch. (Officers don’t need a warrant to use these methods of entry into your phone, they DO need one to obtain a passcode.)
-turn off “significant locations” in location settings. Go to Privacy>location services>scroll to the bottom to “system services”> at the bottom, toggle “significant locations” off. (It could point officers or others right to your house if they get a hold of it.)
-put your phone into low power mode or airplane mode to conserve battery.
-Know that officers will be planted in the crowds wearing coordinated armbands to identify each other. Be vigilant!
-Remember, we act peacefully. No fighting with officers. No property damage. No spray paint.
-bring water
-bring any first aid supplies
-bring milk if you have it (it is used to help alleviate the pain of tear gas)
-bring snacks
-bring extra clothes / black clothes especially (to share or to use as medical wrappings)
-bring keys/ID/Medical info/medical insurance card and keep it TUCKED somewhere safe.
-remove anything that could be grabbed (necklaces. Tie back hair. Etc.)
-bring A MASK (preferably something generic and unidentifiable)
-bring sunglasses (for increased anonymity)
-bring sunscreen
-bring extra masks if you have any to spare
-bring an extra phone charger
-use a sharpie to write on your arm:
- “ACLU: (212)549-2500”
- an emergency contact of your choice
- The # of a buddy. We look after each other.
-TURN OFF FACE ID/TOUCH ID. Go to settings “Face ID/Touch ID & passcode.” For Face ID, reset Face ID, it deletes the face recognition info. For Touch ID, there’s a button that simply deactivates the use of touch. (Officers don’t need a warrant to use these methods of entry into your phone, they DO need one to obtain a passcode.)
-turn off “significant locations” in location settings. Go to Privacy>location services>scroll to the bottom to “system services”> at the bottom, toggle “significant locations” off. (It could point officers or others right to your house if they get a hold of it.)
-put your phone into low power mode or airplane mode to conserve battery.
-Know that officers will be planted in the crowds wearing coordinated armbands to identify each other. Be vigilant!
-Remember, we act peacefully. No fighting with officers. No property damage. No spray paint.
White Folks Guide to Protesting
1. FOLLOW CALLS ONLY. Do not initiate or lead calls. Your job is to follow and add your voice when it is called for.
2. DO NOT TAKE SELFIES. Ask to take pictures or videos of individuals. You are there to witness only. Film the police as much as possible. Your goal is documentation to ensure that the true narrative is told.
3. BE HELPFUL. Hand out water and snacks. Make sure protest leaders are hydrated and fed. This is exhausting work, help keep their energy up.
4. FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. If a black person tells you to do something, you do it immediately without question. You respect the authority and the decisions of the black protestors at all times.
5. STAY IN THE BACK UNTIL YOU ARE CALLED FORWARD. If you hear “White people to the front” or “Allies to the front” step forward and link arms with other white people to form a human shield.
6. WHEN YOU ARE AT THE FRONT, YOU ARE SILENT. Your job is to be a body. You are there to support only. The only voices on the police line should be black voices.
7. REMAIN CALM AT ALL TIMES. This is difficult. You will be emotional and your system will be flooded with adrenaline. Remember this is life and death for the protestors. Save your emotions for home. DO NOT AGITATE.
This is not a game. Joining a protest is a serious decision. Make sure you are there for the right reason. Support the safety of black protestors at all times.
2. DO NOT TAKE SELFIES. Ask to take pictures or videos of individuals. You are there to witness only. Film the police as much as possible. Your goal is documentation to ensure that the true narrative is told.
3. BE HELPFUL. Hand out water and snacks. Make sure protest leaders are hydrated and fed. This is exhausting work, help keep their energy up.
4. FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. If a black person tells you to do something, you do it immediately without question. You respect the authority and the decisions of the black protestors at all times.
5. STAY IN THE BACK UNTIL YOU ARE CALLED FORWARD. If you hear “White people to the front” or “Allies to the front” step forward and link arms with other white people to form a human shield.
6. WHEN YOU ARE AT THE FRONT, YOU ARE SILENT. Your job is to be a body. You are there to support only. The only voices on the police line should be black voices.
7. REMAIN CALM AT ALL TIMES. This is difficult. You will be emotional and your system will be flooded with adrenaline. Remember this is life and death for the protestors. Save your emotions for home. DO NOT AGITATE.
This is not a game. Joining a protest is a serious decision. Make sure you are there for the right reason. Support the safety of black protestors at all times.