[NYTr] TOPLAB Facilitator on WBAI radio, 9/11 8 PM & NYC events

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB)
451 West Street
New York, New York 10014
(212) 924-1858
toplab at toplab.org
http://www.toplab.org


Tune in to WBAI radio at 99.5 FM to hear TOPLAB associate Sr. Clare
Marie Therese interviewed on the weekly progressive pan-Asian radio
show, Asia Pacific Forum (http://www.asiapacificforum.org).

The show will be broadcast on Tuesday, September 11, 2007 starting at
8:00 pm. You can also hear it live on the web at http://www.wbai.org.

Clare Marie Therese is visiting from Tamilnadu, India where she works
with Dalit, tribal and other oppressed and marginalized communities. On
Asia Pacific Forum she will discuss the work she does there,
particularly her use of theater as an organizing tool, and talk about
two events she will present at the Brecht Forum on Friday, September 14
and Saturday, September 15 (details below).

**

The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) presents

Shit

a talk and film screening

presented by Sr. Clare Marie Therese

Friday, September 14, 2007 at 7:30 pm

at the Brecht Forum
451 West Street (travel directions below)
New York City

Sr. Clare Marie Therese, who lives and works in a Dalit community in
Tamilnadu, India, will show the documentary film Shit, which depicts the
deplorable conditions faced by manual scavengers of human feces, those
people at the lowest rungs of India's caste system. Sr. Clare-Marie will
discuss the caste system which perpetuates systemic discrimination, even
in the twenty-first century and will examine the socio-economic and
political realities and struggles of the 200 million Dalits
("untouchables") in India, with a special focus on Dalit women. She will
also share her own experiences of using theater as a tool for social
change and empowerment.

No reservations needed.

Contribution--sliding scale: $6, $10, $15

****

Exclusions and Space

a one-day workshop

facilitated by Sr. Clare Marie Therese

Saturday, September 15, 2007 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

at the Brecht Forum
451 West Street (travel directions below)
New York City

Using various exercises from street theater, Playback Theater and
Theater of the Oppressed (especially Forum Theater), participants will
gain insights into the experiences and the limited space into which
Dalits, especially Dalit women, are restricted and confined due to the
many historical social exclusions they suffer in their daily lives.
Clare Marie will demonstrate how she uses "space" in theater to help
break through the culture of silence, exclusion and oppression. This
workshop will be useful to people working with marginalized communities
and constituencies in the United States.

Tuition--sliding scale: $45-$75

To pre-register, please send an email to toplab at toplab.org to let us
know that you will be attending.

**

Clare Marie Therese is based in Tamilnadu, India where she has been
involved for fifteen years in mobilizing people in the Dalit community,
particularly women, in the struggle for social justice and full
democratic rights. She uses theater extensively in her political work
in Tamilnadu and elsewhere in India, and also in Sri Lanka where she
has worked with women from indigenous groups like Dalits and other
tribals, people from the beleaguered Muslim community, cadre and others
in mass political movements, plantation workers in Sri Lanka and Sri
Lankan repatriates in India, street children and child laborers, and
other constituencies. She was a member of fact finding teams concerning
atrocities committed against Muslim and Dalit women, and also against
fisherfolk in Madras. She has been trained in both Playback Theater and
Theater of the Oppressed.

****

Travel Directions

The Brecht Forum is at 451 West Street (West Side Highway) in Manhattan,
between Bank and Bethune Streets, 1-1/2 blocks north of West 11 Street.

IND Eighth Avenue A, C, or E train to 14 Street or BMT Canarsie L train
to 8 Avenue (take a few minutes to look at "Life Underground", Tom
Otterness' series of whimsical bronze sculptures scattered throughout
both sections of the station); walk down 8 Avenue to Bank Street, turn
right, walk west to West Street, turn right.

IRT Seventh Avenue 1, 2, or 3 train to 14 Street; get off at south end
of station, walk west on 12 Street to 8 Avenue, left to Bank Street,
turn right, walk west to West Street, turn right.

New Jersey PATH train to Christopher Street; walk north on Greenwich
Street to Bank Street, left to West Street, turn right.

#8 bus to West Street; walk up West Street to 451.

#11, #14A or #20 bus to Abingdon Square; walk west on Bank Street to
West Street, turn right.

#14D bus to 8 Avenue and 14 Street, walk down 8 Avenue to Bank Street,
turn right, walk west to West Street, turn right.