From Teresa Eyring’s Weekly Briefing, 11/2/23: I write today with great heaviness in my heart. Over the last month, the violence in Gaza, in Israel, and the Armenian exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh have inflamed wounds with deep and painful roots. We also know this violence ripples out to make people throughout these diasporas more vulnerable. The recent surge in antisemitism and Islamophobia in the U.S. is deeply disturbing, and we know that theatremakers have a role to play in stopping it. For while we may not write foreign policy, our work can foster peace-building, mutual understanding, and liberation. We can humanize, find common ground, and speak truth to power. This rift in our community calls for more than a single statement, and we welcome your ideas for how our theatre ecology can repair and reimagine our relationships to each other.
RESOURCES TO END ISLAMOPHOBIA AND SUPPORT MENA THEATREMAKERS
After the 9/11 attacks, Muslims experienced a terrifying rise in hate crime and Islamophobia that has persisted to this day. This stereotyping, discrimination, and violence was not limited to Muslims, but often impacts those throughout the SWANA* diaspora, regardless of religion. Mosaic Theater Company’s resource, “The History and Present of Anti-Muslim in the U.S.,” offers more perspective on the persistence of this bias, which has not only negatively impacted U.S. policy but our theatre ecology itself.
In response, two seminal documents were drafted over two years through three convenings of Middle Eastern American theatre artists: “Dear Producers and Artistic Directors of the American Theatre” and “Middle Eastern American Theatre Artists Bill of Rights.” As we show up for our MENA theatre colleagues, including those who are Muslim, these two documents remain foundational.
Yet as we face another rise in Islamophobia, we must do more. In October 2023, the FBI released statistics showing that Muslim Americans continue to be overrepresented among victims. And college students, including theatre students, are facing the highest levels of Islamophobia and antisemitism on campuses in almost a decade. As theatremakers, we have a critical role to play as proponents of peace-building, mutual understanding, and liberation. We can humanize, find common ground, and speak truth to power. We can repair and reimagine our relationships to each other.
In service of that, we’re offering some resources and actions theatre people can take, in addition to the foundational resources “Dear Producers…” and the Bill of Rights above:
- Support theatres creating work about, by, for, and with Muslim and MENA communities, including Dunya Productions, Art2Action, Silk Road Rising, Golden Thread Productions, New Arab American Theater Works, Seda Iranian Theatre Ensemble, Noor Theatre Company, and Medina Theatre Collective;
- Create workplace environments that support and celebrate diverse religious observances—don’t schedule meetings or events on Islamic holy days, and consider how to rehearsal and offices practices may want to change during Ramadan;
- Encourage Muslim and MENA staff and colleagues to take time for self and community care during time of stress and violence, and shift staff resources to support that time;
- Learn about the diversity of the ummah—the global community of Islam—which includes over two billion people from across the world, with distinct cultural traditions and religious practices;
- Learn about the diversity of MENA faith practices, which includes not only Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, but also Baháʼí, Druze, Zoroastrianism, and more;
- Center LGBTQ+ and disabled peoples within Muslim and MENA communities;
- Support freedom of expression, especially for the Palestinian theatres artists and Palestinian stories which are too often silenced within the U.S. theatre ecology;
- Resist narratives that exploit Muslim and MENA trauma and consider how comedy is also a form of solidarity and resistance;
- Share culturally responsive healing practices, such as li beirut, an herbal + healing support guide;
- Support networks of MENA theatremakers, such as the MENA Theater Makers Alliance.
We commit to continuing to update this page with resources to end Islamophobia in service of our mission to lead for a just and thriving theatre ecology. Please email us with any additions or suggestions for this page.
*MENA (Middle Eastern, North African), MENASA (Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian), and SWANA (Southwest Asian, North African) are some of the acronyms used to describe the diverse and wide-ranging communities that hold many religious and cultural identities, including Muslim peoples. We acknowledge that these terms are imperfect, that it’s important to acknowledge cultural specificity whenever possible, and that language is in a constant state of reimagination and redefinition.