Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance, 1965-2020, by Those Who Lived It

The experiences of a diverse range of progressive theater and performance makers in their own words

Curated stories from over 75 interviews and informal exchanges offer insight into the field and point out limitations due to discrimination and unequal opportunity for performance artists in the United States over the past 55 years. In this work, performers, often unknown beyond their immediate audience, articulate diverse influences. They also reflect on how artists are educated and supported, what content is deemed valuable and how it is brought to bear, as well as which audiences are welcome and whether cross-community exchange is encouraged. The book’s voices bring the reader from 1965 through the first wave of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020. They point to more diverse and inclusive practices and give hope for the future of the art.

Jan Cohen-Cruz (Author)
Jan Cohen-Cruz is a longtime professor of drama at NYU and founder of the school’s applied theater minor. As a past director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, she co-founded its journal, Public. Her numerous books include Local Acts, Engaging Performance, and Remapping Performance. Cohen-Cruz is a co-founder of A Blade of Grass, which supports socially engaged artists. In 2012, she received the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Award for Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement. She also teaches at CUNY and Touchstone Theatre/Moravian University.

Rad Pereira (Author)
Rad Pereira is a cultural worker, performing artist, healer, and educator in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil, (known as Pindorama by the Tupi people), with a home base in Brooklyn, New York (known as Lenapehoking, originally a Lenape land.) Their creative practice ranges from social sculpture to popular theatrical and TV/film performances. They are committed to making art that involves community participation and healing, incorporating themes of transformative justice and queer re-indigenization of culture.