submitted by adamsc@augsburg.edu
The 29th Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed conference will be here at Augsburg this summer! Join us July 23-26 for a deeply participatory conference where we lean into inquiry, dialogue, and creative expression as ways to challenge the forces of domination, share learning and knowledge, and to create change! Artists, activists, organizers, educators and anyone working to dismantle oppression, this is for you!
“My voice is in tune with a different language, another kind of music. It speaks of resistance, indignation, the just anger of those who are deceived and betrayed. It speaks, too, of their right to rebel against the ethical transgressions of which they are the long-suffering victims.” –Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage
In a time when public education, democracy, community organizing, the arts, and critical pedagogy face extraordinary threats, this year’s conference invites educators, activists, artists, and community members to gather in solidarity. We recognize the ashes of programs dismantled, communities marginalized, and voices silenced. Yet, in these ashes, we also see the seeds of resistance and the songs of transformation. Across the world, oppressions continue to intensify on many fronts, but people continue to build mass struggles to survive and even (when at all possible) thrive.
This gathering provides opportunities for people to share and expand on their methods to create participatory justice in spite of our current material, economic, and political conditions. And we will sing songs that ask us to transform our current moments of despair, anger, and fear into practices of radical hope, love, and joy–joy is resistance! Join us if you can!