Photo credit: Asya Gorovits
In spring 2024, students from three courses, The Artist as Activist, Nonviolence: Theory and Practice, and Dramaturgy 1 engaged with the world-renowned, Vermont-based social justice theater company, Bread and Puppet, for a workshop at the Judson Memorial Church in New York City. The students wrote and performed mini cantastoria (a theatrical form in which a performer gestures to a series of images while telling or singing a story) in small groups (helped along by a Bread and Puppet puppeteer), with themes such as student loan debt, mass incarceration, and the destruction of our planet. These activities were punctuated by musical instruments they learned to play, as well as backdrops created on large sheets of white paper. Professor of English Sid Ray, PhD, Associate Professor of Peace and Justice Studies Emily Welty, PhD, as well as Adjunct Professor Aaron Ellis, PhD, Sands College (activist-in-residence for the Peace and Justice program in spring 2024), mentored students throughout this unique opportunity. It was supported by Dyson College’s Experiential Learning Innovation Fund, an example of experiential learning at Pace that builds on classroom experience, yet is outside of a traditional civic engagement course.
