Pipeline
In collaboration with Victory Gardens Theater, the Latino Cultural Center hosted Pipeline as part of the Zona Abierta series on February 19, 2019. As one of the plays at Victory Gardens Theater, Pipeline depicts the life of an inner-city high school teacher and her son, struggling with parenthood, public school systems, and the school-to-prison pipeline her son is at risk of falling into. Actors from the theater described their characters and acted out preview scenes from the show. After the previews, Dr. Zitlali Morales facilitated a conversation addressing the racial themes present in the play and asked the actors to draw upon their own perspectives and histories. From Victory Gardens, Becca Brown and Actors Matthew Elam and Aurora Real de Asua described their experiences as either a person of color or family member of immigrants to describe how they experienced or saw a pipeline in their youth. Through discussion and a writing activity, there was remembrance from the audience around how students may understand their experience as part of a school-to-prison pipeline and how it can impact them in the future. The discussion concluded with everyone sharing creative and hopeful ways of disrupting the cycle of racial injustices within school systems, including performance art as an outlet or form of advocacy.
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