Noah VanderVeer-Harris was a member of the 2019 GFTF ensemble
while also serving as the publicity intern for the Department of
Theatre and Dance during the same period. He appeared in the
festival’s production of the new musical Fat Kid Rules the
World. Noah shares his insight into why you should be a
member of GFTF which has been re-branded as Catalyst: A Think
Tank Theatre.
We are dismayed at the recent racist violence, and murders, in
Atlanta, and across the country, against Asian and Asian-American
people and women in particular. We recognize that this is part of
an ongoing regime of racism and violence and denounce it.
We stand in solidarity with those working against racism in
our communities, workplaces, government, and cultural
environment.
As Artists and Educators in Theatre, Dance, and Performance we
unequivocally condemn the historically rooted and pervasive
racist murders of African Americans and other people of color by
police in the United States and globally. We acknowledge these
most recent examples are not unique. We acknowledge this plague
is systemic and extends beyond the police. We cannot function as
a society, nor as a learning institution, in a context where
people of color cannot walk, jog, drive, talk, or even sleep in
their homes safely without fear of being murdered by the state.
We certainly cannot teach our craft, which is by its very nature
a living and breathing engagement with all people, without
denouncing this violence, and the hateful rhetoric that fuels it.
