A Night of Reflection and Dreaming as the Global Pandemic Turns Three
It is 2023 and we are still living through a global pandemic. It is a moment of deepening economic and racial inequality, rising authoritarianism, and disparate experiences of connection, safety, and belonging. Access to mental, physical, and social wellness in the United States is increasingly more tied to disability status, age, education, income, race, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration status.
2023 is also a time of rapid growth and possibility in technology, medical science, and racial, social, and climate justice reform, as we re-evaluate and re-imagine ways to live, work, and care for one another.
In an evening of poetry, monologues, and performance, presented in-person and via simultaneous livestream, YPT students, playwrights, and other featured artists from around the United States will present an honest assessment of the “new normal” in 2023, and then imagine themselves into the near future, offering their boldest dreams, challenges, and intentions for 2026.
Presented by Young Playwrights’ Theater
April 17, 2023, 7:30 pm
At the Prince George’s Community College Center for the Performing Arts
About Silence Is Violence
Since its inception in 2015, Silence Is Violence has been YPT’s most immediate and direct route of addressing social justice issues affecting Washington, DC area youth through performance and community dialogue.
Each Silence Is Violence performance centers the voices of our young people and the issues that affect them the most. The series has addressed issues of police brutality and the resulting murders of Black people at the hands of police, immigration policies that abuse the rights of and negatively affect the lives of immigrants and naturalized citizens, LGBTQ+ stories, culture and pride, urban environmentalism, gentrification, and the experiences of displaced young, Black mothers.
Silence Is Violence serves as a means for young people to actively communicate their concerns through targeted dramatic writing workshops and community partnerships. With these young people’s permission, YPT shapes their words into a theatrical production featuring professional performers, furthering YPT’s vision that young people’s voices are not only significant but also powerful.
Watch our past performances here!