I’ve struggled with the words I want to share to adequately express what I am witnessing, personally experiencing, and committing myself to going forward. 

So here’s what I know:  the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade are devastating, painful reverberations of centuries of government-sanctioned, socially accepted acts violence against generations of Black people. We are suffering and dying disproportionately at the hands of individuals who deny our humanity and profit from our oppression. 

My existence is resistance, but my art no longer feels like activism or nearly enough to bring about the radical change we all need. I have been victim to, complicit in, and complacent about rampant violence in many of the spaces I have occupied, particularly theaters. That ends now.

We are past the point of accepting empty apologies put forward as “solidarity statements”  tokenizing the hard work and mere existence of Black and brown collaborators. 

We are past the point of producing trauma porn that exploits Black pain. 

We are past the point of facilitating talkbacks where white audience members are allowed to unleash the full torrent of their bias, ignorance, and, sometimes, explicit hatred on unsupported artists and audiences of marginalized identities. 

We are past the point of “open” and/or “inclusive” casting calls that, at best, give false hope to artists of marginalized identities who, in order to be included in this community and not dismissed as “difficult”, must swallow rage and shame when yet another cast announcement highlights an insidious prioritization of white cis-gendered peers.

We are past the point of ego-driven leaders of non-profit organizations, suffering from white savior syndrome, capitalizing on the generosity, patience, and dedication of their disempowered employees, centering themselves in narratives and conversations that they have no business in, and stealing credit and acknowledgement from the folx who are actually doing the hard work.

We’re done. We cannot continue in these and so many other ways if we want theater to survive and be the unifier and tool of radical change that we desperately need it to be. 

I’m done. And, as a result, I commit to the following and encourage others to do so as well:

I commit myself to not only using my art as activism, but using my individual privilege and resources to be a force for positive change.

I commit myself to amplifying, supporting, and engaging with individuals and organizations who are doing the necessary work to make real change in our communities.

I commit myself to consistently be seeking and telling the truth, even if it is hard. Because it is necessary.

I commit myself to honestly and earnestly making it right, even if I initially got it spectacularly wrong, because I owe it to myself and those I’ve harmed.

I commit myself to help create not only safe, but brave spaces for artists and audiences to investigate, create, be challenged, and be held. (Thank you, Queen Claudia Alick , <3)

I commit myself to always be watching and listening in order to learn and grow alongside my compatriots in the struggle.

I commit myself to be in service to you, my community, and those who have suffered as a direct and indirect result of patriarchal white supremacy. 

With deep love and respect.

Leigh Rondon-Davis