Solidarity in Isolation: Seeding Hope, Sparking Dreams, and Stoking Desire

By: Amanda Masterpaul*

Who are we serving and how are we serving them?

During the compounded national crises and political unrest of Spring 2020, an ensemble of artists and activists across the east coast of the U.S. gathered online to explore and address how the socio-political climate moves and shapes our collective consciousness and artistic practice. This ensemble called themselves Solidarity in Isolation and is founded by Amanda Masterpaul, Donia Mourad, Emily Peiffer, Amani Huell, Ariana Hooberman-Piñeiro, Jonah Collins, Jessica Durivage, and Carson Hebblethwaite. Over the past nine months, they have shared knowledge and expertise in Theatre of the Oppressed, art, critical pedagogy, somatic movement, rest as resistance, and collective action in order to mobilize interactive and intercultural experiences centered on dismantling systemic (in)justice while building communities of care. 

As an ensemble, collaboration and partnership is integral to the nature of our work. However, in this moment and as with many of our fellow artist-activists, Solidarity in Isolation is being called to redefine what it means to co-create and to re-evaluate existing structures of operating. Co-creation has become a buzz word for the cultural community, inviting in depictions of wholesome consensus and expectations of happy-go-lucky, non-confrontational interactions with stakeholders. Rather, co-creation can be fraught with messiness, challenges, and inequitable practices. As artists and activists, how are we moving the needle forward by cultivating community partnerships to build confidence in collective vision-making through arts-based strategies coexistent with social and political efficacy? As a body, Solidarity in Isolation began asking: 

  • How are we inviting people to join the struggle? 

  • What is exciting to us about this problem our community is facing?

  • What is our role? Is our role part of the community, for the community, or with the community?

  • How much space am I taking up and why? 

  • Is the work grounded in equitable partnerships where the communities most impacted are developing the criteria for which value or success is measured?

Solidarity in Isolation used these questions as criteria for co-creation and thus, came to a realization. We must arrive at all of our work by stewarding values explicitly grounded in social justice, collective wellness, and interdependent partnership. These values will only be met when our work amplifies the voices of underestimated communities and ideas so as to interrupt multiple axes of oppression.  

Our inaugural effort focused on the sexual harassment crisis in the Egyptian community as an intercultural, intergenerational, and intersectional issue. The virtual experience was entitled Muffled Voice and the project consisted of a series of workshops in partnership with Egyptian artists and advocates. In Muffled Voice, we deployed video art, critical dialogue, feminist research, and Theatre of the Oppressed techniques to challenge belief systems and ideology upholding gendered and racialized oppression while activating participants towards personal reflection and collective transformation. In the future, we anticipate continuing Muffled Voice as an expansion upon sexual education programming within educational institutions.   

As a recurring campaign under the Solidarity in Isolation umbrella, we have an initiative called the Imagineering Labs. This programming is in partnership with Freedom Readers, whose organization is dedicated to literacy as a roadmap to liberation. The Imagineering Labs are co-designed to empower youth in K-5 to reimagine equity and social justice through age-appropriate and carefully curated creative, imaginative, and expressive activities. The learning outcomes of this effort are for youth to gain an understanding of systemic oppression through art and interactive play and to encourage critical thinking and reflection through embodiment exercises connected to themes of (in)justice and equity. Through storytelling and artistic practice, young scholars explore how to create stronger communities while overcoming personal and interconnected challenges. 

In partnership with localized organizations serving the housing insecure and unhoused communities, Solidarity in Isolation is galvanizing support for an effort called Untapped: The Potential Project. Untapped is an arts-based workshop series for youth and young adults experiencing housing insecurity and varying degrees of homelessness. The workshops use creative expression and the arts to cultivate personal and communal well-being through painting, drawing, writing, spoken word, music, performance and more in order to build self-efficacy, develop healthy coping skills, and connect with the larger community. In Untapped, we use performance as an opportunity to spotlight community-centered social, political, and economic solutions for youth and young adult homelessness. The goal is to influence economic and legislative change through original public performances and social actions exploring the interconnected issues they are facing while envisioning a community where everyone is flourishing. 

Within each of these efforts, an intention we hold is that our work is community-informed, generative, and grounded in collective wholeness and dignity. We consciously integrate mutual ownership in the work so as to build shared power and leadership vital for co-creation. As artist-activists, our aesthetic and embodied practices are directed at improving the livability of our communities. We believe that by seeding hope, sparking dreams, and stoking desire, we can co-author a future good with precious, lasting purpose. 

*Amanda Masterpaul

Amanda Masterpaul is an adjunct professor and applied theatre practitioner dedicated to weaving social justice and anti-oppression techniques into theatre-making and collective action. Throughout her career, she has organized alongside various community-centered partnerships and civic engagement efforts. As an artist-activist-educator, Amanda practices radical pedagogy, intersectional feminism, and civic artistry.