Unite NY announced that this Saturday, May 1st at 2pm at Bryant Park the Broadway community will come together for Broadway United for Racial Justice. As Broadway prepares to turn the marquee lights back on, the community stands unified in the demand for necessary change in the Broadway and entertainment industries.
Speakers include Eden Espinosa (Broadway actress and activist), Liesl Tommy (Tony Award nominated director), Clint Ramos (Tony Award winning costume and set designer), Cody Renard Richard (Broadway production stage manager and founder of The Cody Renard Richard Scholarship Program), Dyllón Burnside (known for his role as Ricky Evangelista, in the FX television series “Pose”), Adam Hyndman (actor, producer and founder of The Industry Standard Group), and many others from the Broadway community. The lineup is subject to change.
“We are all the leaders in the movement, and we get to lead to end racism and to hold each other accountable and discover what that looks like,” said Unite NY. “We’re an organization that brings people together. Broadway has created a space where there is zero tolerance for homophobia and that same space must be created for racial justice and equity. For generations entertainment has been challenging and spreading awareness of social issues. What happens when it is in the industry itself? We must hold the entertainment industry to a higher standard. This an opportunity for a healing, liberation, and building coalition to actually end racism.”
These are the demands:
- Entertainment industries to be equal opportunity employers - not just on stage but in executive positions and roles including but not limited to theatre owners, directors, producers, stage managers, designers, stage technicians, general managers, casting, ushers, advertising, tech, agents, etc. Working together to create an agreed upon outline of what equity in the community really looks like.
- An enactment of a zero-tolerance policy for any form of racism implicit or explicit - including micro and macro aggressions.
- The creation of more theatre initiatives that educate and support the industry’s pledge for more inclusivity and intersectionality on and off stage - from race, to gender representation to visible and invisible differing abilities.
- Amplification of more voices of color across all categories in major projects through Broadway and other commercial theater and media ventures.
For more information, follow @UniteNY2020 on Instagram and on how you can become more involved in the fight for social justice.
UNITE NY, is a conduit of the people, it brings together our intersectional identities, our similar but different cries for change and channels them to converge and assemble as one. Creates an atmosphere for community building. Without silencing the voice of any individual.
We believe that the best way for our voices to be heard is to come together from each and every borough to unite as one, in a memorable display that our fight is not over. This movement is not about an individual group or person, but instead about all of us working together for a common cause.
We can make history. We just have to do it together. In unity.