Acting Against Oppression
The Practicing Pluralism project uses interactive theater to address campus climate issues in Portland.
By Jeannie LaFrance and Jan Abu Shakrah
The lone African American student in a classroom sinks lower in her chair as the class watches a movie about the history of racism against African Americans in Oregon. When a racist cartoon image appears on the screen, the class erupts into laughter. The laughter quickly subsides to an uncomfortable silence, and all eyes turn to the African American student, who hastily gathers her books and leaves the room. The teacher chases the student and awkwardly apologizes. “Stop!” yells someone from the audience. The audience?
The scene is actually Portland Community College, and the students are participating in the Illumination Project, a yearlong academic theater program that tackles issues of oppression through interactive classroom and community performances. Participants write original interactive plays depicting incidents of oppression in students’ lives. The project is a central aspect of Practicing Pluralism, for which Portland Community College received a Ford
Foundation Difficult Dialogues grant. Practicing Pluralism, which began in March 2006, aims to create an atmosphere of open inquiry on our increasingly diverse campus in which controversial topics can be discussed with respect for different people and perspectives.
The program will build on the Illumination Project by extending its influence and integrating its principles in new initiatives, including a component focused on religious pluralism and academic freedom. New features will include campus-wide forums and workshops on academic freedom and religious and cultural pluralism; development of a pre- and post-performance curriculum to accompany performances; introduction of a Web site from which faculty can download curricular materials; and development of learning communities that concentrate on religious and cultural pluralism.
A Place of Dichotomies
Historically, Oregon has been home to a predominantly white, Christian population. Over the past several years, however, the metropolitan Portland area’s religious and racial diversity has increased significantly, as has debate over the connection between sexuality and religion. Between 1990 and 2000, the area’s ethnic minority population increased 119 percent, a much higher rate of increase than that in the overall U.S. population during the same time.
Over 20 percent of the Portland area’s population belongs to a minority group, and more than 80 percent of the immigrants who arrive in Oregon each year come to Portland.
Portland has become a place of dichotomies. It is the cradle of the Patriot Movement, the project of a white supremacist Christian-identified group. At the same time, it is one of the most welcoming havens for trans-gendered people in the country. Similarly, Multnomah County, which encompasses most of Portland, was one of the first U.S. jurisdictions to offer same-sex marriage licenses even though Oregon has an extensive history of legal attempts to deny civil rights to the sexual-minority community. More than twenty-five local and statewide ordinances and ballot measures proposed over seventeen years attempted to accomplish this purpose, culminating with a 2004 amendment to the Oregon constitution outlawing same-sex marriage. The rise of these dichotomies and the growing diversity of our community has increased the debate on campus about religion, culture, and homophobia and accentuated the need for our faculty, students, and staff to hone their ability to engage in constructive dialogues.
Portland Community College is the largest postsecondary institution in Oregon and one of the biggest community colleges in the country, enrolling over 91,000 students in 2004–05. It is a public, two-year college with three campuses (Cascade, Rock Creek, and Sylvania), and it offers lower-division college transfer and professional-technical programs and adult, community, and developmental education. The college is the most racially and ethnically diverse institution of higher education in Oregon; more than 25 percent of its enrollees are students of color.
The college serves many students from groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education: not only are 25 percent of its students of color, but nearly 60 percent of its degree-seeking enrollees are first-generation college students. Five thousand are enrolled in English as a Second Language and English as a Non-Native Language programs, and one out of every five students attending the college at least half time is from a low-income family.
The college’s mission is “to provide education in an atmosphere that encourages the full realization of each individual’s potential, by offering students of all ages, races, cultures, economic levels, and previous educational experience opportunities for personal growth and attainment of their goals.” The college cannot achieve this mission if students and faculty do not feel comfortable discussing controversial issues.
Theater of the Oppressed
The Illumination Project was founded in 2001 by Deborah Evind, coordinator of the college’s Sylvania Women’s Resource Center; Claire Oliveros, coordinator of the Multicultural Center; and Jeannie LaFrance, founding director of Act for Action, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the use of theater for education and social justice.
Each year, the project trains twenty student educators, who in turn educate the college community. Student educators take a three-term course covering issues of race, class, gender, community building, conflict resolution, and civic engagement. They then write and perform plays on topics such as anti-Arab or anti-Muslim bias in the United States following the attacks of September 11, 2001; hate crimes against sexual minorities; date rape; “coming out” as a sexual minority; and problems of race and class for first-generation college students. By the time they begin their performances, the students are prepared to provide education and leadership around difficult issues.
Performances are based on a nontraditional theater style called “theater of the oppressed,” which is used to promote community-centered problem solving. Student educators first perform a play once without interruption. The second time around, members of the audience are invited to stop the action when they see an act of oppression, substitute themselves for members of the cast, and start the action again with the intent to find a way to deal with the situation effectively. Cast and audience members improvise the new situation as it develops. The intended result is a new understanding among everyone about how to recognize, confront, and resolve oppressive situations as they occur.
After each intervention, a facilitator debriefs everyone involved—the audience member who intervened, the actors, and the rest of the audience—and then the play continues to the next “intervenable” scene. In a realistic yet safe atmosphere, actors and audience members rehearse situations so as to build communication skills and understand alternatives.
Since its inception, the project has involved more than 4,500 audience members, approximately 95 percent of whom felt the performances prepared them to take action during difficult situations and to create a more inclusive academic community. “Personally, when looking at racism, I had my opinion on how things were, and I didn’t really think there was anything I could do about it,” says student educator Chauntey Cruz, who played the African American student in the play described at the beginning of this article. “Race used to be something where I’d hope it wouldn’t come up in conversation. But in doing the Illumination Project, I know there is something I can do about racism. I can talk to my friends. I can have open discussion with anybody.”
By involving so many members of the campus community in such problem solving, the project creates a unique, experiential foundation for teaching and learning about difficult issues. The project’s approach has garnered enthusiastic support from faculty members. “I have taken most of my classes to the Illumination Project plays, and they are a tremendous learning tool,” comments S. Rowan Wolf. “The plays open up dialogue and get students thinking about oppression in their lives and environment. . . . A student shared during class that during a conflict at her apartment complex, she was able to step forward and stop it thanks to what she learned from the Illumination Project.’’
Difficult Dialogue
As noted above, Practicing Pluralism will build on the Illumination Project by making possible campus-wide forums and workshops, new curricular materials, and the development of a Web site and learning communities focusing on religious and cultural pluralism. By encouraging professors to engage with these new features, Practicing Pluralism will help the Illumination Project cement a stronger relationship with the college’s faculty. It will also help faculty improve their skills in facilitating difficult conversations and their ability to reinforce the competencies addressed by Illumination Project performances in the classroom.
On the institutional level, the college expects Practicing Pluralism to improve the campus climate, creating an environment that better supports different religions and cultures and academic freedom. Anticipated long-term changes include fewer incidents of bias and censorship and more student unions and clubs serving diverse cultures and religions. Evaluation of project activities will also inform the ongoing work of the President’s Diversity Committee. To help others replicate the success of the Illumination Project, the college will develop a training DVD and guidebook, disseminate materials to other educational institutions, and develop a Web site featuring updated project curricula and resources. Project leaders will also take performances and materials to local high schools and colleges in the Portland area and local, regional, and national conferences.
Exposure to the work of Practicing Pluralism and the Illumination Project will help students, staff, and faculty become active and inclusive members of Portland Community College and our greater community. We also anticipate a ripple effect as thousands of our students matriculate to four-year institutions and take jobs. We’ll close with the words of one student, Erin-Aja Grant, who gives us hope that our goals are within reach:
When I first entered the Illumination Project, I was unclear on how this class and the plays could teach me about oppression, since as a woman of color, I live this life everyday. I was wrong. What I didn’t realize was for the first time I would see how good the world could be without shame. . . . The Illumination Project creates a classroom that is truly hate-free. . . . [It] has allowed me to learn with my brain and act with my heart. I am privileged that I was part of a group that can confidently say we are more enlightened today and we have created and will continue to create positive social change.
LaFrance coordinates Portland Community College’s Illumination Project, an academic theater program that tackles issues of oppression through interactive classroom and community performances. The college received a Difficult Dialogues grant to extend the influence of this successful project on the campus and beyond. The project’s Web site is http://www.pcc.edu/resources/illumination. LaFrance can be reached at jlafranc@pcc.edu. Shakrah is the faculty chair of the economics, political science, and sociology department of Portland Community College’s Sylvania campus. She is staff adviser to the Muslim Student Association and has been a leader in peace and conflict resolution in the Middle East and in Portland. She can be reached at jabushak@pcc.edu.
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