Spring 2021

There’s Something in the Water

Tia-Simone Gardner
This image is an aerial view, likely from a satellite or drone, showing a section of the Mississippi River and an adjacent industrial area. In the top left corner, there's a dark blue

In her book A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None, Kathryn Yussof (2018) describes a thick relationship between extractive capitalism, geologic time, and (anti)Blackness. She writes, “As the Anthropocene proclaims the language of species life – Anthropos – through a universalist geologic commons, it neatly erases histories of racism that were incubated through the regulatory structure of geologic relations.

Dreams as R-evolution

Coral Bijoux
This image depicts a striking art installation set within what appears to be a lush, semi-enclosed garden or greenhouse space. The overall impression is one of nature reclaiming or merging with human-made forms

Dreams as R-evolution—a visual art and single-use plastic installation of sculpture, drawings, and found objects—is an installation originally created in the University of KwaZulu Natal’s Westville campus plant nursery that now speaks to dreaming as a r-evolutionary act in an old colonial gallery, the IZIKO National Gallery in Cape Town.

Apertures

Ritika Ganguly and Alia Jeraj
This image is a screenshot displaying two stylized, dark purple-grey shapes against a soft, light pinkish-white background. The overall impression is that of a projection or a screen.

Apertures: A creative portrayal of domestic violence for SEWA-AIFW is a bricolage of stories and art forms. It draws on a variety of artistic disciplines to represent a spectrum of lived experiences of domestic violence in our societies, and the specter of patriarchy that shapes them. It tells four survivor stories from Minnesota through the lens of survivor stories in New Delhi and Chennai.

Baggage

Setareh Ghoreishi
This image is a four-panel grid, like a split screen from a video, with a warm, somewhat desaturated, vintage aesthetic dominated by shades of golden yellow, orange, and brown, contrasted with

In “Baggage,” I struggle with my baggage, all that I carry with me from home. Every day I carry my memories of Iran with me–with all the emotions and thoughts that brings. This performance shows the complexity inherent in both leaving and staying.

Waháŋpi!

Agléška Cohen-Rencountre
This is a wide, horizontal banner image with a light, off-white background. It features bold text in the upper half and a dense, abstract crowd of figures along the bottom edge.

An original work written and performed by Agléška Cohen-Rencountre (Lower Brule Sioux Tribe).

Vellai Mozhi

Marappachi Theatre, A. Mangai, A. Revathi, and Tamilarasi Anandavalli
This image is a digital poster for an online performance and panel discussion, set against a warm, light brown or orange background. **Overall Layout:** The poster is divided into two main vertical sections.

We live in a time when conflict and destruction are no longer the exception but the norm. It often feels like a dark cloud is looming over us. However, those of us who have chosen to live with the purpose of changing the world to the best of our ability always see a silver lining to these clouds. Here we feature a performance of A. Revathi’s Vellai Mozhi directed by A. Mangai as well as a bilingual (Tamil/English) panel discussion on the role of art in queer activism. We also include written comments from Mangai and Revathi on how art, theatre, and Vellai Mozhi have presented issues of sexuality in Tamil Nadu.

Kaatru

Tamilarasi Anandavalli, A. Mangai, Marappachi Theatre
This image features a young woman standing in what appears to be a brightly lit, semi-outdoor or utility space with vibrant lime green walls. The woman is positioned slightly to the right of the center,

On June 7, 2020, a show rehearsed completely through Zoom was presented by Tamilarasi, a theatre student at the National School of Drama and a member of Marappachi. A video of this performance is shown below. The performance features a 20th Century poem by Bharathiyar (a modern poet in Tamil) titled Kaatru (Wind).

The Labor of Political Theatre as Embodied Politics: A Conversation

Richa Nagar, Anna Selmeczi
This is a wide, horizontal banner image with a light, off-white background. It features bold text in the upper half and a dense, abstract crowd of figures along the bottom edge.

What follows is a letter exchange between Anna and Richa. Richa’s book, Hungry Translations: Relearning the World Through Radical Vulnerability, underwent significant revisions during the course of this letter exchange. In addition to mediating on the labor of political theater and embodied politics, this exchange underscores the making of conversations and relationships as continuously unfolding journeys that cannot be contained by fixed words on the page.

Telling Dis/Appearing Tales: Re-membering, Re-calling, Re-wor(l)ding

Richa Nagar, Sara Musaifer, and Maria C. Schwedhelm
This image captures a diverse group of eleven individuals, including one small child, standing in a line on a brightly lit stage. They appear to be acknowledging an audience, possibly after a performance or

In Spring 2017, the three of us became part of a semester-long journey through ‘Stories, Bodies, Movements’, a course co-facilitated by one of us (Richa) with Tarun Kumar, a visiting theater artist from Mumbai who joined us at the University of Minnesota. Here we reflect on our ever-unfolding relationships and experiences together.

Fractured Threads (Script)

'Stories, Bodies, Movements' Class, Fall 2017
This image captures a diverse group of approximately 15-20 young adults and adults seated on the floor in a semi-circle, facing inwards, in what appears to be a classroom or flexible meeting

Access is provided to a full copy of the script for Fractured Threads.

Unlearning and Relearning the Self and Other: The Pedagogical Potential of Stories in the Classroom

Esmae Heveron
This image captures a diverse group of ten individuals, mostly women, standing in a line across a wooden stage, likely after a performance or presentation. They are arranged from left to right, with

Each one of us has a unique way of making sense of our life experiences. The exchange of stories, in many different forms, allows us to develop and negotiate how we perceive ours and others’ identities, what we come to know as right and wrong, ethical and just. The way we think of power and privilege, oppression and freedom, and our wants and desires, are shaped through our individual interpretation of the stories we have received throughout our lives and continue to receive daily.

Fracturing Threads, Again

Keavy McFadden
This is a wide-angle landscape photograph taken from a high vantage point, looking down over an expansive river system and its surrounding flood plain during autumn. The overall mood is serene and slightly muted, under a

Over two years after the formal close of my own participation in the course, I sit at my desk pouring over the material documents produced by the multiple iterations of Stories, Bodies, Movements, attempting to think about what my own contribution to this volume might look like. In returning to the course in the context of AGITATE!, I seek not to preserve the journey or archive the experience but rather to think about what it means politically, theoretically, conceptually to revisit and extend the work at the heart of Stories, Bodies, Movements. What is the afterlife of the embodied pedagogical commitment of the class? 

Between Academic Time And Crisis Time: A Conversation With Mona Bhan And Celina Su

Celina Su and Mona Bhan
This is a wide, horizontal banner image with a light, off-white background. It features bold text in the upper half and a dense, abstract crowd of figures along the bottom edge.

So much has happened since we met for the first time via Zoom in early May 2020. On a hot summer afternoon in August 2020, we met via Zoom again, spending two hours thinking through the interview questions presented by the AGITATE! Team. We took turns answering each question; each time, we excitedly pointed out joint commitments and overlaps in our responses.

Editorial Collective – Vol. 3

Emina Bužinkić, Keavy McFadden, Nithya Rajan, Richa Nagar, Samira Musleh, Sara Musaifer, Sima Shakhsari
This is a wide, horizontal banner image with a light, off-white background. It features bold text in the upper half and a dense, abstract crowd of figures along the bottom edge.

Our editorial collective evolves with each volume, inviting a rotating collaboration of agitators. To learn about the editorial collective active during the development of Volume 3, please read this article.