Join us at The YES! House on Wednesday, September 16 for Oral Histories & Bringing Non-fiction Alive: A Writing Workshop w/ Jan Cohen Cruz! Doors will open at 5:15 PM with the workshop beginning at 5:30 PM!
"The way we use the whole farm in the spectacles—the pastures, the barn, the pond, the trees—is a big change from my early work in Boston, with the images drawn by the actors alone. The land has given me a sense of place—a humble understanding that we humans are a small part of life, full of wildness and hope." ~Stacy Klein, Founder and Artistic Director, Double Edge Theatre, Ashfield, MA
I can describe witnessing one of Double Edge Theatre’s outdoor spectacles in rural Ashfield. But hearing director Stacy Klein describe it, from her experience making it, captures its underlying impulse. My description will add to the reader’s understanding; reading Klein’s own words gets to its beating heart.
In this workshop, Jan will describe her journey writing or editing nine non-fiction books, in most cases featuring the gathering of oral histories, and then bring participants into first-person story gathering with each other. We will then share what we learned from the person we interviewed during our time together!
This event is free and open to the public, with complimentary snacks and beverages available for purchase!
Artist Bio
Jan Cohen-Cruz grew up in a small town where community theater was a lifeline. She left home at 15, graduated high school at 16, worked, studied theater, and traveled. In 1971, joined the NYC Street Theater. She went on to facilitate theater workshops in prisons, migrant camps, psychiatric institutions, schools, senior centers, and shelters. She earned her PhD at NYU Performance Studies and taught in the NYU Drama Department for 28 years, initiating the first minor in applied theater at a US university. Jan was director of the national organization Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, from 2007–2012, co-founded its journal, Public, and continues to serve as Engaged Arts Associate. In 2012, she received the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Award for Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement. She was director of field research for A Blade of Grass and co-researched its field guide for artist/municipal agency partnerships with Pam Korza. Jan was the evaluator for the US State Department/Bronx Museum cultural diplomacy initiative smARTpower and for seven NYC Department of Cultural Affairs’ Public Artists in Residence (PAIR) projects. She wrote or edited nine books on socially-engaged art, about subjects including street theater, Augusto Boal’s theatre of the oppressed, community-based art, and rites of passage. Her collection See Me: Prison Theater Workshops and Love, a collaboration with formerly incarcerated participants and facilitators of prison theater workshops and a warden, also became a podcast hosted by HowlRound Theatre Commons. Most recently, Jan has led writing workshops at the Brooklyn Central Library and the Bethlehem Area Public Library, and co-led multi-disciplinary workshops at immigrant support organizations. www.jancohencruz.com
Oral Histories & Bringing Non-fiction Alive: A Writing Workshop w/Jan Cohen-Cruz
Wednesday, September 16 | Doors @ 5:15 PM, Event @ 5:30 – 7:30 PM
The YES! House | 726 Prentice St, Granite Falls, MN