Black Water Women Collective: A Theatre of Care Syllabus (Redux)

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This care syllabus was first presented at the 2023 conference for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), Building from the Rubble: Centering Care, in Austin, Texas, as part of an interactive workshop titled, “Black Water Women Collective: A Theatre of Care.” The session, chaired by Dr. Mysia Anderson (UC San Diego), sought to consider the ways theatre has and can operate as a space for reflection, healing, and collective reconsideration for Black women. Across the African Diaspora, the element of water has been a conduit for such intentions, and our session conjured its cross-generational embodied epistemologies as they appeared in works and ways of Black theatre. The goals of the session were to create a space that embodied care through Black feminist rituals, performances, and studying and creating care together; to support academics, artists, and activists who believe that theatre, theory, art, and spirit can reside in one place; and to share works of care and pedagogies of care.