In February 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder said this:

Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards... By creating what will admittedly be, at first, artificial opportunities to engage one another we can hasten the day when the dream of individual, character based, acceptance can actually be realized... This will be, at first, a process that is both awkward and painful but the rewards are potentially great. The alternative is to allow to continue the polite, restrained mixing that now passes as meaningful interaction but that accomplishes little. Imagine if you will situations where people- regardless of their skin color- could confront racial issues freely and without fear. The potential of this country, that is becoming increasingly diverse, would be greatly enhanced.

I was stunned and excited. You see... I am, perhaps, a little bit obsessed with race. This has to do with the particularities of my own background - coming eventually to a solo show near you - but talking about race is also at the center of all of my professional work. I teach classes on race and performance, facilitate anti-racism workshops, and my research is on lynching and racial violence. And I have found, again and again, that students and co-workers rarely want to have honest conversations about race. The reasons for this are myriad, as are the forms of avoidance, but I think that the only way we are going to work to deconstruct racism is if we can first talk about it. And I am, fiercely and urgently, committed to working against racism.

So, of course, when I read Holder's speech, I immediately fixated on how performance might embrace Holder's call to engage in more honest conversation about race. How might a performance project create a space where the rehearsal, the show itself, and the post-show environment all worked to open dialogue around race and racism?

Since then, I have been in the throes of an experiment. The Nation of Cowards Project. I am lucky to be an invited guest at several colleges and universities this school year, and I am using each of my residencies to create original, site specific performances about the fear and discomfort many people have in talking about race. I just finished a six week process at DePaul University's Theatre School (where I am a visiting professor), working with 11 incredible and talented students to create a full length show: Workshop 5. The process deserves its own post, which I will get to soon. (We all know what "soon" means in the context of this blog). In the meantime, I am headed off to Michigan State University for a week-long intensive.

Want to bring the Project to your school? Contact me at coya@coyapaz.com.