We are well over the year mark on this pandemic and here in New York things are beginning to open again – even Broadway!
The idea that we are finally turning a corner has me thinking about what the past year has taught me.
The restriction and isolation of the pandemic was hard, at times very hard. As my usual busyness and distractions fell away (and, if I’m honest, after I blew through most of Netflix), I had a lot more time to sit and think. And the longer I sat, the louder the voices in my head got. So I started really listening. Listening to how I talk to myself; my habitual thought patterns. It was not always comfortable, but I learned what is essential: more compassion for myself and those around me. I hope to bring this compassion with me, back out into the reopening world.
At The Barrow Group, we also had to focus on the essentials this past year. One priority that guided us: encouraging the resilience and creativity of our artistic community by supporting emerging artists and diverse voices.
This month The Barrow Group will share two developmental projects that honor that priority:
On Friday, June 11 at 7pm, eight BIPOC artists will share their works-in-progress as part of our Restorative Stories Series. This is a culmination of a 10-week storytelling exploration with our co-Artistic Director Seth Barrish. We are honored to host these talented artists (chosen to participate from more than 70 applicants) as they share their compelling stories.
On the evenings of June 25 – 26, our monthly First Fridays Works-In-Progress series will culminate in a First Fridays Festival reading of two full-length and two short plays. For this 2020-21 season on Zoom, we recruited guest hosts to pick themes and solicit work from Black, Asian, Latinx, Youth and Femme writers, among others. For the readings you’ll see this month, we paired the selected writers up with directors who cast and rehearsed the pieces. Our goal was to promote the next step of development of these new works.
Thanks to generous funding from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs*, we were able to support the artists in both projects with modest honorariums.
Please join us in celebrating these talented artists.
*This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York CityDepartment of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
