This workshop brings organizers and lovers of social justice together for grounding and healing through songwriting, breath and movement. Participants will connect with each other and reconnect with their own stories and motivations in their organizing work. Through group exercises facilitated by composer Byron Au Yong and poet and lyricist Aaron Jafferis from Activist Songbook, Dartmouth students and the Student Wellness Center, we'll explore what causes burnout, what brings us joy, and what sustains and fulfills us in our activist work. All students and community members invested in healing and collective liberation are welcome.  

This free event takes place via Zoom and is created and hosted in partnership with the Coalition For Immigration Reform and Equality at Dartmouth (CoFIRED), Asian/American Students for Action (4A), The Black Underground Theatre and Arts Association (BUTA) and the Student Wellness Center. 

About the Activist Songbook Artists

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Byron Au Yong (composer) and Aaron Jafferis (writer) created Activist Songbook, a collection of 53 songs and raps to counteract hate and energize movements, with material based on interviews of Asian American, Asian immigrant and Asian refugee organizers. The project has been presented at the Asian Arts Initiative, Montalvo Arts Center and International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Au Yong and Jafferis have been artists in residence at organizations including the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, New York Theatre Workshop at Dartmouth and TheatreWorks. Honors include awards from the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Creative Capital, Edgerton Foundation, NEFA National Theater Pilot and Time Warner Foundation.

Funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.