Responses: March 16, 2009 first day of Spring Break

Someone anonymously added penciled commentary on a posting on the 2nd floor Men's Locker Room.

Also in the 2nd floor Men's Locker Room someone (also anonymous) re-placed a posting that read "Your penis?" above the urinal (where we had originally placed it). It was an answer to the question, "What are you ashamed of?" that was posted on the door of the locker room.

From Responses part 11?

It reads, "shut the fuck up - you sound like an idiot":

From Responses part 11?

Click here to read full text and see images.

Part 11: March 16, 2009 first evening of Spring Break

Tonight we posted a Note for Our Visitors (text below) on the inner door of the main entrance into the Barker.
We re-posted the Open Letter to the Dance Program with an added Addendum.
We re-posted the Statement About the Protection of White Walls, this time on the outside of the office door.
We also re-posted our responses to the questions that had been asked of us in the unsigned posting that had been placed last Monday on both the outer and inner doors of the main entrance; this time we put our responses in the window pane between the main office and Studio 100.
We also retaped some past postings that were now falling down.
Re-posts were re-printings of the original posts that were removed on March 15, 2009. There has been no official word from faculty or students claiming responsibility for removal.

A Note for our Visitors

From part 11

A NOTE FOR OUR VISITORS

Welcome to our building. We are proud of our space and we are glad to have you in it. What you see around you is part of a six week long protest that has led to enormously important discussions we’ve been having about institutional racism, white privilege, and power being used to silence. These are difficult things to think about, let alone talk about, and there is a lot of pain and anger and confusion in our hearts and on our walls.

We don’t all agree with one another, but even in our anger and hurt, we all respect our commitment to the space. Even as we publicly hold our faculty responsible for the issues we protest against, we also publicly acknowledge that it is their activism and effort that has generated our freedom to protest.

We are not embarrassed to take responsibility for these problems by breaking the shame of speaking about them. Our program adamantly places value in anti-racist work and has demonstrated this by publicly permitting these powerful and ugly problems to be plastered across the building. We have been taught to question and to have the highest expectations of this space being one where confronting racism is permitted. We are in the process of learning. We are struggling with looking the monsters in the eye. We want to start learning how to deal with them.

Please feel free to talk with us about THIS. The more people you talk to, the greater the variety of perspectives you will encounter, and talking about it is healthy. The issues we are struggling with here are just an extension of those that permeate the real world, and we know they are present in your spaces as much as they are in ours. We want to learn from each other; we would be grateful to hear your stories and happy to share our own.

Welcome again, to a space where we are learning to be better human beings just as we are learning to be better dancers.

--us, March 16, 2009 (http://thisbyus.blogspot.com)

Re-Post of the Open Letter to the Dance Program, with Addendum

From part 11

Text of the Addendum reads:
Don't disagree by silencing--
talk back, talk more, talk louder.
Silence is the enemy.


Re-Post of the Statement About the Protection of White Walls

From part 11

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part 11

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Responses: March 16, 2009 - first day of Spring Break

Today an email was sent out to the dance and theatre list-serves from Carl Flink's email address, but signed by both Dr. Ananya Chatterjea and Carl Flink.

Sub: THIS Discussion Tomorrow at the Barker Center

Date: 3/16/2009 3:12 PM

Dear Theatre Arts and Dance Department Staff, Students and Faculty:

Ananya and I will hold a conversation tomorrow Tuesday, March 17 from 11 am - Noon to discuss next actions steps in terms of the postings by THIS in the Barker Center. We invite any and all interested from the department to attend. With the ACDFA conference starting on Wednesday, we want to make intelligent and respectful decisions about the THIS postings ongoing status in consultation with anyone interested from the department. We believe there is reason to maintain a presence for THIS, but that it is also time to consider and practical steps needed to do so. We understand that time is short, but this is the best we can do given the short timing after our Friday discussion.

We look forward to seeing anyone interested in talking with us tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Carl & Ananya

If you would like to share your thoughts about our protest with the department, but are unable to attend the discussion tomorrow, we suggest that you email the official student Peer Advisors at peers@umn.edu.

We can also forward to the Peers any anonymous or pseudonymous comments left to this entry, or emailed to us at thisbyus@gmail.com. We promise not to edit any comments or emails in any way, nor reveal any identifying information unless given explicit permission to do so.

Click here to read full text and see images.

Responses: March 15, 2009

So far, there has been no official reaction or response to the Town Hall meeting that happened on March 13, 2009.

Some time on March 15, various important pieces of our protest were taken down by anonymous person/s.
Our Open Letter on the window-walls was taken down.
Our Statement on White Walls on the office door was taken down.
Both the anonymous questions someone posted on the front doors to the Barker, and our signed response to those questions were taken down.
The statement "You are now entering a space of privilege and power" on the back entrance door was taken down.

We do not know if the removed material has been stored, or thrown away.
We have not been contacted by anyone about the removal.