Last week we stopped our regular communications to raise funds for organizers working to defend Black lives. We were proud to come together as a community to support this movement. We created Queer Cat Productions rooted in the knowledge that the queer community is nothing without Black queer and trans people.

As a queer theater company, we know that Black queer and trans resistance has made our existence possible. To honor those Black leaders, we must dismantle white supremacy.

We are not going back to business as usual. We are moving forward with the knowledge that the fight against anti-Blackness must be part of our daily life and work and art. These are the ways we would like to honor the struggle to defend Black lives and be held accountable. 

Ways we have been complicit in anti-Blackness: 

1. Two Co-Artistic Directors (leadership) are both white, company leadership is also majority white; 

2. Race-blind storytelling by white Co-Artistic Directors about Black characters;

3. Creating opportunities for white donors to interact with Black artists in unstructured ways, allowing for oppressive power dynamics; 

4. As a theater company, participation in an institutional theater culture built on white supremacy that centers whiteness with overt and covert barriers to entry for Black artists and audience members. Noting the work of BIPOC Theatremakers in Dear White American Theater; 

5. As a theater company, participation in the many ways in which theater has historically been financially and physically inaccessible for Black artists and audience members.

Things we will continue to do: 

1. Pay artists at least minimum wage, to remove barriers for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists who disproportionately don’t have access to sufficient wealth to work for low or no pay;

2. Prioritize casting Black actors and 50% BIPOC actors in every show;

3. Prioritize consent in our shows, rehearsals, and creative process, as a way to center the comfort and creative expression of Black artists; 

4. Raise funds for Black-led organizations, such as Black Visions Collective and People’s Breakfast Oakland, especially organizations led by Black queer and trans people;

5. Raise funds for organizations, such as St. James Infirmary, that work with and advocate for Black people, especially Black queer and trans people. 

6. Updated February 2022: Queer Cat Productions may only serve on or moderate a panel that is at least 30% BIPOC before QCP Participation, and that is held in a wheelchair-accessible location or accessible virtually.

Our commitments: 

1. Pay Black community advisors to provide guidance and leadership on anti-racist strategies and help steer our course; 

2. Create opportunities and pathways for Black leadership at every level of the company, with the goal of at least 50% BIPOC company leadership in the next year;

3. In every show, cast 50% BIPOC actors, including 50% of the leading roles;

4. Center Black queer people, Black trans people, and members of the Black disability justice community in the above outreach;

5. Create a commission for a Black queer/trans artist to create or bring a project towards the next step of its realization (creation, development, or production) in the next year

6. Amplify the work of Black artists, storytellers, and activists through our social media and advocate for Black artists in local and national theater communities;  

7. Add Community Agreements that specifically name anti-Blackness to all preshow emails and preshow announcements; 

8. Open channels of communication for feedback from Black artists and audience members;

9. Prioritize the safety, comfort, and enjoyment of BIPOC audience members over white fragility; 

10. To educate and resource ourselves as non-Black company leaders to fight anti-Blackness and racism;

11. To share resources and knowledge with white and non-Black POC peers, audiences, and community members; 

12. To continue to find concrete ways to support Black activists and artists in the work of dismantling white supremacy; 

13. To work towards the dismantling of white supremacy; 

14. To not stop. 

In Queerness and Solidarity, 
Syr Beker, Nara Dahlbacka, Nicole Jost, Nikki Meñez