Part of the Light Days series presented by Progress Theatre
an Alternate ROOTS "Rhizome" event in collaboration with The Shout

"Dark Days," for theatre-makers, are days when there is no performance, event or rehearsal in a theatre--hence, when a theatre is "dark." Progress Theatre aims to share our theatre time with communities by turning our "dark days" into Light Days. PT's Light Days present free and discounted  programs featuring fellow artists and organizations in community-nurturing, bridge-building, consciousness-raising, advocacy-inducing, healing-centric artistic events. 

Featuring live music, dance, poetry, theatre and visual art from Houston artists, Enter Faith: An Arts + Activism Salon is a multi-cultural, multi-faith, multi-generational, multi-disciplinary event to promote unity by celebrating the diversity of our communities and to build solidarity by sharing our networks and joining our hearts in the cause for freedom and justice for all. Join us for an uplifting evening of art, an inspiring gathering for equality and a resource-building exchange for artists and activists.

This Enter Faith event is a ROOTS Rhizome and will feature a presentation about grants and programs available from Alternate ROOTS, an organization of artists and cultural organizers based in the South that supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in communities of place, tradition or spirit and working for social and economic justice. To learn more, visit: alternateroots.org. 

About Progress Theatre

Founded by Houston native, Cristal Chanelle Truscott, Progress Theatre [PT] is a nationally and internationally-touring ensemble committed to using theatre as anti-racism engagement to encourage social consciousness, cross-community dialogue, healing and cultural awareness. Since 2000, PT has toured dynamic, original performances which Cristal has branded, Neo-Spirituals--a’capella musicals with a fusion of styles from Negro Spirituals to the Blues, Jazz, NeoSoul, R&B, hip-hop and spoken word. PT considers all of our initiatives as community-engaged, community-invested and community-necessitated. We are, at once, performers/creators of ensemble-driven theatre works, presenters and supporters of artists who share our mission and creative collaborators with the communities we serve. By engaging various communities onstage and off, PT strives to change the make-up of average theatergoers, encouraging audiences diverse in race, age/generation and spiritual background. The dream and intention of PT’s work is to explore the most compelling, honest, unflinching ways of approaching questions of humanity, and the social concerns and insights of our times inclusive of race, class, gender and spiritual identity— in the service of unity through diversity, cross-community healing and understanding. To learn more, visit: www.ProgressTheatre.com.

About Enter Faith

Enter Faith is a service project that engages spiritual diversity through multi-faith workshops, dialogues, wellness classes and inclusive artistic and community events that promote pluralism, cross-community exchange, understanding, healing and peace. Through opening up a space where "faith can enter" as the common ground for people across religious practices and with no religious practice, Enter Faith initiates from the belief that positive social change begins by cultivating lasting relationships between communities. Past Enter Faith programs in Houston have included workshops at Rice University's Boniuk Center, Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston and free yoga classes throughout the city. To learn more, visit: enterfaith.org.

About The Shout

The Shout is a spoken-word poetry-focused "artivism" movement seeking to nurture a community of multi-ethnic, multi-generational, justice-seeking, solidarity-building people. Founded by Rev. Hannah Bonner in 2014, The Shout seeks a justice that includes everyone, a solidarity that doesn't break,  and a reconciliation that does not run ahead of justice. We pursue this through: 1) Whispers where we listen to one another and seek to hear what is true and necessary. 2) Shouts where we gather to translate that cry for justice in the community into art that has the potential to both introduce the joy of community and the motivation to act. 3) Echoes where we invite people to amplify the cry for justice through taking action, individually or collectively. The Shout is people. The Shout is words. The Shout is Action. The Shout is hope. To learn more, visit: amplifytheshout.com.