Moving from Reflection to Detection

To our beloved community:

On June 19, we made a commitment to begin the work of uprooting systemic racism in our community, our organization, and ourselves. Now, we want to update you on our progress. 

Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force, which includes our three core staff members and a diverse group of board members, met for the third time last week. In our first meeting, we identified five areas for anti-racist action in our organization: Board Membership; Staffing; Programs & Partnerships; Policies & Practices; and Audience, Donor, & Community Engagement. To better understand the problems in these areas that exist throughout the performing arts field, we devoted our second and third meetings to reviewing the BIPOC Demands for White American Theater that followed the “We See You White American Theater” open letter. We affirm the validity of these demands and see them as a powerful starting place for drafting our own slate of anti-racist policies and actions. We also acknowledge that there is much more we can do that is specific to our organization and our intersecting communities. Our goal is to present a first round of anti-racist policies and actions inspired by the “We See You” demands for review at our September board meeting, and to enact them by the end of the year. 

We are grateful to have participated this summer in the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) Anti-Racism Training Institute, a series of three webinars providing methodology for examining and undoing racism in participants’ organizations and in ourselves as cultural workers. As part of CCCADI’s #ArtsGoBlack campaign, we pledged to “embark on a one-month introspective period to take concrete steps that create change within [our] institution’s internal structures to address racial and social injustice.” We are humbled to do this work in the company of exemplary leaders from New York’s arts and culture sector and to benefit from so much wisdom and support from BIPOC cultural leaders like CCCADI Executive Director Melody Capote and the institute’s facilitator, José Rivera.  

In an email about the Anti-Racism Training Institute, Melody Capote identified a cycle of four phases for the work we are undertaking: Reflection, Detection, New Action, and Evaluation. Applying this cycle to our organization, we see ourselves in an annual process that began in June. The Center at West Park has been deep in a period of reflection this summer, and we are now transitioning to detecting racism in our power structures, operations, and organizational culture. This fall, we aim to begin a period of new action that will continue through the spring, and we will complete the cycle with a formal evaluation that will deliver a clear-eyed report of our progress and challenges by next Juneteenth. 

Thank you for your engagement in this critical work with us. Please look for more updates from us as we move forward and feel free to reach out to me for further dialogue on the pursuit of anti-racism in our communities. 

Gratefully, 

Zachary Tomlinson
Artistic Director
The Center at West Park