About
I am a multi-disciplinary artist, racial justice organizer, social entrepreneur, and educator. The woven tapestry of my artistic expression in all its various forms moves from a central theme grounded in a collaborative practice that prioritizes community-mindedness, horizontal power structures, and decolonizing ideologies, solutions that push the boundaries of our inherited systems that don’t work for everyone. Theatre and performance, in many iterations, allow me to explore art and creative thought in collaboration with others, and social entrepreneurship works similarly. In the case of the company I founded called Upper Manhattan Forest Kids, I’m able to co-create both curriculum and educational playing spaces with human beings at the entry point of their lives. The young people with whom I make daily discoveries around new games, relationships, and hidden paths within our urban forests become architects for future waymaking. My work in theatre-making has always been committed to creating innovative lines of shared communication beyond the 4th wall that enters into the audiences and communities surrounding each production. Co-conceiving In The Cypher - A Hip Hop Play initiated a new model for theatre that would create fluid spaces for performers and listening audiences to engage in the complicated conversation around racism. Vehicles for community engagement in connection with theatre-making take the form of neighborhood walks and creative partnering to forge deeper involvements with “audiences.” As co-founders of ACRE (Artists Co-Creating Real Equity), we hold space for artists and cultural workers to undo racism within ourselves and our field. Organizing Undoing Racism/Community Organizing workshops facilitated by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond and sustaining a racial justice movement in an ever-expanding community are tools for tapping into our democratic practices. Circling in and out of modalities fuels my inspiration and fosters flexible thinking and visioning. I’m thankful for my winding path that continues to spiral chaotically into bliss, so I follow.
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SARITA COVINGTON holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. Her work has received support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Open Meadows Foundation, The Puffin Foundation and the Jerome Foundation. She has been an artist in residence through the New York Public Library (Performers in Residence), SPARC (Seniors Partnering with Artists Citywide) and BAX (Brooklyn Arts Exchange). She has served on the Advisory council for The Field Leadership Fund, coached Race Forward’s Racial Equity in the Arts Innovation Lab and currently serves as a Race Forward Affiliate Trainer. Sarita has taught and facilitated workshops among a variety of communities including BerkleeNYC’s Writing and Design for Musical Theatre Program, the inmates at the Fishkill Correctional Facility for Rehabilitation Through the Arts, the Yale Schools of Divinity and Drama through a course entitled, ‘The Quest for Social Justice; Through Music, Theater and Religion’, Artspace’s City Wide Open Studios community dialogue addressing The Dynamics of Temporary, Site-Based Interventions, NYC Public Schools, Philadelphia Charter School students, Danish High School students, Mexican youth in a Tijuana orphanage and the 59th Street Project.