Art of Activism: Responses and Dialogue Inspired by Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown. 

March 19th, 2025  from 7-9 p.m. at Decatur Library, 4th floor 

Join us on the Fourth Floor of Decatur Library for Art of Activism: Sharing Artistic Responses and Dialogue inspired by NYT Best Seller and National Book Award winner, Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu.

7 Stages Art of Activism Series brings together community experts, artists and patrons for powerful conversations.

By diving into Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown we can address representation and the reduction of the identities of people of color to stereotypes. As global citizens, we’re tied together by a search for identity and preservation of culture in a world that is actively fighting against just that. The moderated conversation will be supported by the sharing of artistic responses from guest artists Dorothy Bell and Theresa Davis. All voices in the room are welcome, please bring your art to share!

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is requested. This will be held in the Fourth Floor Gallery of Decatur Library. Please enter through the main level and use the labeled elevator on the left, when you’re facing the elevators, to reach the Fourth Floor. Although this event is scheduled until 9 P.M., the library entrance closes at 8 P.M.

This is in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read in collaboration with Georgia Center for the Book. FREE copies of the book are available at 7 Stages and will be available at the event while supplies last. Digital copies of the e-Book and e-Audiobook are available on Libby.

Atlanta Science Festival 2024: Art of Activism

March 10th @ 12:00PM – 7 Stages Theatre

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Join scientists, advocates, and artists for a completely different kind of conversation!

Wild Cumberland is proud to partner with our new friends at 7 Stages Theatre and renowned artist Dorothy O’Connor to curate an immersive experience that brings scientists, artists, and community members together!

During this event, we’ll explore ideas and experiences related to:

• Wilderness – What is it, and what does it mean to you? 
• Stewardship – What has stewardship traditionally looked like, and what do you think is the future of good stewardship?
• Empowerment – Perceptions and experiences of being female or nonbinary in male-dominated environments

We invite you to join us for a complimentary pre-reception with coastally-inspired food and beverages (some foraged!) at 12:00 PM. Seating will begin at 12:45.

The Art of Activism: FIERCE DREAMING!
– Sunday September 17 from 11 am – 1 PM

A FREE Community Conversation.

Join us at 7 Stages for a complimentary loving community dialogue about a collective Future we all can dream of.

Art of Activism brings together community, performers, and patrons for a vital conversation centered around the themes within Sean Dorsey Dance’s The Lost Art of Dreaming. What joyous, expansive Future can we imagine for ourselves and each other? At a time where hatred and fear are so dominant, what do we want to dismantle and let go of?

While you do not have to have seen the show to attend the event, we welcome all voices to connect our various intersections and share in commonalities. This is a gathering to check in with how you are doing, to open our hearts and minds to what is POSSIBLE!

Art of Activism: The True Cost of Ivory

Monday May 8, 2023 – 5:30-7:30p

Join us at 7 Stages for an appetizer and dialogue about the true cost of ivory.

Art of Activism brings together community, performers, and patrons for a vital conversation centered around the themes within Mlima’s Tale such as the trail of complicity and corruption in the illegal ivory trade. The dialogue will include VIP experts, artists and organizations.

While you do not have to have seen the show to attend the event, we welcome all voices to connect our various intersections and share in commonalities

COMPLIMENTARY EVENT – Open to the public

Art of Activism: Complimentary Aperitivo!

March 6, 2023 from 5:30-7 PM at 7 Stages

Join us for an appetizer and dialogue on toxic family dynamics, othering and identity while asking “what makes a human human?”

Art of Activism brings together community, performers, and patrons for a vital conversation centered on the themes within Pinocchio. The dialogue will include VIP experts, artists and organizations.

While you do not have to have seen the show to attend the event, we welcome all voices to connect our various intersections and share in commonalities.

Art of Activism brings together community, performers, and patrons for a vital conversation centered on the themes within High Risk Baby & Other Reproductive Rights Recipes. The dialogue will include VIP experts, artists and organizations that specialize in women’s reproductive rights & health.

While you do not have to have seen the show to attend the event, we welcome all voices to connect our various intersections and share in commonalities. So bring over your favorite EGG dish as we join together potluck style for food, fun and a wonderful discussion.

Monday March 28 @7pm (EDT) – ONLINE

A complimentary virtual dialogue,  Art of Activism brings together community, performers, and patrons for a vital conversation centered on the themes of I AM ATL Woman. The dialogue will include experts such as Julie B. Johnson of Moving Our Stories, Yolanda Owens owner of iwi fresh, and Race and Equity, educator C. Yemanja Kennedy-Shaheed, with Giwayen Mata Co-Founder Sarahn Henderson, midwife and maternal wellness advocate, and Artistic Director Tambra Omiyale Harris.

Together, we celebrate Giwayen Mata’s 29th anniversary!

Swing by Java Lords or gather ingredients for our specialty drink G-I-N MATA (an African take on a gin cocktail featuring Drumshanbo Gunpowder Gin, Ginger Beer, and Hibiscus syrup) for the virtual event kicked off with a clip of the filmed live performance.

While you do not have to have seen the show to attend the complimentary virtual event, we welcome all voices to connect our various intersections, share in commonalities, and celebrate  Giwayen Mata’s 29th anniversary.

Art of Activism: “May we all find the way home.” ~An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo 

In Collaboration with Georgia Center for the Book and Decatur Library

ONLINE – November 17th, 2021 at 7:00 PM ET

An exploration of the misinformation that often surrounds our indigenous neighbors and a modern view of indigenous peoples.

Join us for a celebration of ancestors and future generations through conversation.

Art of Activism brings together VIP community experts, artists and patrons for a virtual and vital conversation. 

7 Stages honors the work of US Poet Laureate and Mvskoke (Muscogee Creek Nation) Artist, Joy Harjo, as we examine our role beyond the art! This discussion will be filled with vulnerability and the acknowledgement of complacency in upholding colonialism in today’s society. We acknowledge that our theatre has resided on the Muscogee/Creek land for over 40 years and that the original voices of this land were silenced.  As we continue to examine our role in the arts community, engage in vital conversations and connect across our differences, we strive to shed light on colonialism and seek to create a brave space for native voices, stories, and leadership.     

All settlers, including recent arrivants, have a responsibility to consider what it means to acknowledge the history and legacy of colonialism. What are some of the privileges you enjoy today because of colonialism? How can individuals develop relationships with peoples whose territory they are living on? What are you, or your organization, doing beyond acknowledging the territory where you live, work, or hold your events? 

“There will be no balance without

all voices present in the power circle”

– p 80 American Sunrise by Joy Harjo

While you do not have to have read the book to attend the complimentary event, we welcome all voices to join the VIP’s in connecting across our differences, share in commonalities, and explore the curiosity that initiates questions such as: How do we analyze and rectify cultural ignorance surrounding the lives of Native & Indigenous Peoples through resilience, politics and performance? We hope that with this conversation our community can come together and leave feeling empowered with actionable steps moving forward! 

Art of Activism brings together community experts, artists and patrons for a virtual brunch and vital conversation centered on the themes within Charmed Ones as we examine our role beyond the art. While you do not have to have seen the show to attend the complimentary event, we welcome all voices to join the VIP’s in connecting across our differences, share in commonalities, and explore the curiosity that initiates the question: How do we celebrate queer charm through resillience, politics and performance?

Liliana Bakhtiari is a lifelong Atlantan, a committed community activist, and the daughter of immigrants. Her experiences as a queer Muslim woman the South fueled her path to becoming a community leader, social justice advocate, and activist fighting for women and children’s health issues, environmental justice, and our unsheltered populations. Liliana spent much of her youth traveling the globe, practicing social advocacy, participating in a wide variety of cultural projects, including aiding refugees in building new homes, working with sex trafficking victims and volunteering at orphanages in a total of 26 countries around the world.

In Atlanta, Liliana has tackled initiatives locally including engaging suburban and rural voters during especially critical elections, direct services with unsheltered populations, blood drives, senior partnerships, public art initiatives (like a mobile art installation in the form of a Georgia school bus), and more. Liliana currently serves as a curator of the Atlanta-based art organization Black Futures Matter, while also serving on the boards of PEDS, Georgia Equality, and gloATL. Liliana is currently running for Atlanta City Council, and if elected, Liliana will be the first queer Muslim person elected in Georgia, and the first gender non-conforming person to serve on the Atlanta City Council.

Paul Conroy, the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Out Front Theatre Company, holds a BA in English/Writing with a Minor in Theatre from Long Island University, a MA in Directing from Roosevelt University, and is currently concluding a MFA in Directing from the University of Idaho. Originally from Boston, Paul has worked in artistic and management capacities for theatre companies around the greater Atlanta area such as the Alliance Theatre, Serenbe Playhouse and ART Station among others. Paul is also a playwright and his original musical, The Ethel Merman Disco Christmas Spectacular! premiered at Out Front Theatre Company in December of 2018. Paul also currently teaches courses in Theatre at Georgia State University.

Additionally, as a member of the City of Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board, Paul co-chairs the Arts, Culture and Entertainment subcommittee, and works directly with artists, community organizations and politicians to make the city of Atlanta a more inclusive and supportive place for all people. He has spoken on panels across metro Atlanta about the LGBTQ+ community, its history, and the role the arts have played in it. Outside of Atlanta, Paul has been featured in The New York Times and The Times of London speaking about the issue of prejudice facing the LGBTQ+ community and the backlash by some against free speech in theatre that focuses on these issues and stories.

Sean Dorsey is a San Francisco-based choreographer, dancer, writer, teaching artist and cultural activist. Recognized as the U.S.’ first acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographer, Dorsey has toured his work to more than 30 cities across the US and abroad – and taught with his explicitly trans-positive pedagogy in more than 35 cities.

Dorsey is a 2020 Doris Duke Artist and an inaugural Dance/USA Artist Fellow. He has been awarded five Isadora Duncan Dance Awards and the Goldie Award for Performance. In 2019, he became the first openly transgender person on the cover of Dance Magazine. A longtime social practice artist, Dorsey creates his works over a period of several years in deep relationship with/in community. Dorsey is also the Founding Artistic Director of Fresh Meat Productions – now celebrating its 20th Anniversary Season! Fresh Meat Productions invests in the creative expression and cultural leadership of trans and gender-nonconforming communities.

Bentley Hudgins was given the Local Community Builder Award by Georgia Equality for their work in comprehensive civil rights in Macon-Bibb County, recognized by the Georgia Voice as the “Up & Coming LGBTQ+ Youth” at the 2018 Best of Atlanta Awards Ceremony and was a finalist for the 2019 awards for Best Activist.

Bentley serves as the Director of Macon Unity, a civic engagement coalition focused on intersectional advocacy, serves on the Advisory Council for the Georgia Chapter of the Campaign Workers Guild and is a former committee member of the Board of Directors for STAG VETS INC, the nation’s first Acute Veterans Crisis Agriculture center.

Online April 18 1 – 3 PM EDT

Join 7 Stages for a special virtual conversation with Skye Passmore, Michelle Pokopac, Amee Vyas, Jack Ha and Associate Artistic Director Marium Khalid about the resilience and multifacetedness of the local AAPI artistic community, the reverberations of recent events, combatting Anti-Asian/American and xenophobic sentiment, and the Atlanta art scene’s relationship to social justice and politics. 

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Amee Vyas has been a fixture of Atlanta theater for 18 years, and a mainstay of Atlanta’s only year-round Shakespeare repertory ensemble, the Atlanta Shakespeare Company (ASC), for 16 years. While at ASC, she earned her Actors Equity card playing Viola in Twelfth Night; becoming the area’s first, and for a time only, Asian-Indian actress to join the professional union. Recently, Ms. Vyas was the Seattle-based Fern Shakespeare Company’s first resident guest director, where she directed Othello. Continuing a list of firsts, she co-founded East by Southeast, the only arts festival in the southeast to feature work by and of American artists of Asian-descent. The festival, like Ms. Vyas’ work on-stage, exemplifies her personal mission to defy traditional casting and produce stories that transcend color and gender.

Skye Passmore is an Atlanta-based actor, playwright and activist of Filipino descent. As a theatre actor he has been seen on the stages of Actor’s Express, Atlanta Lyric Theatre, Shakespeare On Draught, Serenbe Playhouse, Georgia Ensemble Theatre, and Warehouse Theatre. On camera he has had roles on “Star” (FOX) and several web series including the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons comedy “The Campaign.” As a playwright his work has been presented at Actor’s Express, Horizon Theatre Company, East by Southeast, and the upcoming Alliance Theatre’s Reiser Artist Lab.

Michelle Pokopac (she/her/hers) is an actor in both theatre and film based in Atlanta. In 2017, Michelle and her partners founded East by Southeast, an organization dedicated to supporting and developing local Asian artists. She is also a member of the group IDEA ATL (Inclusion, diversity, and equity in the arts of Atlanta), in response to the social and racial injustices brought forth from the theatre community of Atlanta.

Jack Ha is a native to Atlanta and is a graduate from Georgia State University. He is one of the co-founding partners with East by Southeast working on graphic designs and community artist outreach. He freelance on film productions through various departments from production assistant, production coordinating, casting, and grip. When he is not working behind the scenes, he is also an on-camera actor and stage performer and is represented by Houghton Talent.

Marium Khalid is a Pakistani-Kashmiri American writer, director and creator leading her companies SAiAH Arts and Sky Creature Productions to receive over 25 major awards. She recently joined 7 Stages as an Associate Artistic Director. Her previous work includes TERMINUS, an award winning immersive multi-layered story, and an experiential retelling of Moby Dick, winning her Best Director and Best Show. She received the CREATIVITY AND ARTS IMPACT AWARD from Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts. Most recently her short film MAZLOOM, was awarded Best Director, Best Film, and Best Actress from major film festivals as well as receiving official selections from others including the Atlanta Women’s Film Festival and the Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival.