STATEMENT

We proudly stand with Black people and communities of color in this time of resistance. We hear you, we love you, we support you, and we will fight for you. We are united with you in the struggle against an anti-Black America and a whitewashed American theatre. We share your desire for radical, systemic change, and we are starting in our own backyard.

The mission of River & Rail demands radical inclusivity, and is why we adopted our name from two unique landmarks of Knoxville. The Tennessee River and the railroad are points of pride for the Knoxville community, but they also draw dividing lines across our city. We took the name River & Rail because of our wholehearted commitment to serve all Knoxvillians, regardless of the dividing lines that separate us. It is impossible for us to do that without taking a passionate antiracist approach in everything we do. Up to this point, we have not been vocally or explicitly antiracist in our messaging and our actions, and we want to remedy that now.

We have reviewed the demands of WSYWAT, and we are extremely grateful for the time, effort, and labor that went into the creation of this document. We also offer our gratitude to all of you that completed surveys as part of our racial equity audit. Both of these things have helped us identify the first steps we can take as an institution to ensure that our culture and practices are equitable and antiracist. Below, we describe actions we are taking in response to our racial equity audit, WSYWAT, and the Black Lives Matter movement. We understand that becoming antiracist is lifelong work, and we are in it for the long haul. In that spirit, the below list is not comprehensive of all of the steps we are taking to become antiracist and promote equity, because we believe being antiracist comes from the moment to moment decisions we make as individuals. However, this list is important to hold ourselves publicly accountable, and to mark the beginning of our journey.

In the pursuit of racial equity, and in an effort to dismantle the systems of white supremacy within our own organization, River & Rail is committed to taking the following action*:

• Increase the diversity of our administrative staff and artistic collaborators with an emphasis on recruiting, hiring, and supporting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
• Prioritize applications from BIPOC candidates in our search for a new Managing Director, and create a racially-diverse search committee for the position
• Move towards a shared leadership structure at the executive level
• Program at least five productions by BIPOC authors for every ten shows we produce, and commit to at least 50% representation of BIPOC playwrights in our commissioned work and internal reading series
• Institute regular antiracist, equity, and inclusion trainings for all staff members, contract employees, and front of house personnel
• Include antiracism workshops / training at the beginning of each rehearsal process
• Provide a culturally competent facilitator who is well-versed in antiracism training for each rehearsal process and artistic endeavor
• Establish a land acknowledgement practice at the beginning of every official meeting and first rehearsal ritual, in which we recognize tribal sovereignty and the debt that Indigenous people continue to pay for allowing others to be on their homelands
• Create an antiracism statement to be read at all first rehearsals and official meetings
• Regularly recognize and acknowledge the enslaved Africans who lived and were subjugated to free labor in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the broader region of the American Southeast
• Regularly recognize and acknowledge the exclusion, exploitation, and misrepresentation of Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern, and all People of Color
• In the interest of creating a safe and welcoming space for BIPOC audience members, we commit to abolishing the policing of audience response and the behavior of BIPOC audience members
• Create meaningful, lasting relationships with more BIPOC artists and administrators in Knoxville and beyond
• Nurture and highlight the successes of our BIPOC collaborators, and consistently employ them for a variety of productions, not just “BIPOC shows”
• If and when we hire BIPOC artists to reimagine works originally created by White artists, we will advocate for their free interpretive rein over the piece
• Hire designers and technicians who have proper training in the styling and consultation of Black hair and makeup, and in the effective lighting of BIPOC skin tones
• Provide financial support for employees’ mental healthcare, especially when they are involved in an artistic project that deals with racialized trauma
• Work with marketing professionals who know how to engage BIPOC communities to ensure that the work of BIPOC artists has the audience for which it is intended
• Expand our Community Engagement Program, which donates one ticket for every ticket sold, with an emphasis on including more BIPOC audience members
• Require all staff to read selected works by authors of color on antiracism and theatre practice; meet regularly as a staff to discuss
• Establish Election Day as a paid holiday for all staff and contract employees
• Offer paid time off for staff to engage in civic action against oppressive systems and anti-Blackness
• Refrain from ever establishing a 10 out of 12 tech rehearsal day or a six-day rehearsal week
• All positions at River & Rail, whether full-time, part-time, or contract work, will pay a fair, living wage; if BIPOC artists are expected to do work such as marketing, fundraising, event appearances, etc. it will be included in their contract and they will be fairly compensated for their time and labor
• At each staff meeting, evaluate our success or failure in establishing antiracist practice, and discuss ways that we can continue to improve
• Explore other steps we can take to become an antiracist organization, and continue to add to this list

*Thanks to the writers of WSYWAT, whose language in their list of demands has informed and been incorporated into this list.