Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance, 1965–2020, by Those Who Lived It

Review
"This spectacular book earns its title, Meeting the Moment, in every way. At a time when our society has never needed the questing hearts of engaged artists more, Jan and Rad build spectacularly long bridges over almost six decades of boundary-breaking performance traditions. From the foreword through the final chapter, Meeting the Moment is provocative, smart, moving, and useful." -- Bill Rauch, inaugural Artistic Director of the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center
"Meeting the Moment is a powerful story of love, courage, and joy. Profoundly moving and intellectually astute, Jan Cohen-Cruz’ and Rad Pereira’s book is testament to two lives spent fighting injustice with creativity and finding hope in places of hurt. Delicately crafted to include the voices of many people who have been part of their journeys, the book shows why performance matters both in the present moment and in newly imagined futures." -- Helen Nicholson, Professor of Theatre and Performance, Royal Holloway, University of London; author of Applied Drama and Theatre, Education and Performance
"A rich and deep reflection on artists who prompt forms of engagement that enliven civic life and place. Whether it is through the movements of placemaking, placekeeping, or placeknowing, it is an art about the we―not the privatized we of me and my friends, but the secular we that includes people one doesn’t know, as in ‘We the people.’ How imagination and policy condition each other is revealed through these profiles of dynamic, creative practitioners that assert the social and artistic passions of ‘We’ in a just, robust, and fully realized democracy." -- Roberto Bedoya, Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Oakland
"Meeting the Moment is a reminder of what is possible when we return to our bodies, collective performance, and the poetic expression of social movements. This book offers a look into the complexity, the richness, and the aliveness of liberatory art practices, in a time where art is being co-opted for elite interests - a must read for all interested in freedom and dignity." -- Niki Franco, Co-Founder and Political Education Director for (F)Empower Mia and Civic Engagement Organizer for Power U - Center for Social Change.
The experiences of a diverse range of progressive theater and performance makers in their own words.
Curated stories from over 75 interviews and informal exchanges offer insight into the field and point out limitations due to discrimination and unequal opportunity for performance artists in the United States over the past 55 years. In this work, performers, often unknown beyond their immediate audience, articulate diverse influences. They also reflect on how artists are educated and supported, what content is deemed valuable and how it is brought to bear, as well as which audiences are welcome and whether cross-community exchange is encouraged. The book’s voices bring the reader from 1965 through the first wave of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020. They point to more diverse and inclusive practices and give hope for the future of the art.