LOS ANGELES: The Joy-Jackson Initiative (JJI), an organization dedicated to creating equity by providing guidance to institutions to create the safest possible spaces for BIPOC artists, administrators, and audiences, is partnering with Black Theatre Girl Magic to present A Town Hall for the Live Theatre Community: BIPOC Equity in the Arts. The town hall will be streamed on Facebook Live at 8 p.m. ET on Oct. 30.

The goal of the town hall is to help the theatre community better understand the experiences BIPOC communities have in theatre. The event will also inform the continued development of JJI’s Joy-Jackson Assessment, a learning tool with questions designed to help theatres identify oversight in their attempts to be more inclusive of BIPOC people within their organization, covering such topics as tokenism, performative allyship, and complacency. Additionally, this assessment will allow organizations to develop and pledge both immediate and long-term solutions aimed at repairing harm and creating spaces that are safe for BIPOC theatremakers.

Town hall panelists will include Newton Theater Company artistic director Melissa Bernstein, Glow Lyric Theater artistic director Jenna Esler, Next Stop Theatere producing artistic director Evan Hoffman, Tiffany Holmes of Drama Learning Center, and Free to Be Me executive director Vanessa Knowles. The panelists are also participants in the second beta cohort of the Joy-Jackson Assessment. In addition to the panel discussion, there will be a Q&A.