Black Lives Matter

Dear Friends,

The recent murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless other black lives have left us overwhelmed with grief and anger. Our hearts continue to break with the abundance of deficient leadership, chronic ignorance on the internet, and the passivity of many self-described non-racists. We believe that the time is now for us all to open our hearts, educate ourselves, and take action in order to build a more compassionate, creative, and resilient country.

At Rec Room Arts, we understand that theatre is an essential social service that has the potential to progress our society forward through the power of story and community. Indeed, we are obligated to call out injustices. We hope our fellow theatre organizations in Houston and beyond will join us in raising awareness and taking action.

We acknowledge that this dark timeline is nothing new and has been brewing since the inception of our country through systemic racism. There is no way for us to escape our past and inherent biases, however, we are passionate about equity, inclusion, and justice. To that end, we are committed to developing a theatre utopia through the stories we tell, the people we hire, and the audiences we engage. There is no place for hatred or racism within our modest building at 100 Jackson Street. We pridefully rally with and stand behind the eradication of racism now and forever.

There is a lot of work to be done, we are weary but we are hopeful. We leave you a quote from our last play, PASS OVER by Antoinette Nwandu. A story that is frustratingly stuck on repeat in our country: 

MOSES:
you want all this to stop
these plagues
dat eat’cho whole damn life like locusts
stop killing us
stop killing us
stop killing us
thus sayeth my God
STOP KILLING US
and get’cho goddamn house in order

With love,
Rec Room Arts