BLACK LIVES MATTER

Silence Is Violence

Planet Earth Arts was founded in 2014 out of our conviction that environmental and social justice are the most urgent issues of our time, and our belief that the arts, in collaboration with the sciences and the humanities, must play a leading role in transforming the human presence on our planet from a destructive role to one that is mutually beneficial to the entire community of life. • With the brutal murders of George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, Tony McDade and Walter Wallace, Jr., we confront a continuum of unbearably cruel and tragic moments in the 400 + year déjà vu nightmare that continues to haunt an America plagued by the deadly cancer of racism – enforced through White Supremacy and enabled by our White Privilege.

In 2016 Planet Earth Arts, in collaboration with PlayGround, commissioned playwright Vincent Terrell Durham to develop a play about the explosive encounter between white environmentalists and the Black Lives Matter movement. Polar Bears, Black Boys & Prairie Fringed Orchids was first produced with Stanford Repertory Theater as part of our Environment and Social Justice Festival at Stanford University in Summer 2019. • In June 2020 we joined with Playground in supporting actor/director/educator Aldo Billingslea and the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, as they launched The Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project with a Zoom live stream presentation of Vincent’s powerful play, presented with additional support from more than 40 allied theater companies. The Project’s goal is to center Black theater artists and new voices, address systemic racism in the theater industry and raise funds in support of Black Theaters around the country.

PLANET EARTH ARTS – The Earth is a work of art. Protecting her is the work of artists.