Planet Earth Artswas 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, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arberry, Rayshard Brooks and Tony McDade we confront another unbearably cruel and tragic moment in the 400+ year deja 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. • We now join with Playground in supporting actor/director/educator Aldo Billingslea and the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, as they launch The Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project with a Zoom live stream presentation of Vincent’s powerful play, presented with additional support from 30 allied Bay Area 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 is sponsored by Earth Island Institute, a (501)(c)(3) non-profit organization. Planet Earth Arts and Planet Earth New Play Festival are made possible by the generous support of Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Planet Earth Arts New Play Festival is a collaboration between Planet Earth Arts, National Center for New Plays, PlayGround and the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival
