Embodying Antiracism at Wesleyan

The arts at Wesleyan are not just an academic discipline; they are a practice, a way of knowing, and a critical force for social change. Launched in 2021 by the Provost’s Office and the Center for the Arts, Wesleyan’s Embodying Antiracism Initiative was an ambitious, multi-year leadership training program that placed creative practice and rigorous research at the center of the University’s work to foster an equitable and antiracist community.

The Center for the Arts served as a trusted curator, creator, and convener, guiding the initiative to address critical societal issues through collective action. “The project provided resources to faculty, community members, guest artists/scholars, and students doing the often-unseen antiracist organizing labor,” says Jennifer Calienes, then Interim Director of the Center for the Arts.

The Embodying Antiracism Initiative was conceived as a response to Wesleyan’s institutional commitment to renewed action against hate and the national call to move beyond dialogue toward systemic change. For Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Nicole Stanton, creative practice was essential to this mission. “Through this remarkable interdisciplinary cohort and in close collaboration with our partners, we had the opportunity to align our efforts, provide much-needed peer support, and cultivate new platforms for leadership training that nourish our campus as an antiracist environment,” Stanton says.

As part of the initiative, Wesleyan partnered with three nationally renowned groups of artist-organizers—each led by Black women—in a process of reciprocal exchange:

The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond provided its authoritative Undoing Racism® Community Organizing workshops, long regarded as the “gold standard” in antiracist training.

Junebug Productions, organizational successor to the Free Southern Theater, used its Story Circle pedagogy to amplify marginalized narratives.

Urban Bush Women contributed its 40-year tradition of using innovative dance for social engagement, sharing its values, principles of organizing, and Entering, Building, and Exiting Community training workshops.

“For the first time, all three organizations are integrating our principles inside one workshop,” says Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Founding Artistic Director and Chief Visioning Partner for Urban Bush Women. “We are hopeful that this initiative will move forward in a way that allows this profound antiracism work to enter other universities.”

At the center of the Embodying Antiracism Initiative was the Think Tank, a multidisciplinary, intergenerational cohort of 13 Fellows who worked together during the 2022–2023 academic year. The group—students, faculty, community members, and visiting guest artists—put theory into practice through rigorous collaboration.

Their work was nurtured in salons: intimate, informal gatherings designed for deep dialogue. Fellows shared sensitive works-in-progress and served as thought partners for one another’s ideas. Projects discussed were striking in their range and depth.

Assistant Professor of Economics Karl Boulware presented research on stratification economics and its insights into why Black communities face greater hardship during recessions. Olivia Adams ’23 advanced her senior thesis—a fantasy drama TV show. Visiting Guest Artist Fellow nia love discussed choreography for UNDERcurrents, exploring the relationship between the trans-Atlantic slave trade and ecology. Community Fellow Sacha Armstrong-Crockett shared a restorative approach to fair-housing education.

Vulnerability was central to this process, allowing Fellows to confront difficult realities such as code-switching and respectability politics. The salons became spaces for exploration, creativity, and imagining a more just and inclusive world.

The Embodying Antiracism Initiative culminated in the week-long Summer Leadership Institute, “The Power of We,” which featured public events designed to deepen antiracist practice and foster belonging. The keynote event brought together Michelle Miller, co-host of CBS Saturday Morning, and Stephanie McKee-Anderson, Executive Artistic Director of Junebug Productions. Urban Bush Women hosted a dance workshop connecting social dances to Civil Rights history, underscoring that history can be learned through the body.

“The People’s Institute co-founders understand that the arts and culture have played a key role in every movement for social justice and transformation,” says Dr. Kimberley Richards, Organizer, Core Trainer, and Interim Director for The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. Wesleyan’s initiative, she notes, expresses the belief that the courageous deployment of the arts can be a core strategy for civic renewal.

The Summer Leadership Institute closed with Urban Bush Women’s Exiting Community workshop, which offered a powerful metaphor for antiracism work: like a lifelong dance practice—and like the fundamental ballet movement, the plié—it demands continuous personal, familial, and institutional reflection.

By giving participants the organizing tools, creative space, and collective support to imagine and work toward a better future, Wesleyan’s Embodying Antiracism Initiative fostered a vital network of empathy and action—one that extends across campus and into the Middletown community.