#tanujadevijagernauth

[maryaspontlemus]

For this installment of “Beyond the Page,” I interviewed Tanuja Devi Jagernauth—Indo-Caribbean playwright, dramaturg, organizer—about how her practices in theater, prison abolition, healing justice, and transformative justice interconnect; creating spaces for BIPOC theater-makers; doing mutual aid during and beyond the pandemic; and how she challenges systems of oppression and struggles for collective liberation through her work.

Read the interview on the Sixty Inches from Center website. Jagernauth’s short play, To Know A Neighbor, is also embedded within the article!

Image description #1: Tanuja Devi Jagernauth. In this medium close-up photo, a self-portrait, Jagernauth looks at the camera with a firm expression. She wears glasses, red lipstick, hoop earrings, a headwrap, and a black cardigan over a black shirt that reads “WE DON’T PLAY,” repeated. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Image description #2: A digital illustration with four overlapping quadrants. In the top left-hand corner, three bees face a section of honeycomb. In the bottom left-hand corner, two people smile behind transparent face masks, each person holding part of a bag’s handle. The bag depicts a heart against a tree, with a broad circle behind that. In the bottom right-hand corner, a hand holds a pencil poised above the first line of a new sheet of paper. In the top right-hand corner, hand-written words float in the air (action, mutual aid, building, alignment, restructuring, bravery, struggle, ideas, collaboration), with dark blue, purple, and pink shading behind each. The left side of the illustration is yellow, the right side is blue, and they fade together to make green in the middle. Illustration by Teshika Silver (@astratesh).

[maryaspontlemus]

Did you ever wonder what it might look like to perform in an online play, live on the internet, during a period of physical distancing…?

On Friday night, I had the pure delight of performing in readings of several brand new, unrevised, unrehearsed short plays—devised within 48 hours as part of a Paula Vogel COVID “Bake-Off,” where each writer had to incorporate certain assigned “ingredients” into their creation of a piece of and for this time. This reading event was organized by Tanuja Devi Jagernauth and Quenna Barrett, and featured writing by Elon Sloan, Sofia Fey, Quenna Barrett, Sharai Bohannon, Liz Haas, Tanuja Devi Jagernauth, Ling Yue, and Casey VanWormer.

Each performer played their roles from their own home/locale, connecting with each other and the attendees live via Zoom. One of my favorite aspects of this online event was how “in community” I felt with the audience, who participated throughout by writing their fantastically creative and critically-minded responses to the ongoing action via the chatbox! Much hilarity and poignancy was had. I feel very fortunate for this collective gift. <3

Image descriptions: Two photos of a computer monitor, showing the author in medium close-up as she performs to another computer’s camera. Her clothes are brightly colored, as is the background. Whitish-blue light from the laptop reflects off her glasses and face. In the Zoom interface, chat notifications and messages are slightly visible at the bottom of the frame. Photos courtesy of my partner.