PROJECTED WORLD PREMIERE: 2027 SF BAY AREA
The Pla[y/n] for Reparation$ purpose is to demystify, promote, and cultivate everyday practices that support building a culture of repair. This mission is achieved by developing & producing live cultural & artistic events that engage the public in imaginative approaches to reparations, centering relationships & connecting communities, and offering embodied practices that move social justice from ideas to actions.
This interactive multidisciplinary project invites participants to explore, discuss, and practice individual and collective healing through performances, workshops, classes, and cultural events. Reparations is a pressing issue in California and beyond, yet there is a lack of cultural spaces for collective engagement. This project addresses that void, using the California Reparations Report (2023), set forth in AB-3121 (2020), to connect participants with healing-centered practices across housing, policy, education, labor, and more. The 1000+ page report details the harms of discriminatory federal policies against African Americans and offers policy solutions, but fails to bring these histories and healing concepts to everyday people.
The performance is intended for an audience of diverse identities and opinions whose choices will guide them through various chapters of the piece, much like a choose-your-own-adventure book, punctuated and/or interwoven by discrete moments of performance by e. Franklin and self-selecting participants. The goals of the project are to heighten participants’ understanding of intersectional healing/repair and to build practical skills in advancing this notion through role play and experiential learning. *This project is supported by a grant from the MAP Fund* Other project supporters include:
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
Charlotte Street Foundation Residency MAY 12 – JUNE 2, 2026
This installation of the decision tree utilized locally sourced recyclable materials & tape.
Open Rehearsal: May 30
This OPEN REHEARSAL excerpt features a bootleg recording of the Artist exploring the use of an auction where participants vote for their preferred topic with Tubman’s (project currency). The highest collective bid determines what happens next in the performance.
OMNI Stewardship Pilot Residency NOV 2025 – MAR 2026
Public Workshop Pilot: March 7 & 8
Images of the event show participants in collective conversation, a creative response, food, community agreements, the artist facilitating, and a whiteboard unpacking the concept of reparations. Over two sessions workshop participants redistributed $1000 to advance our everyday practice of repair.
Preview Performances: December 11, 12, 13, & 14
Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency AUG 2024 – JUL 2025:
Week Four (of Four): July 14 – 20, 2025
Week Three (of Four): April 21 – 27, 2025
Week Two (of Four): January 6 – 12, 2025
Images show the next physical iteration of the analog algorithm, the largely sustainable materials used to create it, the basic tech set-up, and the artist in the studio. The video sample features the artist doing a studio teaser with a test audience on January 11, 2025 during an “Art Party.”
Week One (of Four): August 27 – 31, 2024
Images show the initial physical iteration of the analog algorithm, a bucket-bot, and the artist in process. The audio sample features the artist using looping technology to create an improvised fugue with simple questions.
Weisman Museum Residency: August 2019
Images show a draft of an analog algorithm created during a residency at a museum, in which five artists lived at the institution for three days in August 2019. This proof-of-concept sketch was created with tape, paper, sharpie, and participation.
e. Franklin 