RE:BUILD – An Anti-Racist Book Club
Open to anyone in the ArtsWest community and beyond, RE:BUILD is an opportunity to read and discuss books on race – and to work together as a community to build ongoing anti-racist practices into the foundations of our work and life.
In four meetings spread out over eight weeks, participants will read and discuss Ijeoma Oluo’s SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE in a series of conversations facilitated by Naho Shioya.
Thanks to your interest, the book club is now full.
We’re hoping to offer another edition of the book club in late Spring.
This event takes place online via Zoom. After you’ve registered, you’ll receive an email from ArtsWest with links and further instructions. Meetings will be held Monday / Wednesday evenings from 6:30pm – 8pm every two weeks on the following schedule:
Monday Session: February 22, March 8, March 22, and April 5.
Wednesday Session: February 24, March 10, March 24, and April 7.
ArtsWest audiences perhaps know Naho best for her extraordinary performance as Gina in OFFICE HOUR, but organizations and artists throughout the region also know her for her generous and insightful work as a teaching artist and racial equity consultant. Led by Naho, together we’ll discuss how we can factor Ijeoma Oluo’s ideas into our own particular relationship to theater and art.
This book club is offered free of charge. Participants will need to acquire their own copy of SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE. We recommend buying from our friends at Sistah Scifi. Email isis@sistahscifi.com to get your copy!
If you need assistance in order to participate, including obtaining a book please email laural@artswest.org. If you’re not available to participate but would like to donate to help subsidize the purchase of the book for others, please let us know!
BIO
Naho Shioya has over 20 years of professional experience working in nonprofit, public, and private sectors as an educator, artist, and consultant. Ms. Shioya strives to connect our culturally and socially diverse communities through exploration, presentation and education, and has the ability to engage people from all walks of life through creativity and active learning. She has successfully engaged various organizations and partners in conversations on Race and Social Justice, and facilitated many workshops and training sessions. She is well versed in developing and facilitating workshops to fit the need of the organizations and agencies and assisted many groups and department leaderships on inclusive outreach and public engagement efforts. She is experienced in developing and implementing organizational race and social justice initiatives, creating and guiding racial equity teama, developing organizational diversity, equity and inclusion assessment, creating organizational strategic plan based on anti-racist practices, and developing Race and Social Justice Work Plans. As an artist, she has worked internationally in Asia, Canada, Europe and the U.S. Locally she has appeared at Seattle Children’s Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, On the Boards, and Arts West, among others. As a director and teaching artist, she has worked with various organizations and schools in the greater Puget Sound area including Seattle Repertory Theatre, Book-It Repertory Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Youth Theatre Northwest, Studio East, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, Seattle Public Schools, and City of Seattle. She is a member of the experimental, multi-disciplinary arts group Aono Jikken Ensemble (AJE) for which she is a performer, vocalist and benshi (silent film narrator).
