Adong Judith: How I use art to bridge misunderstanding
阿东·朱迪思: 我如何用艺术来弥合误解
Adong Judith uses art as a vehicle to drive social change and trains aspiring makers to create art that dares to ask serious questions. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
who tells social-change stories,
写一些社会变革的故事,
打动并驱动我们。
touch and move us.
并教会我们同理心。
and teach us to empathize.
of disadvantaged groups,
迫害艺术家开始,
away from social, political theater
无法涉及社会和政治话题。
by former Ugandan president, Idi Amin.
I am breaking the silence
激发有意义的交流对话,
conversations on taboo issues,
奉行着“沉默是金”的原则。
is the rule of thumb.
并激发我们去思考,
and challenge our minds to think,
is its often one-sided nature
激进主义的片面思维,
who see issues differently
背叛或者纯粹的愚蠢。
sellout or plain stupid.
only in different fields.
每个人都是专家。
"stay in your truth" is misleading.
“坚守你的真理”的说法是一种误导。
你认为错误的那个人
you believe is wrong
avenues of conversations.
来打动和感化人们,
to touch, humanize
to the conversation table
will not magically solve all problems.
神奇地解决所有问题。
to create avenues
many of humanity's problems.
北部战争受害者的采访,
of the Northern Uganda war
LRA反叛军之间的战争。
and Joseph Kony's LRA rebel group,
political leaders, religious leaders,
政治领袖,宗教领袖,
and transitional justice leadership
和过渡政府领导人召集到一起
of justice for war crime victims --
为战争罪行的受害者诉求公道——
in the history of Uganda.
cover them all right now.
to sit at the table
the big injustice they suffered
巨大的不公正待遇,
of the war perpetrators.
acknowledged the victims' pain
behind their flawed approaches.
背后的想法。
that has stayed with me
tour of the play,
feeling disappointed,
inappropriate laughter.
was a laughter of embarrassment
of his own embarrassment.
of his past actions.
毫无意义。
a more powerfully uniting truth
会吃惊于我对
would be shocked at my ignorance
比如千层面。
like lasagna, for instance.
about malakwang,
的一道高级蔬菜料理。
richer and fuller individuals.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Adong Judith - Playwright, filmmakerAdong Judith uses art as a vehicle to drive social change and trains aspiring makers to create art that dares to ask serious questions.
Why you should listen
Founder and artistic director of Silent Voices Uganda, a nonprofit performing arts company, Adong Judith creates art that provokes meaningful conversation on issues often considered taboo.
Notable among her training programs is the annual Summer Theater Directors Apprenticeship, a two-tier program that combines production and training of ten aspiring theater directors. Originally only for Ugandans, Judith has opened the 2018 and future apprenticeships to aspiring theater directors across the African continent, who she believes share the same challenges in practicum gaps.
In 2018, Judith will be in residence at Illinois State University, where she will direct her 2016 social media buzz-stirring play, Ga-AD!, which explores spirituality and the place of women in Pentecostal churches. Her first social change play, Silent Voices, which she wrote after accidentally encountering the inescapable stories of war crime victims in her hometown of Gulu, developed at Sundance Institute’s Theater Lab, received its world premiere in 2012 at the National Theater of Uganda and was described by the Ugandan media as "the spiritual rebirth of theater since its decline due to political persecution of artists by the Idi Amin regime."
Adong’s plays are taught at Ivy League Universities including Dartmouth College and Princeton University, and she recently signed a contract with Methuen Publishers UK to publish Silent Voices in an anthology of Contemporary African Women Playwrights.
Adong Judith | Speaker | TED.com