Adong Judith: How I use art to bridge misunderstanding
אדונג ג'ודית: איך אני משתמשת באומנות על מנת לגשר בין אי הבנות
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,
סיפורים על שינוי חברתי,
touch and move us.
נוגעים ומרגשים אותנו.
and teach us to empathize.
ומלמדים אותנו להזדהות.
of disadvantaged groups,
away from social, political theater
הרחק מהתיאטרון החברתי פוליטי
by former Ugandan president, Idi Amin.
הנשיא האוגנדי לשעבר, אידי אמין.
I am breaking the silence
conversations on taboo issues,
is the rule of thumb.
היא ההלכה למעשה.
and challenge our minds to think,
למוחות שלנו לחשוב,
is its often one-sided nature
הוא לעתים קרובות הטבע החד צדדי שלו
who see issues differently
את הדברים בצורה שונה
sellout or plain stupid.
ממוסחרים או פשוט טיפשים.
only in different fields.
רק בתחומים שונים.
"stay in your truth" is misleading.
"דבוק באמת שלך" מטעה.
you believe is wrong
מאמין שטועה
avenues of conversations.
to touch, humanize
בשביל לגעת, להאניש
to the conversation table
will not magically solve all problems.
תמיד יפתור באורח קסם את כל הבעיות.
to create avenues
many of humanity's problems.
הרבה מבעיות האנושות.
"קולות שקטים",
of the Northern Uganda war
המלחמה בצפון אוגנדה
and Joseph Kony's LRA rebel group,
של ג'וזף קוני,
political leaders, religious leaders,
מנהיגים דתיים,
and transitional justice leadership
of justice for war crime victims --
עבור קורבנות פשעי המלחמה--
in the history of Uganda.
cover them all right now.
לעבור על כולם כרגע.
to sit at the table
the big injustice they suffered
ממנו סבלו
of the war perpetrators.
מחדש של פושעי המלחמה.
acknowledged the victims' pain
behind their flawed approaches.
גישותיהם הפגומות.
that has stayed with me
tour of the play,
הצפונית במחזה,
feeling disappointed,
אותי בהרגשה של אכזבה,
inappropriate laughter.
was a laughter of embarrassment
of his own embarrassment.
of his past actions.
במעשיו בעבר.
האמת שלך.
a more powerfully uniting truth
would be shocked at my ignorance
המומים מהבורות שלי
like lasagna, for instance.
about malakwang,
richer and fuller individuals.
מלאים ועשירים.
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