Adong Judith: How I use art to bridge misunderstanding
Adong Judith: Hur jag använder konst för att överbrygga missförstånd
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,
som berättar om social förändring
att historier berör oss.
touch and move us.
och lär oss att ha empati.
and teach us to empathize.
of disadvantaged groups,
borta från social politisk teater
away from social, political theater
Idi Amin, förföljde artister.
by former Ugandan president, Idi Amin.
bryter jag tystnaden
I am breaking the silence
konversationer om tabubelagda ämnen,
conversations on taboo issues,
is the rule of thumb.
och utmanar oss till att tänka
and challenge our minds to think,
is its often one-sided nature
är dess ofta ensidiga natur
för alternativa synsätt,
som har andra synsätt
who see issues differently
korrupta eller helt enkelt dumma.
sellout or plain stupid.
only in different fields.
fast inom olika områden.
"stay in your truth" is misleading.
"håll dig till din sanning" vilseledande.
den man anser har fel
you believe is wrong
avenues of conversations.
till konversation.
to touch, humanize
för att beröra och humanisera
till bordet för samtal
to the conversation table
will not magically solve all problems.
någon magisk lösning på alla problem.
to create avenues
many of humanity's problems.
många av mänsklighetens problem.
för kriget i norra Uganda
of the Northern Uganda war
Joseph Konys rebellgrupp LRA,
and Joseph Kony's LRA rebel group,
politiska ledare, religiösa ledare,
political leaders, religious leaders,
och övergångsrättsliga ledare
and transitional justice leadership
om rättsliga frågor
of justice for war crime victims --
in the history of Uganda.
om dem alla just nu.
cover them all right now.
to sit at the table
den stora orättvisa de led av
the big injustice they suffered
krigsförbrytarnas förflytttning.
of the war perpetrators.
acknowledged the victims' pain
erkände offrens plåga
sina bristfälliga lösningar.
behind their flawed approaches.
that has stayed with me
pjäsens turné i norra Uganda
tour of the play,
och anhängare av Joseph Kony.
feeling disappointed,
skulle ge mig av besviken,
som opassande skratt.
inappropriate laughter.
was a laughter of embarrassment
för att han tyckte det var pinsamt
of his own embarrassment.
skådespelarna på scenen
hans tidigare handlingar varit.
of his past actions.
av era sanningar.
en starkare förenande sanning
a more powerfully uniting truth
chockade av min okunskap
would be shocked at my ignorance
som lasagne till exempel.
like lasagna, for instance.
about malakwang,
och mer kompletta individer.
richer and fuller individuals.
ert recept på sanning.
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