Adong Judith: How I use art to bridge misunderstanding
阿東.珠地絲: 我如何用藝術來彌合誤解
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,
我講有關社會變遷的故事,
觸及內心並感動我們,
touch and move us.
並教會我們同理心,
and teach us to empathize.
of disadvantaged groups,
遠離社會和政治的舞台──
away from social, political theater
開始迫害藝術家後。
by former Ugandan president, Idi Amin.
I am breaking the silence
conversations on taboo issues,
這些話題的經驗法則。
is the rule of thumb.
及挑戰我們的心靈去思考,
and challenge our minds to think,
is its often one-sided nature
是它通常是片面的,
who see issues differently
容易妥協或愚蠢的。
sellout or plain stupid.
only in different fields.
"stay in your truth" is misleading.
「堅持你的真理」這句話會誤導人,
you believe is wrong
avenues of conversations.
to touch, humanize
去觸動和賦予人性,
to the conversation table
will not magically solve all problems.
無法神奇地解決所有問題,
to create avenues
解決許多人類的問題。
many of humanity's problems.
戰爭受害者而作,
of the Northern Uganda war
所領導的聖主抵抗軍間的戰爭。
and Joseph Kony's LRA rebel group,
political leaders, religious leaders,
及過渡司法領導人聚集在一起,
and transitional justice leadership
展開關鍵的對話──
of justice for war crime victims --
in the history of Uganda.
cover them all right now.
to sit at the table
the big injustice they suffered
of the war perpetrators.
acknowledged the victims' pain
的措施背後的邏輯。
behind their flawed approaches.
that has stayed with me
tour of the play,
feeling disappointed,
帶著失望的心情離開,
我認為不適當的笑聲,
inappropriate laughter.
was a laughter of embarrassment
of his own embarrassment.
of his past actions.
a more powerfully uniting truth
would be shocked at my ignorance
例如千層麵。
like lasagna, for instance.
about malakwang,
一道精緻的蔬食料理。
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