Dear Freehold Community,
In these dark times, yet again, we see the anguish, outrage and suffering caused by lethal racism and systemic oppression against the Black Communities in our country. We mourn the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and so many others. We must advocate for justice, equality and equity, and participate more actively in dismantling the racism at the root of this violence.
Freehold is dedicated to lifting every voice. We stand with our community of Black artists, staff, students, community partners, audiences, and supporters – your voices matter and your lives matter.
As an organization that believes in the power of art to shine a bright light on the terrible truths of our behavior – individually and collectively – we recognize we have work to do. We need to follow the Black leaders in anti-racist and social justice advocacy, listen to what is needed, and work in solidarity with them. We must participate with honesty, vulnerability, humility, empathy, and the courage to act: calling out, reversing, and beginning to heal the systemic racism that permeates our society. Some resources we are turning to and organizations we invite you to support:
We believe art also has the power to connect us more deeply to people unlike ourselves and create a new respect, recognition, and appreciation of what makes each person uniquely extraordinary and alike at the same time. To that end, we share resources specifically for our artist partners in this fight:
LANGSTON at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute
Yours in partnership,
Robin Lynn Smith
Artistic Director
