upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024

upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024

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Art of Survival: Agents of Escape

Art of Survival: Agents of Escape

Friday, December 8th 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm

The Galleries at Moore, Moore College of Art and Design
1916 Race St,
Philadelphia, PA 19103

For one-night only, The Escape Artist Initiative joins forces with Theatre in the X for Art of Survival, Agents of Escape. This mash-up of scripted performance, didactic media and interactive game play engages audiences in creative problem solving and critical thinking exercises borrowed from Theater of the Oppressed techniques, emergency response trainings and choose-your-own-adventure narratives. On this 90-minute survival mission led by Li Sumpter of MythMedia Studios, attendees learn emergency protocol through memorable “escape scenes” from popular film and news headlines dramatized by a core cast of Theatre in the X. In an age of violence and vulnerability, Art of Survival, Agents of Escape offers a fresh take and timely focus on community readiness and resilience through the eyes of artists and everyday hero/ines.

This event is FREE and open to the public with donations welcome* and will take place in The Levy Gallery for the Arts in Philadelphia.

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The Escape Artist Initiative (EAI) is an artist-led, community-based awareness and direct action campaign that promotes preparedness and public safety in underserved and overlooked communities. Through performative workshops, PSAs, public art and DIY media, EAI provides practical tools, survival tips and creative strategies for navigating emergencies, real and imagined. From black outs and terrorism to natural/unnatural disaster and alien invasion, EAI draws from current events and pop culture entertainment to bring the art of survival to life. The Escape Artist Initiative is a project of MythMedia Studios.

Li Sumpter (Director MythMedia Studios/Escape Artist Initiative) is a multidisciplinary artist who employs strategies of eco-arts activism and mythic design to raise awareness of existential threats to self, humanity and the planet. Through interactive installations, public intervention and experimental game play, Li engages audiences in emergency scenarios and philosophical inquiry about fate and the future through the lenses of speculative fiction and afrofuturism.

Theatre in the X provides the people of West Philadelphia and the African American community at large the opportunity to see professional quality theater in their own neighborhood for no cost. By removing the barriers of location and price, audiences are able to experience theater that they would be unlikely to access otherwise.


*All Donations from Art of Survival, Agents of Escape will support EAI’s People’s Emergency Broadcast System Mapping Initiative and Theater in the X

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