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This session contributes to the dialogue generated by the mobilization of Black Lives Matter and a growing demand for transformative social and racial justice across the nation. Historian Kimberly Springle moderates a conversation with Washington, D.C., natives Michelle Banks and Kenny Carroll along with Salvadoran immigrant Quique Aviles about how they have deployed theater and poetry to express and grapple with the issue of race. 

Once a predominantly Black city, D.C. has been the site of social justice struggles since its beginnings. The Washington metropolitan area also has the second largest Salvadoran immigrant community in the country. Active as cultural activists for over three decades, Kenny, Quique, and Michelle will examine the intersecting histories of D.C.’s Black and Latinx communities, from the founding of the LatinNegro theater collective in 1985 to the creation of the country’s first Youth Poetry Slam League in the 1990s to the present.