2020 Festival Popup
A LOVE THING: Live Taping
Before the pandemic changed all our plans, #HealMeToo Productions was so proud to have co-sponsored a SOLD OUT #HealMeToo Festival Popup Event with The Mayor’s Office to ENDGBV, The Angel Band Project and The Tank. Featuring performances of original work by teens from NYC’s JKO High School, we observed Teen Dating Violence Prevention Month—and recorded it live for #HealMeToo Podcast Season 2, which premiered on Valentine’s Day.
About The #HealMeToo Festival & Podcast
Inspired by “metoo.” movement founder Tarana Burke, in Spring 2019, the first-ever #HealMeToo Festival brought together over 190 artists and experts for three weeks in 30 workshop performances, panels, podcast tapings, and participatory workshops. Through a developmental residency at the IRT Theater, we created an intersectional space for conversation, learning and laughter to spark resilience and cultural change. In recognition of sexual violence awareness month, we asked how we can heal.
In 2020, the conversation continued on the #HealMeToo Podcast and in a #HealMeToo Festival Popup Events co-produced by the Mayor’s Office to End Gender-Based Violence, led by Founding Artistic Director and Host, Hope Singsen.
Then, everything changed. In these times, survivors and our communities are experiencing compound traumas in confinement, illness, uprising, and economic stress. So on July 6, #HealMeToo Productions launched a very special Season 3 of the podcast—#HealMeToo At-Home—with insights, art and activism to meet the needs of now.
Hear Seasons 1, 2 & 3 and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch every interview in Season 3. And please let us know how your thoughts and feelings on social. We are @healmetoofest on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
2019 Festival
2019 Quick Links:
Workshop Performances & Special Events
opening night: NYC teens + talkback
immersive event: identifying “the predator” in the era of #metoo
devil in a box
skin
truth & reconciliation of womyn
growing wild
activist triple-bill: pussy grabber plays/emma sulkowicz award/activist training
a bad night
she said
i killed the cow
self/worth: variety show
Gutless & Grateful
Live Podcast Tapings
Emma Sulkowicz on Activism & healing
Tonya pinkins & lindsay lederman on neuroscience of trauma & healing through arts
3 survivor advocates on healing the culture
netflix’s katie cappiello & moth exec producer sarah austin jenness on personal storytelling & healing
#theatretoo panel convened by let us work
Hear these episodes and more in Seasons 1, 2 & 3
Performances & Special Events
Opening Night: NYC Teens & Teen Talkback
Gifted teen artists and activists of JKO High School and GoodCapp Arts co-headlined the Festival’s Opening Night, performing excerpts of their original work, followed by a talkback led by Teen Eye Magazine phenom Em Odesser and Elise Schuster, co-founder of okayso.co, the sex, dating and relationships advice app for youth.
Growing Wild–
by Shona Tucker, directed by Elizabeth Van Dyke
A gorgeous solo performance by Broadway’s Shona Tucker on her nights off from To Kill a Mockingbird, about a family's inter-generational quest to heal from the trauma of a mysterious sex crime. Live music by Jack Gulielmetti.
Truth & Reconciliation of Womyn–curated by Tony-winner Tonya Pinkins
Three evenings of restorative narratives by leading intersectional feminist playwrights, plus talkbacks, addressed historical and contemporary stories of the oppression of and by womyn to offer paths to healing.
Identifying “'the Predator” in the Era of #MeToo
An immersive experience presented by HERassment and curated by filmmaker Carmen LoBue with celebrated guests including Tony Award-winner and Times Up member, Tonya Pinkins, actress Michelle Hurd, NYT bestselling author and award-winning actress Jennifer Esposito, internationally touring writer, Caroline Rothstein, activist Ruby Anaya, head of product at Swing Left, and others to be announced.
Devil in a Box–by Sarah Jane Johnson, directed by Patrice Miller
Equal parts poetic theater and feminist stand up, about the journey of a young American woman from sexual assault, through the French justice system and into life after trauma. Told with disarming honesty, beaucoup d’humour, and a 24 oz. can of Miller Lite.
SKIN–
by Hope Singsen, directed by Jessi D. Hill
Frank and funny, this queer love story with music explores some of the ways art helps us heal, tracking a grad student's creative road back to intimacy after early life sexual violence. Her work grows inventive—even sensual experience becomes a medium for discovery. But after you learn to guard against life, can you open up again?
Emma Sulkowicz Award, Pussy Grabber Plays & Activist Training by Ana Maria Archila’s org
We presented a selection of plays inspired by the women who came forward to tell their stories of Trump’s sexual assaults, followed by the first-ever #HealMeToo Award presentated to Emma Sulkowicz for their Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight) at Columbia University. We finished with kickass activist training from the lead organizer of Flake Elevator shero Ana Maria Archila’s CPD-Action, to teach us all to craft our stories into persuasive tools for change.
A Bad Night
Playwrights Nicole Pandolfo and Amy E. Witting paired a reading of their documentary play about acquaintance rape and consent, A Bad Night, with an expert talkback on prevention and Justice.
Self /Worth
A full-length variety show of uplifting multi-disciplinary dance, puppetry, songs and stories. These beautiful, playful and powerful works grapple with intimate partner violence as well as undocumented or marginalized status. They celebrate queer resilience and breaking the cycles of trauma. Throughout, they explore the many roads to healing after coersion, harassment and assault. Learn about each artist below.
Gutless & Grateful–by Amy Oestreicher
Following sold-out runs at theatres & international conferences, award-winning actress & playwright Amy Oestreicher brought her hit one-woman musical to the #HealMeToo Festival, as seen on NBC's Today, CBS, Huffington Post, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, TEDx, and more. The performance was followed by a talkback on healing from sexual assault, cultivating resilience, and sharing stories through theatre.
Panel-Podcast Tapings
The Moth’s Sarah Austin Jenness & NETFLIX’s Katie Cappiello
Sarah Austin Jenness, Executive Producer of The Moth, joined playwright Katie Cappiello in conversation about how and why telling our personal stories can be healing.
“Mattress Performance” Hero, Emma Sulkowicz
Legendary performance art/activist Emma Sulkowicz (Mattress Performance/Carry That Weight) and Festival Founder Hope Singsen met for a conversation about the ways activism and art can be healing.
TONY-winnerTonya Pinkins & Art Therapist Lindsay Lederman
Tony Award-winner and #HealMeToo presenting artist Tonya Pinkins joined the Clinical Director of The Art Therapy Project to consider healing through the arts with a special focus on the neuroscience of healing trauma.
Advocates Eric McGriff, Nastia Gorodilova & Amanda Burden
What forms of intervention and prevention may help to #HealMeToo? Learn about consent education, bystander training, Restorative Justice, and more from an expert panel of survivor advocates.
#TheatreToo Panel–convened by Let Us Work
Rachel Dart and Stephanie Swirsky, activists and co-founders of advocacy group Let Us Work, will convene a dynamic #TheatreToo panel on ways artists are organizing to take the "whisper" out of the network.
Participatory Workshops
Introduction to Intimacy Direction with Drama Desk Winner Claire Warden
Learn about the considerations required when creating and performing scenes of intimacy from an international leader of the movement and part of the teaching team of Intimacy Directors International.
Art Therapy Workshop
#HealMeToo Festival Sponsor The Art Therapy Project offered an art-making activity workshop. Led by art therapist Suzanne Deisher, ATR-BC, LCAT, attendees gained an understanding how art therapy is used to help those who have experienced trauma.
Move to Move Beyond with Gibney
An innovative and effective program from dance performance and social justice powerhouse Gibney that uses the transformative power of movement to make a difference in the lives of intimate partner and gender-based violence survivors.
Self / Worth Variety Show Acts
Do You Want Me to Stop by Maybe Burke
Actor, writer, and human rights advocate Maybe Burke presented a video paired with their audio #MeToo narrative. Maybe is a co-curator of the Trans Theatre Festival at The Brick, and the founder of The Trans Literacy Project with Honest Accomplice Theatre.
The Virgin Stripper by Raquel Almazan
Reflecting the personal #MeToo experience of the playwright, this piece is a revolutionary call to action for women to defend themselves against their abusers in their home, work place and societies at large.
Scarcity Freezer–by Glenn Marla
Artist and Art Therapist Glenn Marla performed an extended excerpt from their work Scarcity Freezer, a puppet show about Mothers, Imagination, queer resilience, food, and breaking cycles of trauma.
Maria–by Micaela Mamede
A playful and poignant interdisciplinary dance performed by an ensemble of non-U.S. born immigrant women and allies, about a young woman’s journey through the sex industry and intimate partner violence while undocumented in NYC.
The Dues That Must Be Paid–by Yvette Heyliger, directed by John Scutchins
A monologue in which a middle-aged African American actress recounts her story of sexual harassment and assault.
Baggage at the Door–by Dana Aber
When falling in love triggers latent PTSD, she might just be f#ck*d. This song cycle unpacks the process one woman undertook to put her past traumas aside and love again.
