I had the opportunity to attend a theater department event with Kaja Dunn. I knew nothing about this event going in. I know that she was being brought in to work on developing anti-racist practices in our theater department, but I had no idea what we would be talking about at this introductory style meeting. I also knew that she had hosted another workshop earlier in the day, which I had unfortunately missed due to my class schedule. I later learned that this meeting had been a presentation based lesson about her work and what she planned to do at Muhlenberg. 

The Meeting which I attended was formatted as an open conversation. It was a place for students to share concerns about what they had been seeing during their time in the department. As a freshman student who hasn’t been very involved in any department shows yet, I did not feel as though I had much to personally contribute, but it was very interesting to hear what others were saying. It was an incredibly safe environment and people were able to share things that I had actually noticed and thought about but never felt comfortable saying anything about. The existence of this even gave me a lot of respect for the Muhlenberg Theatre and Dance faculty. It is hard to take criticism and giving us an outlet to voice our concerns in a way in which they would be productively discussed and brought back to them anonymously was very brave. I am excited for Kaya’s continued work with this program.