SHOW's Anti-Racism Commitment

SHOW's Anti-Racism Commitment

We acknowledge that SHOW is a community of predominantly white people in a predominantly white area of Massachusetts, and that we are members of the world of American circus, which has a long and problematic history of racism which continues to this day.

We are in an active process of understanding our role in both of these contexts, and developing tangible and meaningful ways to support the ongoing local and national anti-racism movement led by people of color and youth. We acknowledge that our efforts will be imperfect, and that they will require personal and financial sacrifices. We are committed to doing this work because it is the most important thing we can do for the safety of our community.

This list is by no means comprehensive, but it is a starting point. This page will serve as accountability and transparency in these endeavors, and will always be available here on our website.

What We're Doing

These are the steps in progress right now

Representation Inventory: We are taking a serious look at our space and the images we have. We want to make sure that black people and people of color are represented as authors of the books in our waiting room, in the picture of performers. If you would like to help us add books by black authors or featuring characters of color, we are accepting used books, and you can support these authors and a local business by ordering them from a local or black owned bookstore. See our list of books and bookstores here!

Educating Ourselves: Staff are organizing to educate ourselves on the history of racism in circus, and doing the work of personal anti-racism education and processing. We are committing to having ongoing anti-bias conversations and trainings.

Spreading the Word: If you or your organization is running an event, please let us know by reaching out to info@showcircusstudio.com, and we will happy to discuss how we can help promote it to our community, or ways we could help sponsor!

What We Want to Do

As the COVID-19 situation evolves, and we think about how we are reopening these goals we have for the future

Financial Support: In recognition of the financial impact of structural racism, we are working on creating new payment plan options for people of color, and opportunities for members of our community to pay account payments for people of color. We are expanding our scholarship options with scholarships specifically for youth of color.

Offering our Space: Many members of our staff have offered to volunteer time so that we can make our waiting room space available to our community. SHOW hopes to offer free meeting space to local groups led by black people and people of color on Fridays and Sundays, social distancing permitting.

SHOW Crisis and Deescalation Team: We are so thankful to have a Social Worker on our staff. A long term goal for the studio is to have a crisis intervention and deescalation training for our staff, so as to be more prepared to serve the mental health needs of our community.

Ways You Can Help

Here are some links to community organizations and resources

If you would like to add your event, group, or organization here please reach out to info@showcircusstudio.com

413 Stay Woke Stay Active: Whether person of color or ally, this group is for you because they promise that there is #aplaceforeveryone in this movement. This is a group that post upcoming meetings, events, and demonstrations to help keep you informed AND to combine efforts as needed. You can find this group here.

01027: A Knee is Not Enough: 01027: A Knee is Not Enough is organizing to turn the symbolic kneeling gesture into transformative change of policing in our city. You can see their facebook group and info request form at the previous links.