How I use art to bridge misunderstanding
1,037,795 views | Adong Judith • TEDGlobal 2017
Director and playwright Adong Judith creates provocative art that sparks dialogue on issues from LGBTQ rights to war crimes. In this quick but powerful talk, the TED Fellow details her work -- including the play "Silent Voices," which brought victims of the Northern Ugandan war against Joseph Kony's rebel group together with political, religious and cultural leaders for transformative talks. "Listening to one another will not magically solve all problems," Judith says. "But it will give a chance to create avenues to start to work together to solve many of humanity's problems."
Director and playwright Adong Judith creates provocative art that sparks dialogue on issues from LGBTQ rights to war crimes. In this quick but powerful talk, the TED Fellow details her work -- including the play "Silent Voices," which brought victims of the Northern Ugandan war against Joseph Kony's rebel group together with political, religious and cultural leaders for transformative talks. "Listening to one another will not magically solve all problems," Judith says. "But it will give a chance to create avenues to start to work together to solve many of humanity's problems."
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
About the speaker
Adong Judith uses art as a vehicle to drive social change and trains aspiring makers to create art that dares to ask serious questions.
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Theatre Directors’ Apprenticeship Program
In 2016, Adong designed the now annual Summer Theatre Directors Apprenticeship (https://www.silentvoicesuganda.org/apprenticeship-program), a two-tier program that combines production and training of ten aspiring theater directors by renowned local and international theater makers, under the auspices of Adong’s non-profit company, Silent Voices Uganda. Only Ugandans were eligible for the first two editions of the apprenticeship (2016 and 2017). The 2018 edition and future editions have been opened for to aspiring director across the African continent.
Adong has always been disturbed by the practicum gap in Uganda’s performing arts education due to limited and limiting training institutions, which was a big part of her struggle in the pursuit of her dream to be a theatre/filmmaker. Due to many eligibility inquiry emails from across the African’s continent, Adong recognizes that this practicum gap in performing arts training cuts across Africa, hence opening it up to the continent. The training is aimed to equip Africans with hands-on craft as well as mentor them in telling stories that dare to ask serious questions. Read more
Based on the success of this apprenticeship, Adong plans to start a similar program for the Youth in the slums, pairing them up with the more privileged youth (in international schools for instance). “There is unbelievable talent among disadvantaged young people like those who live in slums and have dropped out of school. What they need is someone to mentor them in the craft that would structure their talents in ways that would make humanity put value to them and give them the attention they deserve”, asserts Adong.
apply now for our Theatre Directors’ Apprenticeship, the call is open until 1st May 2018, for aspiring (inexperienced) and or experienced creative directors living on the continent.
Adong has always been disturbed by the practicum gap in Uganda’s performing arts education due to limited and limiting training institutions, which was a big part of her struggle in the pursuit of her dream to be a theatre/filmmaker. Due to many eligibility inquiry emails from across the African’s continent, Adong recognizes that this practicum gap in performing arts training cuts across Africa, hence opening it up to the continent. The training is aimed to equip Africans with hands-on craft as well as mentor them in telling stories that dare to ask serious questions. Read more
Based on the success of this apprenticeship, Adong plans to start a similar program for the Youth in the slums, pairing them up with the more privileged youth (in international schools for instance). “There is unbelievable talent among disadvantaged young people like those who live in slums and have dropped out of school. What they need is someone to mentor them in the craft that would structure their talents in ways that would make humanity put value to them and give them the attention they deserve”, asserts Adong.
apply now for our Theatre Directors’ Apprenticeship, the call is open until 1st May 2018, for aspiring (inexperienced) and or experienced creative directors living on the continent.
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Silent Voices
Silent Voices is a poignant war crimes story that mirrors views and emotions of actual victims of the Northern Uganda war. Exploring how victims were ignored in the constant calls to "forgive" and "reconcile" at the expense of justice. The play received emotive reviews, successfully setting precedent for the rebirth of theatre since Amin’s terror 70s
The play, which questions the underlying issues neglected by the Amnesty Act, was inspired by Adong’s personal interviews with the children under rehabilitation at World Vision Center, where she was studying the use of theatre in the psycho-social support of former child soldiers of the LRA rebel group. While the religious rehabilitation taught forgiveness, without which "they would go to hell," most of the children confessed that without religion, "there was no way in hell they would forgive." Community dialogues also revealed that their parents were dissatisfied with the way rebels were being "rewarded" with what was dubbed resettlement package (money, cars, housing etc) under the Amnesty Act, while victims still had wounds to nurse. Watch extracts of Silent Voices’s World Premiere at the Uganda National Theatre here. The play is coming out in an anthology of Contemporary African Women Playwrights by Methuen Publishers in 2019.
In 1991, 44 girls were abducted by Kony’s LRA rebel group from Adong’s High School, Sacred Heart Girls School, in Northern Uganda. Six years later, October 1996, 139 other girls were abducted from St Mary’s College by the same rebel group. A non-fiction novel Aboke Girls about an Italian nun who pursued Kony’s rebels in search of the 139 is available on Amazon)(https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Children-Abducted-Northern-Uganda/dp/9970022563).
Kony 2012 depicts the same war that Adong writes about in Silent Voices. Adong knows only too well the experiences of sleeping at the popular bus park depicted in the video under the popular night commuters, a phenomenon that describes the act of hundreds of children commuting to the bus park every evening and returning home every morning to avoid abduction by Kony and his men.
The play, which questions the underlying issues neglected by the Amnesty Act, was inspired by Adong’s personal interviews with the children under rehabilitation at World Vision Center, where she was studying the use of theatre in the psycho-social support of former child soldiers of the LRA rebel group. While the religious rehabilitation taught forgiveness, without which "they would go to hell," most of the children confessed that without religion, "there was no way in hell they would forgive." Community dialogues also revealed that their parents were dissatisfied with the way rebels were being "rewarded" with what was dubbed resettlement package (money, cars, housing etc) under the Amnesty Act, while victims still had wounds to nurse. Watch extracts of Silent Voices’s World Premiere at the Uganda National Theatre here. The play is coming out in an anthology of Contemporary African Women Playwrights by Methuen Publishers in 2019.
In 1991, 44 girls were abducted by Kony’s LRA rebel group from Adong’s High School, Sacred Heart Girls School, in Northern Uganda. Six years later, October 1996, 139 other girls were abducted from St Mary’s College by the same rebel group. A non-fiction novel Aboke Girls about an Italian nun who pursued Kony’s rebels in search of the 139 is available on Amazon)(https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Children-Abducted-Northern-Uganda/dp/9970022563).
Kony 2012 depicts the same war that Adong writes about in Silent Voices. Adong knows only too well the experiences of sleeping at the popular bus park depicted in the video under the popular night commuters, a phenomenon that describes the act of hundreds of children commuting to the bus park every evening and returning home every morning to avoid abduction by Kony and his men.
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Just Me, You and THE SILENCE
Jacob Obina, a proud, ambitious dreamer in Kampala recognizes a golden opportunity when he lands a prestigious Parliament seat. Determined to rise further on the political ladder, he introduces a bill that divides the nation and catapults him into the media spotlight. But when a shocking secret is revealed, Obina is forced to choose between his desire for fame and love for the person he cherishes most in the world.
Adong drew her inspiration for this story from her experience of meeting her first openly gay man at Sundance Theatre Lab, a year after Uganda’s 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill was tabled at Uganda’s Parliament. It was in that moment that the dire reality of Uganda's "Kill the Gay Bill" hit Adong … thinking, had he been Ugandan, then he would be at the risk of being hanged for being gay. “I believe human beings are mostly deeply affected by circumstances if they happen to someone close enough. Otherwise, we tend to ignore things sometime until the experience feels more personal’, says Adong of this experience.
Adong drew her inspiration for this story from her experience of meeting her first openly gay man at Sundance Theatre Lab, a year after Uganda’s 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill was tabled at Uganda’s Parliament. It was in that moment that the dire reality of Uganda's "Kill the Gay Bill" hit Adong … thinking, had he been Ugandan, then he would be at the risk of being hanged for being gay. “I believe human beings are mostly deeply affected by circumstances if they happen to someone close enough. Otherwise, we tend to ignore things sometime until the experience feels more personal’, says Adong of this experience.
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Ga-AD!
Ga-AD! tackles religion, spirituality and the prosperity Gospel and the underprivileged place of women in this prosperity while in Holy Maria, a fatal but lucky facebook accident sends Ann-Marie, wife to Pastor John Semana, on an unforgettable adventure with her husband’s mistress, Princess Alicious.
Ga-AD! is a bald and bawdy play inspired by a poem that Ugandan poet, Nambozo Beverley Nsengiyunva shared on facebook in 2013. Moved by a line in the poem in which the persona, a pastor, tells his wife that they finally have got their miracle son through their maid, Adong, who was still a graduate filmmaking student at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA, reached out to Beverley with a pitch to collaborate. Thus
Ga-AD! drew from a collection of poems by Beverley based on her research in Kampala Pentecostal Churches into religion, gender and power relations.
Ga-AD! is a bald and bawdy play inspired by a poem that Ugandan poet, Nambozo Beverley Nsengiyunva shared on facebook in 2013. Moved by a line in the poem in which the persona, a pastor, tells his wife that they finally have got their miracle son through their maid, Adong, who was still a graduate filmmaking student at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA, reached out to Beverley with a pitch to collaborate. Thus
Ga-AD! drew from a collection of poems by Beverley based on her research in Kampala Pentecostal Churches into religion, gender and power relations.
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Holy Maria
Holy Maria was Adong’s response to a call by the Short + Sweet International Theatre Festival Zimbabwe for 10 minutes plays exploring how social media has affected our lives. The work first showcased at Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA 2013) before being adopted into a 30-minute play. More about the play.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.