We are incredibly excited to bring the Arts Equity Summit to you in its new virtual format! Join us in community online for three days of art and conversation exploring issues of equity in and through the arts.

Tickets are free and donations based, and you can register for Virtual AES2020 HERE .

Check out the spotlights below to learn more about some of the performing artists who will be sharing their incredible talent and thought work with the #AES2020 community.

REGISTER TODAY

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

This lineup of performers will be live-streamed April 24th from 6:30pm-8:30pm EDT .

Have a fun night in with us as we celebrate resilience and resistance through art!

In particular, we want to thank Red Sage Stories/Playback Theatre and Aysha Upchurch for creating pieces directly engaging with ACI's research on the cultural equity gap. Click HERE to read the research report, Moves Toward Equity: Perspectives of Arts Leaders of Color .

A Dorchester/Roxbury based performance troupe of predominately People of Color, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and intergenerational. RSS creates space for healing and empowerment for individuals and communities of diverse backgrounds through Playback Theatre and other performance art forms. They are the only Playback Theatre troupe that regularly performs with an ASL interpreter as part of their company.

Aysha Upchurch, the Dancing Diplomat, is an artist and educator who creates, facilitates, and designs for radical change. Whether on the stage or in a classroom, Aysha is on the move to crush borders and show how Hip Hop and movement education are D.O.P.E. - dismantling oppression and pushing education.

Red Shaydez is a multi-faceted, boxer robe-wearing bully of a hip-hop artist and the queen of cool, whose lyrical prowess leaves nothing standing in its wake. The Boston-born lyricist, filmmaker, and mentor has been featured on MTV, Fox 25 News, Hot 96.9 FM and performed at A3C, HubWeek 2018, BAMS Fest 2019. She has just been nominated for “Unsigned Artist of the Year” at the 2019 Boston Music Awards.

Laid-back R&B feels and emotionally-driven honest lyrics are what define Boston-based singer/songwriter, Ava Sophia. Ava has performed at numerous venues in the Boston metropolitan area, has toured in New York City, Los Angeles, Valencia Spain, and has been featured by MTV’s TRL. She is striving to inspire through her music.

Boston Performing Artist and Activist Zakiyyah is fusing her passion for social justice with her unique artistic background of opera, jazz, R&B, and Hip-Hop. She recently released her first single, "Shades of Black (The Hip-Hopera) to break barriers and encourage people of color to not compromise themselves in order to fit into white spaces. The single preludes her upcoming album African Import.

Dzidzor (Jee-Jaw) is a Ghanian-American folk, performing artist, author and entrepreneur. Dzidzor’s style of call and response has re-imagined poetry and story-telling as a way to include the audience in a experience to challenge, inspire and encourage self beyond traditional forms. She began performing through slam poetry and now curates spaces like Black Cotton Club, and teaches at Grubstreet, Mattapan Library and Brookview House.

POWERED BY HOWLROUND

Livestream for Friday night's programming is made possible by HowlRound Theatre Commons. You can watch the livestream HERE on April 24th, starting at 6:30pm EDT .