Community Partner Spotlight: DARE

COMMUNITY PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

by Bradly Widener

DARE

ounded in 1986, DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality) began as a group of Providence Southside residents gathered around a kitchen table to solve problems in their neighborhood. Today, DARE continues to champion social, political, and economic justice by organizing low-income families in communities of color. Part of their groundbreaking work included partnering with Trinity Rep in 2018 to explore how to use art F We identified playwrights who had been in conversation with DARE and their members and asked them to write short plays around the topic of housing instability. Over the course of four workshops and several conversations, these plays [became] the focus of America Too 2018: Providence Housing Crisis.” The culminating event of America Too each year is a free-to-attend, staged reading of locally written plays that illuminate the topic, followed by a robust audience discussion. America Too 2018: Providence Housing Crisis indeed opened to shine a light on housing insecurity in Providence. folks’ eyes to the deep-seated inequities that exist in the local “A group called DARE saw the good work that we had housing market. Three years later, DARE is still fighting for been doing…and they asked how they could help us engage housing equality in light of loopholes that allow landlords to the community as activists with our art making,” recounts evict tenants in the midst of the pandemic. Joe Wilson, Jr., a resident acting company member at Trinity DARE’s efforts extend much further than just housing Rep and founder of America Too, an initiative that utilizes equality, however. Over the years, DARE has focused

PICTURED ABOVE: DARE’s the performing arts to reflect on the times in which we live resources on issues ranging from protecting and improvmarch to the Barbara and catalyze community conversation. “So, we had a series ing playgrounds on the Southside to winning passage of

Jordan II homes in South of conversations with DARE, and they educated us about the Providence External Review Authority (PERA) which

Providence to demand they gentrification and affordable housing and the complexities established a civilian review of the Providence Police. In July remain affordable to very around that. In many ways, artists are often viewed as ‘gentri- 2020, DARE won passage of a law that removes barriers to low-income families. BELOW: fiers’ – going into neighborhoods that had been in existence accessing over one hundred professional licenses, such as

A scene from America Too for a long time and ‘rejuvenating’ them, which often times, those for plumbers, drivers, and barbers, for applicants with 2018: Providence’s Housing leaves behind the people who had been there for generations. criminal records. DARE uses “four interconnected strategies

Crisis in Trinity Rep’s Dowling After discussing with DARE for a long time, we decided to to build power, win campaigns and fuel a lasting movement

Theater. make America Too…about the housing crisis in Providence. for social change.” These strategies, “base building,” “direct action organizing,” “leadership development,” and “movement building,” have empowered DARE to achieve numerous successes since their founding. We all know the phrase, “actions speak louder than words.” Well, it’s abundantly clear from their actions that DARE is deeply committed to making a real difference in the lives of so many disenfranchised local residents, and indeed, DARE has made Providence and Rhode Island a much better place for it. We applaud DARE’s incredible tenacity and accomplishments and look forward to strengthening our partnership to further shed light on systemic issues that affect our local community. More information about DARE can be found at www. daretowin.org or on Facebook @daretowinri, Twitter @ renterpowerpvd, and Instagram @dare.pvd.