The Spirit Survives: The Boarding School Experience Then and Now

Program Type:

Performance

Art Form:

Heritage arts, Storytelling

Curricular Connection:

Language Arts, Physical Education/Health, Social studies

Audience:

Children (Pre-K), Children (K-3), Children (Gr 3-6), Children (Gr 6-8), Children (K-12), Young Adults (18-21), Adults, Seniors, General Public

Program Fees:

Single show - $570
Back-to-back shows - $750

Fees above are for school programs in Maryland, Washington, DC and northern Virginia only. For non-school or out of area programs, please contact Class Acts Arts for details.

Additional travel fee will apply.

Artist:
Dovie Thomason

Description:

This original 90 minute story explores a tragic chapter in our nation's history. For decades the First Nations of North America suffered the loss of their children to government boarding schools, where they were forcibly "re-educated" to assimilation and "civilization", at the cost of culture and identity. Thomason introduces her listeners to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania and its profound and broad-reaching impact on Indian and non-Indian people since its inception in 1879 and far beyond its closing in 1918. She shades this history with personal memoir, biography of indigenous activists and culture keepers of the 19^th and 20^th centuries and the impact of the boarding schools on Indian people today. Her story explores the inner resources that enabled the spirit and identity of Native peoples to survive and raises provocative questions for all contemporary Americans: Why does this matter to Americans in the 21^st century? Can we learn from this? What must be done that we can move on? With honor, compassion and imagination, Thomason helps her audience become "comfortable with discomfort," in a journey of respect and reconciliation.

Study guides: