Civic Improv Anti-Racist Policy

We, the members of Civic Improv, believe Black Lives Matter and stand with the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPoC) and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities against racism. We are committing ourselves to creating an anti-racist environment, one that is safe for all people to participate in, and to amplify the voices of these communities. 

We acknowledge the ways improv theaters and the improv community have privileged, and continue to privilege, whiteness. We acknowledge that we can do better and are committed to doing so. We acknowledge that we, Civic Improv, lack racial diversity, as does the improv community as a whole. We are committed to not tokenizing BIPoC and AAPI improvisers, to improving our relationships with BIPoC and AAPI communities, and to breaking down as many barriers as possible to create an inclusive, diverse, accessible, and welcoming environment. 

We are committing ourselves to doing the work internally and externally. This is a living document that we will continue to update as we learn. In this moment: 

Internally - We are committed to continuing our anti-racist education, reflecting and improving on our own implicit biases, and changing our racist thoughts and behaviors. 

Externally - We are committed to these action items: 

- All teachers, coaches, committee members, and volunteers must complete Bystander Intervention training through hollaback! 

- We will create improv-specific anti-racist and bystander intervention trainings that we will require for all teachers, coaches, committee members, and volunteers twice a year.

- An open, transparent coach application process. 

- Have race-transcendent casting. 

- Drop-in workshops that will be held at least once a month and will run as pay-what-you-can. 

- Continuing to offer jams that will run as pay-what-you-can. 

- Disrupting the physically and mentally damaging “the show must go on” mindset. - Cultivating our committees to better represent the demographics of Southeast Michigan.

- Continue to hold monthly anti-racist meetings to hold ourselves accountable, make changes, and continue working toward breaking down barriers. 

- When harm is done, we are committed to restorative justice and repair.

- We are working toward creating a common language about anti-racist topics. 

This statement is to hold ourselves accountable and for others to be able to hold us accountable.