In this episode, we speak with Dr. Honor Ford-Smith about her successes and her challenges in bringing feminist values and ways of being to participatory action research with black working-class women in Jamaica as well as communities affected by violence. Dr. Ford-Smith discusses reimagining participatory action research through collaborative or collective performance theater as an approach to knowledge creation and action.

Dr. Ford-Smith retired from York University in Toronto, Canada, where she was an Associate Professor in the Community Arts Practice Program, which was under the Faculty of Environmental Studies. She's currently an Artist-in-Residence at the School of Drama in Edna Manley College, Kingston, Jamaica, where she's working on her newest project - Memory, My City, My Home. She is also the co-founder of the Sistren Theatre Collective. Dr. Ford-Smith is an activist, artist, scholar, theater worker, and poet. Her work emphasizes the intersections of race, decolonization, and globalization in the Caribbean and its diaspora. She engages in community-based, socially-engaged, collaborative performance theater.

The conversation starts with exploring our guest’s journey into community-engaged participatory research (02:26). Topics discussed include the accomplishments and the knowledge production through Sistren collective (05:18); challenges and reception of plays depicting Black women's experiences in Jamaica (12:00), feminist research and action through the Caribbean Association of Feminist Research and Action (19:50); arts-based workshops and the Letters from the Dead project (30:16), Vigil for Roxie and collaborative performance through participatory research (37:59); community-engaged performance creation and Song for the Beloved (42:58); collaborative and collective theater for social change (52:44), and new forms of art for social change, including the digital mapping project (55:43). Tune in to hear more!

Learn more about our guests, their work, and references mentioned in the episode at our companion site: https://www.parfemtrailblazers.net/. This episode is hosted by Patricia Maguire and produced by Vanessa Gold, Shikha Diwakar, and Kavya Harshitha Jidugu. Music is by Zakhar Valaha from Pixabay.