Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation Program (CAST)

March 2018: De-colonizing Approaches to Arts-based Peacebuilding

The CAST minor presents: 

Dr. Babu AyindoDe-colonizing Approaches to Arts-based Peacebuilding: Dr. Babu Ayindo in Residence

Kenyan conflict transformation expert, theater artist and traditional storyteller
In residence at Brandeis University

From March 6 – March 12, Dr. Babu Ayindo will engage members of the Brandeis community in activities and conversations on questions surround decolonization and arts-based peacebuilding. In addition to sessions with members of the CAST advisory committee and students, he will lead sessions open to the Brandeis community. View the full flyer of events.

A generous gift from the Max and Sunny Howard Memorial Fund supported Babu's residency at Brandeis.

Open session of Professor Perdomo’s Documenting the Immigrant Experience

March 6, 2018

2:00 - 4:50pm
Olin-Sang 112
"Storytelling and Peace Building: Arts for Social Transformation"
This workshop examines storytelling and the arts as a medium through which social transformation can be achieved. Dr. Babu Ayindo, renowned artist-peacebuilder, outlines the impact of his own work and the ethical considerations he encountered along the way.

Open session of Professor Emilie Diouf’s African Literature and Human Rights

March 8, 2018

12:00 -12:50pm
Rabb 119
Engaging with Human Rights Through Community Theater
This session will examine the use of popular theater in Kenya to promote, educate, motivate and move people to action regarding human rights, especially in relations to gender and sexuality issues. Our featured resource practitioner, Dr Babu Ayindo will share stories of how indigenous theater is used as a powerful tool in human rights work.

Open session of Professor Tom King’s ENG 133a, Advanced Shakespeare

March 9, 2018

11:00am - 12:20pm
Shiffman 219
Dr. Ayindo will join students and visitors in a discussion of Shakespeare in decolonial contexts, thinking critically about both the colonial history of the texts and those elements of the plays that have made them attractive to theatre companies and adaptors in decolonial settings. Dr. Ayindo will also consider the work of storytelling in confronting conflict, leading an interactive exercise in adapting the central plot of Much Ado about Nothing (the sexual slander of Hero, her denunciation on her wedding day by her fiancé Claudio, and the staging of her death as a vehicle of reconciliation) as a way of reflecting on complex issues of gender, sexuality, consent, and conflict today.

Arts, Peacebuilding and Decolonization: A Conversation with Babu Ayind

March 12, 2018

12:00 - 2:00pm
The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Altman Amphitheater G1
Please join us for a conversation with scholar, artist, peace builder, and storyteller Babu Ayindo, who will present his dissertation: "Arts, Peacebuilding and Decolonization: A Comparative Study of Parihaka, Mindanao and Nairobi." Open to all Brandeis students, staff, and faculty. Refreshments will be served.

Open session of Emilie Diouf’s Refugee Stories, Refugee Lives

March 12, 2018

3:30 – 4:50pm
Brown Social Science 218
Performing Dislocation: this session will examine the role of storytelling performances as means for empowerment and advocacy in refugee camps in Kenya. Dr Ayindo will specifically focus on theater’s potential for cultivating peaceful cohabitations in refugee camps.

Storytelling Performance

March 12, 2018

7:00 - 8:30pm
Mandel Atrium
Part of A Powerful Fire: Performances to Energize Our Next Twenty Years (a part of the Ethics Center’s 20 anniversary Celebration)

View the full flyer of events:
babu-residency