EP and TAC have worked in collaboration since 2018 together, they formed CIRCLES. Knowing that parole-mandated reentry services typically tell individuals more about what they must do than asking them what they need, EP and TAC innovated a program that amplifies the voices and needs of formerly incarcerated people through storytelling and dance as a means of healing and community-building. 

CIRCLES was a 10-workshop curriculum utilizing restorative justice (RJ) and trauma-informed practices to explore topics such as resiliency, gender socialization, racism, structural/historical conditions of violence, and impact on victims/survivors. The program was designed to affirm the lived experiences and intersectional identities of participants; celebrate social dance forms rooted in Black and Brown communities; and provide a means of collective grieving, healing, and radical joy.

TAC has provided Restorative Justice training to EP dancers, and held restorative circles before and after EP’s performances as a way to engage community and tend to the emotionality of the stories EP holds. They’ve partnered on two of EP’s evening length performances including Music of the Actualized Child and X-RATED PLANET. TAC was instrumental in the research and development of X-RATED PLANET. 

EP is beginning a project generously funded by the California Arts Council to bring work inside of the Correctional Training Facility (CTF) at Soledad, where Kazu Haga has been running Kingian nonviolence programs since 2014. We are building on his current work at CTF and creating new opportunities for dance, spoken word, performance, and  Libratory Storytelling.  For more information about Kingian Nonviolence visit: https://www.eastpointpeace.org/kingian