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Bull City Dignity project examines Durham’s history and identity

Durham-postcardThis summer, a group of rising juniors and seniors from Durham high schools will take part in The Bull City Dignity Project, a documentary theater project of the Kenan Institute for Ethics based on the lives of Durham’s diverse community members. Led by a team of Duke University students and faculty, the cast of Bull City Dignity will spend the summer turning interviews with Durham community members into a work of community storytelling. Heading up the project are Kari Barclay (director of Duke’s Me Too Monologues) and Lara Haft (slam poet and 2014 Kenan Summer Fellow).

Lara is writing periodic updates on the project, which discusses some of the themes from the interviews, as well as some of the issues they are exploring as a group, such as how to be authentic to another person’s voice, and how to present opinions against your own with respect and nuance:

We decided early on with our cast not to shy away from the points of tension in Durham’s history that can give insight into the city’s unique identity. Yet, there’s a fine line between examining these conflicts in a nuanced, thoughtful way, and using differences in opinion to manufacture cheap drama.