Using Banned Books, this program provides space for students to investigate Censorship and Intellectual Freedom rights from a lived experience. Hand2Mouth (H2M) teaching artists use the H2M Dialogue and Difference curriculum to encourage youth to engage in discussion and discovery on past, present, and future effects of censorship. We use presentational, performative, and public interviews as a mode of discovery to understanding and empowerment.

H2M would like to note that: We Do Not aim to provide a finite picture of this discovery but instead a series of ongoing questions that provides the student with an interest in their empowered participation in the process of change.

H2M will teach ensemble building to develop trust and understanding with students.
First we will define censorship in a group setting though open discussion, writing, listing, and categorizing exercises.

Then, we use improvisation “ on your feet” exercises to explore motivations on why material might be removed. We use improvisation to provide space for personal discovery around a topic or theme in a fun environment.

We’ll then create a list on categorizing reasons why books have been banned along with a discussion on how discrimination might play a role in book banning.

Then, we divide students into smaller groups to discuss and create a scenario that might see that reason as valid or invalid. We then move back to a series of movement / improvisation to explore free expression, exploring the censorship of personal expression and freedom of thought.

Youth will then interview someone within their community that has a personal connection to censorship. This can occur in class- with students asking in a 1:1 setting about a specific book that meant something to them, or we can encourage them to interview someone at school / home / within their community. Interview results are then shared in a group setting, asking students what the connected to in the experience.

We then move students into what we call small group creation, where youth incorporate learned experiences to put together smaller pieces to present. These can be varying performative methods: podcasts, a play, spoken word, social justice presentation, etc.

The residency culminates in a presentation of these smaller creations.

This program offered by: Hand2Mouth Theatre