Edited by Ruth Farmer & Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Interview, Theatre for Change from the chapter “Performing for Social Change: Interviews with Kao Kue, Taina Asili, and Katt Lissard.” 2015

Editor Ruth Farmer: Over the winter holidays, I talked with three artists about using performance as a catalyst for social change, and their thoughts about the transformative language arts field. Kao Kue is a Philadelphia-based Hmong spoken word performer, poet, storyteller, and teacher. Taína Asili is an internationally-acclaimed singer/songwriter, who also facilitates social change workshops. Katt Lissard is a Goddard College faculty member, artistic director of the international Winter/Summer Institute, and a Fulbright Scholar. The women’s primary art forms are very different – spoken word, singing, and theater. However, they all use these forms as ways to foster communication among communities about pressing social issues, ranging from police brutality to prison reform to HIV/AIDs. MORE