Historic Redress
There are many areas of social and political activism that we care deeply about and fight for as individuals. Our intent as a company is not to shift Khecari’s mission away from creating live performance. The four areas we’ve identified for business redress feel like those issues directly relevant to Khecari’s functioning.
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- Businesses can operate in Chicago because the land was first stolen from the Indigenous tribes that had lived here, and the people of those tribes ethnically cleansed from the region; Khecari’s office space, rehearsal spaces, and the venues where we perform all occupy previously Indigenous land. The DNA of the food system in the United States is the stolen land of Indigenous people and the stolen labor of African people. This DNA remains intact and unrectified. (Leah Penniman, Black Futures)
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- The overall economic wealth of our country is premised on slavery and the ongoing economic inequity that results from racism; the institutions of philanthropy and the private wealth that form Khecari’s contributed income have benefited from that foundation. The growth of industry involved the violent expropriation of an immense amount of work from African slaves, and the expropriation of huge swaths of land and resources from Indigenous people. Without this cheap labor supplying cheap raw materials, growth could not have taken off. (Giorgos Kallis, Degrowth)
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- Men have been able to go out and work a full time job because a woman at home has cooked, cleaned, and raised children; the dance field in particular witnesses 80% women at an entry level and less than 50% women by mid-career, and women in the dance field continue to receive less pay and opportunities than men. Estimates show that the product of unpaid household work is nowadays 20-50 percent of market production in most countries. (Giorgos Kallis, Degrowth)
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- The fabrication of material goods and places of business, of computers and wireless networks, the running of electricity and consumption of gas in travel, all necessary to business, continue to radically degrade the environment; these are all elements still intrinsic to Khecari’s functioning. A barrel of oil contains the equivalent of 10,000 – 25,000 hours of free human work – the global consumption of fossil fuels today amounts to each one of us having 50 slaves. (Giorgos Kallis, Degrowth)
