Housing and school segregation are closely intertwined, yet the story of how that came to be is rarely taught. The students at EPIC Theatre Ensemble were commissioned to write a play about this topic through the EPIC Next Program. Through extensive research, starting with the Segregated by Design website (an exploration of Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law), and including interviews with over 30 stakeholders in education and housing, the students created Between The Lines, an original play exploring the connections between America’s housing policies and educational segregation. They set out to answer the questions, how have we managed to parcel out privilege in a public school system that’s supposed to be free and open to everyone? Their art serves both as an outlet for the shock they felt in learning this history, and also an invitation to deeper, more productive civic dialog about a topic that can often be fraught.

We are joined by student actor, Dilisima Vickers, and co-artistic director, Jim Wallert, to discuss how the show came to be, and what they learned through making it. We also share excerpts from the show, including an original song called Segregated by Design, Jane Crow Real Estate, and a game show called The Color Code.

LINKS:

• EpicTheaterEnsemble.org
• Trailer for Between The Lines
• S6E2 – EPIC’s “Nothing About Us”: Youth Theater on Integration
• Citizen Artists: A Guide to Helping Young People Make Plays That Change the World
• Segregated by Design website
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America– by Richard Rothstein
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Poverty, Race, and Research Action Council – the organization that commissioned Between the Lines
• Interview from PRRAC’s Journal with Dilisima about Between the Lines

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

We’re thrilled to be joining Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website.

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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