Theater Workshop Explores What it Means to Feel Safe

For some, feeling safe might mean knowing your neighbors. For others, it might be a policeman walking the beat. For still others, it might mean having enough money to make ends meet.

Three area grad students will be exploring the question of what it means to feel safe with their Franklin Avenue-area neighbors in a , which begins Thursday night, Jan. 12.

“Everyone we talk to has something to say about why they feel safe or not safe. It seems there are as many stories about it as there are people in the neighborhood,” said Julia Taylor, a Bedford Avenue resident who will be leading the workshops with fellow students Jess Levy (who also lives on Bedford Avenue) and Jessie Reilly, who lives in Clinton Hill.

For example, one woman told Taylor that the fact that people no longer say hello to each other on the street makes her feel less safe. Another woman said that although she knows Franklin Avenue is much safer than it used to be, she rarely goes there because she still remembers when it was filled will drug dealers, said Taylor.

How people feel about the police and safety also widely varies, she said.

“Some people have expressed that the police never used to respond to calls in the neighborhood and now they’re there. We’ve heard other people express that the concentration of the police on those few blocks (on Franklin Avenue) feels like it’s involves racial profiling and that makes them feel less safe,” she said.

The weekly workshops will include theater games, small group work, improve and other acting exercises, all designed to get people to examine their own views about safety and those of their neighbors, said Levy. 

The workshop will end with a public event designed by the participants in order to bring more people in the community into the dialogue.

No theater experience is necessary. The workshops are free and are open to anyone 18 or over who lives, work, and/or socialize on or near Franklin Avenue between Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Parkway. 

“We hope people will be willing to jump in and explore these topics in a different kind of way," said Taylor. "We look forward to having people join us in this journey.”

The first workshop will be held on Thursday, Jan. 12 from 7 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. at Georgia’s Place, 691 Prospect Place, at Bedford Avenue. For more information and to RSVP, contact Julia at safeinthisplace@gmail.com or 708-408-2004, or see more information .