Week 9

Am I Invisible is a project started by Roni Chelben, who led a series of video workshops at ARCH, Austin Resource Center for Homeless. In these workshops, Chelben invited people from Austin's homeless community to share personal stories, act out their experiences of homelessness, and practice cinematographic skills. The workshop concluded with a final project where the participants directed and shot a video presenting interviews with people around downtown Austin about how the homeless are viewed in our society today. In August 2013, a group of committed participants (all members of the homeless community) formed and started to work on a performance aimed for the general public. On April 12th, this performance, completely written and played by members of the Austin homeless community, will take place at St. David's Episcopal Church Gym. Am I Invisible will be a theatric performance that has been put together as a powerful tool to promote civiv dialogue and social change. The event is open to the public and free, in hopes of attracting a large crowd, to bring awareness and educate others about the homeless community. I am excited to attend this performance this weekend. It is the perfect opportunity for homeless individuals to speak up and speak out about the issues they face and help the public understand. Participants will be performing short monologues and showing short documentary films they have composed, based on their experiences in the Austin homeless community. I believe these honest interpretations of personal experiences will help educate the community and break stereotypes many hold, merely out of being uninformed.