Should I Have Said “No”? Critical Reflections on Tensions in Forum Theater

Abstract

Tensions play a productive role in the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, a process in which certain voices are privileged and others are marginalized. In this article, I invite the reader to join me on a self-reflexive journey through my facilitation of a Forum Theater event with young refugees, which took place in a context of harsh xenophobic sentiment in the public debate in Denmark. I wish to share my challenging experiences with facilitation of Forum Theater in this group, as well as critically reflect on why I engaged in dialogue with the group the way I did and how the effects of my own privileges were invisible to me at the time of framing the facilitation, even if my aim was to contribute to awareness and activism. Through my writing, I have become aware of how my blindness to the differences regarding race and social status became crucial for the knowledge we could produce in the group. I conclude the article by discussing how a facilitator can use the perceived tensions as stepping stones in activist inquiry.

Keywords

Forum Theater empowerment dialogue critical reflexive analysis Whiteness othering

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