By: Dev Petrovic, Staff Writer
If there’s anything COVID-19 has shown, it’s that the arts can continue to thrive virtually. Zee Zee Theatre Company’s new project, Virtual Humanity, proves just that. The initiative utilizes virtual means for an innovative form of community-based storytelling, and I had never heard of anything like it.
So how does it work? Members from the Virtual Humanity audience get to choose a title from Zee Zee Theatre’s “human library” and engage in a 20 minute, one-on-one chat with the selected storyteller, who will share their personal anecdote. As mentioned in the project’s biography, it is “designed to shatter preconceived notions about otherhood, to challenge our biases and misunderstandings, and put a human face to difference as a means to foster empathy.”
The Peak spoke with one of the project’s storytellers, Raven John, a Two-Spirit activist, artist, and comedian of Coast Salish and Stó:lō Nation descent, whose story is titled “Indigi-Queer Identities, Two-Spirit and Beyond.”
John finished their BFA from Emily Carr University, with a major in visual art and a minor in social practice and community engagement. They are also a graduate of Native Education College’s North West Coast Jewelry Arts program. Their work centres on visual art, but they also work as a cultural consultant, mediator, storyteller, photographer, and sculptor.
Though John had previously worked with Zee Zee Theatre, their introduction to the Virtual Humanity project came through a friend of theirs. They explained that the project has been partly collaborative: they got the chance to work alongside various people from different backgrounds. John elaborated saying it’s been exciting to hear about the different stories people find important and want to share.
“Activism has always been a big part of my identity and role as an artist. I’ve worked on stop motion animation projects and done set and prompt work for both theatre and film,” explained John. They have worked on projects such as The Switch, a Canadian television show and the first transgender-themed show represented by a transgender cast. While they have a wide range of experience in various fields, they have just started to get into performance and theatre.
At the time of the interview, the storytellers for Virtual Humanity were still in the workshopping stages of developing their scripts. John explained that their personal story navigates dialogue on the experience of being a Two-Spirit person, their relationship with their identity, what it means, why it requires a specific distinction from other LGBTQ+ identities, as well as the history behind the identity. They also explained that “not everyone has had the opportunity to spend time with a Two-Spirit person or find out what the complexities are of that identifier.” So, their storytelling is a tool that they use to spread awareness.
For John, a highlight of the project has been Zee Zee Theatre’s commitment to open communication. “It’s been really great,” they said. “For our workshops, we are developing our stories together, which is really nice, so I’ve gotten to hear the early scripts of the other storytellers a little bit.” They gave an example of another storyteller whose narrative is about being a recovering hoarder and how hearing other people’s stories has been an important learning experience for them.
When reflecting on how the project has impacted them, John said, “In my own journey of healing in general and helping other people, I have definitely found that we all have coping mechanisms for the trauma that we dealt with in our lives. It really is about finding the healthiest coping mechanism we can if we don’t have the support structures to directly address what we’ve been through.”
The Virtual Humanity project is running from March 6–28 and tickets can be reserved through the Zee Zee Theatre’s website. To directly support local artist Raven John or further look into their work, you can do so through their website: ravenjohn.com.
