OUR MISSION
Babel creates opportunities for individuals and communities to unleash and nurture their highest creative potential.
By supporting inner and outer journeys of discovery that deconstruct social norms and internal beliefs that limit our potential and wellbeing, we foster healthier and happier collectivities.
OUR VISION
Babel envisions a healthier world where opportunities for self-discovery, healing, and expression are central to our pursuits of more empowering and balanced relationships with ourselves, our communities, and our environments.
We believe that this is achieved through transformational experiences that release and enhance our individual and collective creative potentials.
OUR CITIES,
OUR SELVES
How do we integrate or exile the strangers in our cities and ourselves?
This is a central question in a world experiencing massive social and demographic upheavals that challenge our inner wellbeing and have equally significant impacts on our communities' development. These global challenges demand that we create a more balanced relationship with ourselves, our communities and our environments. This means finding agency in OUR SELVES to finding "citizenship" in OUR CITIES.
OUR PROGRAMS & IMPACT
Our current programs underway and in development include:
HOME IN THE TIME OF COVID (SEMINAR SERIES)
With faculty of Amherst College and visiting guests, this public seminar series explored the concept of home in the context of the global pandemic.
IDENTITY ECONOMICS IN INDIA
With CHF India Foundation, Babel is supporting communities in informal settlements to address the complex issues of identity and economic empowerment.
THEATER OF THE OPPRESSED
(KENYA)
From Brazil, to Nairobi, to US, Babel is helping groups use Theater of the Oppressed techniques to talk about mental health on campus and establish peer support models. We are supporting the 5 colleges of Amherst, MA to learn from the innovative interventions of Amazing Minds Africa.
CRISIS AND TRANSFORMATION THROUGH THEATER
(IRAQ)
The Babel Theater Project is supporting writers and artists from the US and Iraq. The initiative promotes projects aimed at expanding linguistic, artistic, and cultural boundaries in response to global conflict and its aftermath, with a focus on centralizing the experience of women. Watch Video
THE STRANGER AND THE CITY - MOVING PERFORMANCE
Organized with the Brazilian immigrant community in Framingham, MA, this project engaged academics, artists, activists and the public in an exploration of immigration that culminated in a public “moving performance” that sought to raise radical awareness about the intricacies of the immigrant condition and provide an opportunity for personal growth within the writers and performers. Sponsored by the Framingham Cultural Council and the Brazilian Consulate, the show was directed by Ana Candida Carneiro, artistic director of the Babel Theater Project, a Brazilian immigrant herself, who is a playwright and professor, currently artist-in-residence and faculty at Amherst College.
SPONSORS
Our Valued Sponsors
BABEL
Our Origin Stories
A city and a tower.
The cradle of civilization.
A moment of confusion.
Confounded by languages.
Scattered across the earth.
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As we build our homes, cities and towers, there may arise moments of confusion, confounded by “languages”. These can turn into moments of destruction or construction depending on our internal and external supports. They also become part of our origin story. That’s why we believe “my story matters.”