Vanessa Roberts Untitled 

Looking for your students/workers/colleagues to finally enjoy those necessary dialogues about difference and diversity? Allow me to facilitate an open, honest and engaging session tailored to suit your institutional and individual needs.I take a different approach tailored to suit the needs of my clients, be they from the educational, non-profit or human resources sector. Please view the selected descriptions listed below as a guideline, more information available upon request.

I am currently able to offer:

*Workshops

*Keynotes

*Facilitation Services

*Seminars

 "Afropuff Lederhosen - Experience The Difference Humor Makes”Workshop

This workshop is designed around Ms. Roberts' satirical lecture project, Afropuff Lederhosen: What Happens When You Take a Black Baby and Raise it to be German, followed by tips and examples regarding the incorporation of humor into difficult discussions. With a focus on combining theory with personal, subjective and humorous storytelling, this workshop provides tips and examples designed to take conversations to the next level. Also covered is a clever breakdown of themes raised in the piece and an introduction to Critical Race Theory through personal narrative (institutionalization of knowledge and racial systems; creation of race; Eurocentric beauty standards;self-affirming identity; etc.). This workshop includes handouts and detailed activities aimed at promoting conversation and dialogue focused on our personal relationship to difference and otherness, and a reading list for further study detailing sources as they relate to the topics raised in the workshop.

 Afropuff Lederhosen is also available as a keynote lecture  which encourages the audience to re-think racial and social norms. Ripe with humor and true stories, this lecture makes race personal and promotes reflection and further discussion among audience members. The lecture also covers a brief introduction to Critical Race Theory and touches upon the themes mentioned in the workshop description listed above. 

 How I Found Out I Was Black Workshop

In order to create a difference head-space in which to approach the topic of identity construction, this workshop begins with a live delivery of Mr. Roberts' performance piece, How I Found Out I Was Black. Discussion-based small group activities designed to stimulate personal reflection on participant’s own relationship to racial and ethnic difference follow performance. The conversation is then expanded to include consideration of the other forms of difference and “othering” which we encounter in our daily lives. This workshop includes handouts which help guide the activities and provide a framework for participants to return to on own their time. Also included is a reading list for further study detailing sources as they relate to the topics raised in the workshop.

Identity Theatrics Workshop

What does it mean to be the ‘other’, how do we all create the ‘other’ in our everyday choices and what power lies in recognizing our own ‘other-ness’? Drawing on the rich tradition of the Heyokah, the sacred clown from the Lakota Sioux stories, this workshop will explore these questions and more. Utilizing a vast array of theater techniques, come play with these concepts in order to gain a larger vision of the significance of the “us vs. them” dynamic in the work of identity construction. This workshop will guide participants into a deeper understanding of the personal investment required for truly transformational change.