No Place Like Home
We are proud to announce the launch of No Place Like Home (NPLH). In partnership with the City of Tucson’s VIVA initiative by the Community Safety, Health and Wellness Program, No Place Like Home utilizes storytelling and performance to strengthen social bonds among residents working to reduce crime and improve their living conditions. The project aims to amplify the voices and lived experiences of a segment of our population that is often overlooked while creating a space for joy and hope.
Borderlands Theater recently selected five local performers as the core creative team for No Place Like Home. They will interview residents from VIVA sites to create a multidisciplinary performance based on their stories. This impressive ensemble includes performance artist and writer Natalie Brewster Nguyen, executive director of Splinter Collective; musician and actor Brooke La France, currently a student at UA School of Theater and Film; master harp player Adrian Perez, who has a long history of teaching mariachi to youth through his involvement in the International Mariachi Festival; poet. DJ, and performance artist Logan Phillips, known also for his Club Congress events and Spoken Futures youth poetry organization; Emmanuel Uwayezu, a musician and case worker who arrived in Tucson seven years ago after fleeing his home in Rawanda.
The final performance will take place in June in conjunction with the graduation of residents from a year-long leadership training curriculum. The event will be free and open to all VIVA site residents and the general public.
Hearing each other’s stories allows people to realize their shared humanity across race, age, and other differences. Borderlands Theater is part of a growing movement of artmakers and culture bearers using art to bring communities together, increase feelings of trust and attachment to place. This process, known as “social cohesion” improves mental and physical health, feelings of belonging, and overall safety. Borderlands Theater is immensely grateful to be working closely with the city’s Community Safety, Health and Wellness program on this groundbreaking project. It is our hope that its success will better illuminate the untapped potential of collaborations between municipal government and artists around community development.
The Community Safety, Health and Wellness Program was created in response to the tragic death of Carlos Ingram Lopez while in police custody in 2020. Recognizing the need for a holistic approach to public safety, Tucson’s Mayor, Regina Romero, and council developed the program to address the community’s wellbeing from multiple angles, beyond just law enforcement and first responders. Violence Interruption and Vitalization Actions, or VIVA, is a holistic, data driven, and evidence -informed approach to address gun violence at discrete locations across the city that have experienced high levels of gun violence.