Sharon Fantl, the Redfern Art Center’s assistant director, has secured a grant through the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) to allow the cast members of Word Becomes Flesh to discuss issues of diversity and social justice with local community members. Fantl is reaching out to KSC classes, local social-service agencies, educators from various disciplines within Keene High School, youth, and members of such on-campus offices as the Office of Diversity and Multiculturalism to invite them to participate in these discussions. Word Becomes Flesh will be performed at the Redfern Arts Center on Wednesday, October 2, at 7:30 p.m. Assistant Professor of Communication Jamie Landau will give a pre-performance talk on masculinity and patriarchal gender norms in parenting, and there will be a moderated discussion in the lobby after the performance.

Written and directed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph and performed by San Francisco’s The Living Word Project, Word Becomes Flesh uses poetry, dance, hip-hop theater, and live music to document nine months of pregnancy from a young single father’s perspective and delve into the complexities of race, fatherhood, and class in America.

The cast will give a workshop to ActingOut, the issues-oriented theatre program of the Youth Initiatives Office of Monadnock Family Services, to increase their competency with difficult material for future presentations in the region. The Redfern will invite all the students in the ActingOut workshop and their families to attend the performance, and reach out to social-service agencies focused on family and parent initiatives in the Monadnock region.

“The performance and activities have the opportunity to be a catalyst for important discussions about challenging topics that go to the heart of KSC’s institutional focus on inclusivity and diversity, civic engagement, social justice, and cultural enrichment,” Fantl explained.