My Purple Crayon Advisors is dedicated to anti-racism practices and working toward a more equitable and just society and theater ecology. Our action steps will focus on organizations led by or serving historically marginalized people, artist advocacy groups and organizations that distribute money directly to artists. Our work is not an endpoint but part of an ongoing process of listening, learning and growing.
Read more about Harold Wolpert’s journey, commitment to anti-racism and plan of action for the future below.
land acknowledgement
Our office is on the unceded traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Munsee Lenape. The majority of Lenape descendants now live in Oklahoma—displaced from their original homeland by years of forced migration and war. We acknowledge the long history of broken treaties, genocide and brutality inflicted on Indigenous people and its legacy that is alive today. We thank the Munsee Lenape and their relatives for their care of the land, and we recognize their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to elders both past and present.
To learn more about the Indigenous peoples of the land that is now called Brooklyn, you can read On Native Land and Native Americans in Brooklyn. To discover whose ancestral and contemporary land you occupy, please explore Native Land.
Land acknowledgments are only a starting point. I encourage you to read A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgement as a call to action to support Indigenous peoples living now to bring justice today. Here are my initial steps to activate my acknowledgement. Please adopt these or create your own action plan
I made a donation to Native Governance Center and encourage you to match as you are able to this organization or one of your choosing.
Additionally, I contributed to Redhawk Indigenous Arts Council, dedicated to educating the general public about Native American heritage through arts and culture.
I am committed to ongoing research and self-education to learn more about the Indigenous peoples on whose lands I live and beyond, what I have done to perpetuate inequity and what I can do to make changes in the present.
I will read Resource Generation: Land Reparations & Indigenous Solidarity Toolkit to learn more about and share what it means to return land to Indigenous people.
the ground on which i stand: my personal acknowledgements
I acknowledge my overlapping privileged identities and the position of power that they place me in the world. I am a white cisgender gay male, Ivy League college graduate who was raised in suburban Philadelphia and educated in a highly rated, well-funded public school system. My salary for my most recent full-time job was $300,000 per year, plus full medical benefits and a pension plan.
In order to carry through on my commitment to be anti-racist and dismantle white supremacy, I will use my privilege and the power it affords me for people who do not have the advantages that I have inherited through no merit of my own. My power gives me the ability to access other powerful people and spaces that are not open to all. For example, I am able to directly contact other similarly situated or privileged people in my field, which I do on behalf of organizations or people who do not have that access. I apply my time and emotional space that my privilege affords me to volunteer and provide pro bono consulting services. I also make financial contributions to organizations that align with my values. As a mentor told a group of similarly positioned colleagues and me: “You are all powerful people. You have power, influence and authority. Power is not inherently bad; it’s what you decide to do with it in the places you are called to serve.”
my inspirations
In response to George Floyd’s brutal murder, Black Lives Matter renewed demands for equity and racial justice; the We See You White American Theatre manifesto statements were released and demands were made for specific actions. Individuals were encouraged to volunteer or contribute to organizations that serve or represent historically marginalized groups.
I have heard firsthand from people who run or are involved with these organizations that there has been a huge dropoff in contributions and other forms of support after an initial outpouring of commitment and actions.
Given this context, I have struggled mightily with articulating my own statement and making commitments that are authentic and that I can and will follow through. Meanwhile, I feel that I have not done enough when I could have done something. I will not allow my perfectionism to lead to inaction. Where I have failed in the past, I will strive to do better.
I have been inspired by one of my mentors, Paul Robinson, who characterized core values as chosen freely, from among alternatives, after consideration of consequences, prized and cherished, publicly affirmed, acted upon and part of a definite pattern of action. Rosa Parks, for example, made a conscious, intentional decision to stay seated on that bus, chosen after consideration of the consequences of her actions. She made clear that there are no private core values. A single act alone does not constitute a core value; wishing and acting are not the same. Paul’s reminder stays with me: “It is a lifelong pursuit to arrive at clarity in alignment with your values. If you stand up for your values, they will stand up for you.”
My primary core values of integrity, authenticity and decency inform my work to reimagine a more just, equitable and sustainable theater landscape. I am guided by my additional values of respect, justice, fairness, community, thoughtfulness, empathy and compassion. In my work I will serve values-driven organizations looking to remake themselves to better serve their communities and impact the field. First, I focus on how to lead myself so I can do a better job of showing up for others.
My commitments and plans are also guided by my personal relationship with Judaism. I think of the Jewish prayer, Unetaneh Tokef, chanted at the High Holidays, that is meant to strike fear in us. The prayer describes a litany of deterministic statements about the coming year. “On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed. And on Yom Kippur it is sealed. How many shall pass away and how many shall be born. Who shall live and who shall die.” The list goes on and on like this, which leads me to believe that I am consigned by destiny to a future I cannot control. Just when I am feeling completely powerless and that there is nothing I can do that will make a difference, the prayer ends as follows:
“U-te-shu-vah’ u-te-fi-lah’ u-tze-da-kah”
Repentance, prayer and charity avert the severe decree
Throughout the year, I remember my power to repair the world (tikkun olam). Power without action, however, is empty, which leads me to this ancient Jewish teaching, which is never far from my mind: “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.”
I must start somewhere.
where i have fallen short of my values
There have been many moments when my privilege shielded me from seeing the impact my actions have on artists and staff in the workplace and I have forgotten my power and authority. I substituted being kind and decent versus creating a kind, decent, just, equitable ecosystem that takes action towards dismantling white supremacy. Being kind to another person while perpetuating a system that is not only unkind, but inequitable and harmful, does not erase my privilege nor power and does nothing to dismantle that system.
Several years ago, Signature Theatre BIPOC employees wrote a letter to express their “outrage and disappointment in Signature leadership,” stating “we have witnessed and experienced the explicit biases and passive racism that have occurred.” They called out my specific harmful actions, declaring that “it was disheartening to see that you did not stand up when called to make space for people of color” at a performance of Fairview.
It took a lot of courage to write that letter, which I took with me after I left Signature. They went out on a limb. It was direct, rightly so. Was it hard to hear? Yes. But it must have been even harder to write, to confront power in that way. I've spent a lot of time reflecting on their words and what I could have done differently and what I will do differently going forward.
my commitments
Among other actions I have taken in recent years, I have participated in training sessions led by Nicole Brewer, Carmen Morgan (founder of artEquity) and Donna Walker-Kuhne. During my time leading Signature Theatre, I raised money to allow the company to continue to provide free access to its lobby, fought for the Signature Ticket Initiative to keep ticket prices affordable and undertook an extensive project to research attitudes around welcome and belonging among BIPOC attendees at the organization. Currently, I provide pro bono consulting services for an independent theater organization focused on disrupting power and creating an equitable ecosystem and an Off-Broadway theater service organization and volunteer for an organization that serves LGBTQ+ youth who are suicidal or in crisis.
While I have taken action in the past to advance my own commitments to anti-racism and creating a more equitable and just society, there is always room for more. I am making the following offerings now, but they are not an endpoint. This is part of an ongoing conversation that will evolve over time. As I listen, learn and grow, I will make changes. I will share what I learn. I will be attuned to harmful practices that I undertake and will change course. I will add, revise and remove along the way. I will hold myself accountable, but I ask you to do so as well. I will approach this work with humility.
With a focus on organizations committed to anti-racism, historically marginalized groups or people, artist advocacy groups and organizations that distribute money directly to artists, I will:
Use a portion of my fees for each consulting project to make a donation
Request in my consulting contracts for companies with budgets of more than $3 million to match contributions I make
Provide pro bono consulting services for up to 4 organizations per year
Offer pro bono mentoring services for up to 4 arts managers per year
Post on social media when I make contributions and ask others to contribute in some way to organizations of their choosing
Continue to educate myself and participate in training and additional action