Book Launch,
Performances
& Roundtable
Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, 5:30-8 pm
JGG Studio - York University & Online
Join us for an interdisciplinary gathering to celebrate the launch of Randia’s Quiet Theatre: Performing Care and Activism with a Romani Elder (Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston, McGill-Queen’s University Press, May 2025). Drawing on over two decades of ethnographic collaboration with Randia, a Romani elder in Poland, the book weaves autofiction, performance ethnography, and collaborative storytelling to rethink activism, reflexivity, and care in contexts of marginalization, disability, and migration.
The evening will include:
BOOK LAUNCH
Kazubowski-Houston will discuss the research and methodological approaches of Randia’s Quiet Theatre, highlighting how theatrical improvisation and co-performed ethnography can act as radical practices of care and activism.
STUDENT PERFORMANCE
Featuring a short piece created by undergraduate students in Theatre, Dance, and Performance, adapted from storytelling sessions with Randia.
Performers: Alexei DeLuca, Natalie Maddyn, and Emily Swartz.
Co-directors: Rimah Jabr and Sasha Singer-Wilson.
CLICK HERE FOR PERFORMERS’ BIOS.
ROUNDTABLE
Autofiction, Ethnography, and Collaborative Creation
Othon Alexandrakis, Kenzie Allen, Natalia Balyasnikova, and Sheetala Bhat will discuss how research-creation methods are reshaping ethnographic and performance-based inquiry. Roundtable co-chairs: Rimah Jabr and Sasha Singer-Wilson.
CLICK HERE FOR ROUNDTABLE PARTICIPANTS’ BIOS.
Q&A
Light refreshments to follow Q&A. Book launch attendees can purchase Randia’s Quiet Theatre: Performing Care and Activism with a Romani Elder at 25% off.
