Julia Ahumada Grob is writer, performer, and educator of Chilean and Jewish heritage. Born and raised in New York City, Julia is passionate about the power of culture and performance towards producing social change. Her one-woman show "He(R)evolution" premiered at Chashama in New York and has toured nationally and internationally. She is currently a Working Playground theater teaching artist in the New York City public schools and runs the Lifestories Youth Ensemble, a collaboratory project between the New Group/Working Playground. Her collaborative video, The Beat Back Bush Workout , was awarded the "Crowd Pleaser Award" at the 2005 Hip-Hop International Odyssey Film Festival and has toured nationally. Julia has been a featured artist in Latina Magazine, and her writing has been published in the "Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the U.S.," and "We Got Issues! A Young Woman's Guide to a Bold, Courageous, and Empowered Life" (Inner Ocean Press) . She holds a BA from Brown University, where she received the W.E.B. DuBois Award for Best Honors Thesis in Africana Studies, and minored in Theater and Performance.
Artist Statement:
My mother creating me as a single mother was a powerful expression of political power. I am my mother's daughter — naturally, creating and affirming life have always been at the core of my activism. I do not want to trade dancing barefoot in the sand, sharing intimate conversations and sunsets with my friends, and eating good food with the burn out, exhaustion, and martyrdom too many of us activists fall into. While collecting my stories for "He(R)evolution," I discovered the power of honoring our personal journeys as a healing force essential to political (r)evolution. My art has become an expression of my activism, a living journal, capturing my evolving perspectives and intimate truths.
**Photos courtesy of Rayon Richards and Karen Talbot**
About He(R)evolution :
"He(R)evolution" is an (auto)biographical, one-woman show of a young woman's struggle to understand her identity, both personal and political. The playwright/performer weaves the stories of six characters together, placing herself in an honored tradition of female revolutionaries living a radical, life-centered vision of activism.
"Res(HER)rected!! (HER)storical!! (HER)ioc!! (HER)sterical!! sup(HER)b!! pow(HER)ful!! neces(HER)sary!! rev(HER)lutionary!! riv(HER)ting!! and now...int(HER)national!!" -Marsha Z. West, Resident Director, Rites and Reason Theater
"What theatre ought to be: Personal, political, profound. We are held captive by Julia Ahumada Grob's remarkable exploration of her own evo/revolution." -Lowry Marshall, Artistic Director, Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre
"Julia's story is uniquely fresh" -Kamilah Forbes, Artistic Director, Hip-Hop Theater Festival
Check out this recent article in Kitchener, Ontario's The Record
