Arden Institute

EXAMINE. REFLECT. ANALYZE. Lead.

Speaking Truth to Power

The Speaking Truth to Power Seminar examines the need to challenge the power structure and analyzes the subsequent risk to oneself and to one’s leadership. Readings provide historic and contemporary examples of bringing truth to power, with follow-up discussion analyzing the risks of truth telling in a variety of contexts. Reactions of the powerful are the focus on initial readings as participants discuss Euripides’ The Trojan Women, the Declaration of Independence and Emile Zola’s J’Accuse. The moral imperative to speak truth to power is the theme for readings from Edward Said, Chinua Achebe and Salman Rushdie.

Tina Packer, the visionary Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company, provides commentary and a dramatic reading from Shakespeare, with explanation of the historic, political and economic context of when a given play was written and performed.

Tension between the forces of establishment and the individual is discussed through readings of Martin Luther, Mahatma Ghandi and Nell Irvin Painter. Literature provides case studies illustrating theme: Yevtushenko’s Babi Yar, Katherine Ann Porter’s Pale Horse, Pale Rider and William Faulkner’s Dry September.

Speaking Truth to Power examines and explores a variety of contexts, ranging from national issues to private struggles, from universal to personal, and the necessary consequences that Speaking Truth to Power engenders on all levels.

Click here to download the PDF flyer for the Speaking Truth to Power seminar.

 

 

"I do not often get the opportunity to use both sides of my brain in the company of such articulate and multi-faceted people."

– Professional Actor