Tara Brooke Watkins holds a masters in theatre education from Emerson College and a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from Tufts University and is currently an assistant professor of theatre at Salve Regina University. She is a story circle facilitator and community engagement specialist with an emphasis on creating dialogue, action, and communal healing around charged topics. She follows mentor Robbie McCauley’s notion that listening is a voice and to grow we must engage in our resistance. For five years, she co-facilitated the ministry Shatter the Silence with Rev. Dr. Gloria White-Hammond at Bethel AME Church. This ministry sought to train people to respond to stories of sexual assault and to provide healing circles through drama therapy techniques to survivors of assault. From 2016-2019, she partnered with Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma to create community-based programming to tell the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre. As part of her own ongoing creative work, her community engagements continue to lead to theatrical productions using communal stories. Such plays include Tulsa ’21: Black Wall Street, The Father Bill’s Play, Shatter the Silence, The Bible Women’s Project, and an upcoming production about the impact of social media on college communities. She is a public speaker, story circle facilitator, and story circle trainer. For more information on her work or how you can hire her as a speaker, facilitator, trainer, or even community project and playwright, click below.