Dana Edell

Dana Edell (she/her) is an activist-scholar-artist-educator and co-director of SPARK Movement, an intergenerational, anti-racist, arts-driven girls’ activist organization where she trains and supports girls to design and run social justice campaigns, create activist theater, and take action in their communities. She consults with organizations and schools throughout the US and abroad about gender justice, civic engagement, youth activism, feminist Jewish education, and arts integration. She has produced and co-directed 70+ original plays and 7 albums of music written and performed by teenage girls addressing social justice issues. She has worked as a theater teaching artist in public and private schools, adult prisons, and youth correctional institutions. Dana was co-founder/executive director of viBe Theater Experience from 2002-2012 and was co-chair of the Girls’ Participation Task Force at the United Nations, where she directed annual theater productions written by girls from 20+ countries. Through her writing, presentations and media appearances, she advocates for the need for collaborative and activist performing arts experiences for girl-identified, gender expansive, and gender non-conforming young people. She is an Assistant Professor of Applied Theatre at Emerson College in Boston. Her first book Girls, Performance and Activism: Demanding to Be Heard was published by Routledge in 2022.

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