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Why does making art matter in times of political and social unrest? In this Loeb Center Alumni-in-Residence event, Dr. Lisa Biggs ’93 will share how she uses civic engagement, ethnographic research, teaching and creative collaboration to test the boundaries of what is and what could be.

As an actress, playwright, and scholar, Dr. Lisa Biggs ’93 investigates the role of the arts in movements for social justice. She is the author of several original plays that reflect her passion for using theatre and performance studies to unpack history— including the stories of anti-slavery activists, a community confronting the aftershocks of gun violence, and women and girls in the 1967 Detroit uprising.

Dr. Biggs worked for more than a decade as a professional actress. Her stage credits include productions at the Kennedy Center, African Continuum Theatre, ETA Creative Arts Foundation, Lookingglass Theatre, Arena Stage, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre. From 1999-2001, she was a teaching artist at the Living Stage Theatre Company, the groundbreaking arts and community-engagement initiative at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.

In 2016, she was awarded a Knight Foundation Detroit Arts Challenge grant to develop and present a new stage play about women and girls in the ’67 Detroit rebellion. AFTER/LIFE premiered in Detroit in July 2017 in conjunction with city-wide events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the ’67 uprising. She is currently the John Atwater and Diana Nelson Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University.

Dr. Biggs originally came to Amherst from Chicago, majored in Theater and Dance, and lived in Drew House. She holds an M.A. in Playwriting and Performance Studies from New York University's Gallatin School and a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University.

To learn more about the Loeb Center's Alumni-in-Residence program, visit: https://www.amherst.edu/mm/575486

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