Third Rail Projects acknowledges that we, as artists, partners, and collaborators live and work primarily on the stolen lands of the Munsee Lenape within Lenapehoking (New York City and surrounding areas). We also acknowledge that our many projects throughout Turtle Island (North America) and around the world intersect with diverse peoples who have stewarded the land through many generations as well as those who are the current and future cultural bearers for their communities—communities that have often been displaced from their original lands. We recognize the complexity of the histories of violence, removal, and continued practices of extraction and colonialism, and we seek to be in Right Relationship* and to honor Indigenous populations in all that we do.

We are grateful to the tribes in our own Third Rail Projects community, artists and collaborators who have built a body of work with us these past 23 years, artists representing Coharie, Tsalagi (Eastern Band Cherokee), Chickasaw, Choctaw, Kuna, Rappahonnock, Taíno, Hopi, Ho Chunk (Winnebago), and Lenape. And we honor with gratitude the land itself and commit ourselves to protecting our environment and supporting Indigenous visibility, sovereignty, representation, and reparation.

There are practices that activate these acknowledgments, and we invite everyone to spend time learning more. Visit Native Land Digital to find your community on the Indigenous map. Get involved in Land Back. Visit the Lenape Center of Manhattan. Learn more about culture, activism, and philanthropy through IllumiNative, Cultural Survival, and Native Americans in Philanthropy.

*”Right relationship” is used here and understood from Indigenous concepts of living in harmony and balance. Right relationship is a concept present in many Native American tribes as well as in Buddhism, Quakerism, Q’ero of Peru, neuroscience, quantum physics, and other practices and ways of knowing that value interconnectedness and embrace multiplicity.

Third Rail Projects, a partnership between Zach Morris, Tom Pearson, and Jennine Willett, is committed to the ongoing development of anti-oppressive, anti-racist practices that value Queer, Trans, Asian, Black, Brown, Indigenous, Immigrant communities and other historically marginalized groups in all of our ways of working: our artistic endeavors, our educational programs, our administrative practices, and our partnerships with other organizations. We work to hold ourselves and our collaborators accountable to a culture of Right Relationship* and the values that we prioritize—centering connection, mutual understanding, and agency—as we work towards progress with our anti-Racist and anti-oppression goals.

*”Right relationship” is used here and understood from Indigenous concepts of living in harmony and balance. Right relationship is a concept present in many Native American tribes as well as in Buddhism, Quakerism, Q’ero of Peru, neuroscience, quantum physics, and other practices and ways of knowing that value interconnectedness and embrace multiplicity.

• Creating welcoming spaces where our audiences, employees, collaborators, and students feel respected.

• Equitable and nondiscriminatory work environments that support the well-being of our employees by outlining clear expectations, creating reasonable work schedules, providing fair compensation, and encouraging open communication.

• Open channels of communication that can serve to build relationships and address and repair harm when it occurs within a process or intersects with our activity in another community or organization.

• Hiring and casting processes that value racial diversity and equity, building more long-standing relationships with artists who identify as Asian, Black, Brown, and Indigenous.

• Fostering positive and inclusive devising and performance environments that encourage exploration, exchange, and discourse.

• Sharing our anti-racist, anti-Oppression ethos, values, and goals with every artist whom we employ as well as outside bodies such as education partners, students, Global Performance Studio partners, producers, and presenters.

• Recognizing, honoring, and crediting the contributions of those with whom we work: our collaborators, communities, and source materials.

• A practice of cultural listening and exchange; acknowledging that we are visitors to the locations where we make site-specific work; honoring and respecting these spaces we work in and their inhabitants as an integral part of the work.

• Equitable and inclusive marketing and communications that represents the actual diversity of our work and the artists with whom we collaborate.

• Expanding the accessibility of our offerings through ADA compliance, designing works for individuals with diverse access needs, and through free or subsidized tickets for performances and educational offerings.

• Honoring the uniqueness of each project and adapting our practices to meet the needs of each creative process and community we work with while assuring that our goals and values remain prioritized.

• Engaging in the ongoing practice of reflecting on, adapting, and revising our values, creative processes, and ways of working.