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Hi John,
Last week, Dot’s Home Live—an interactive performance adapted from the award-winning video game Dot’s Home—made its theatrical debut in Detroit, MI. Community members, organizers, and artists came together to tell the story of Dot Hawkins, a young Black woman living in Detroit who travels through time and confronts the racist housing policies her family has endured for generations.
The end result? A passionate and engaging collective experience— check out these photos from the premiere!
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From Detroit to Denver to the East Bay, our network is fighting for more renter protections, more homes for people who need them, and more resources for communities to collectively own and steward their land and homes.
These fights fire us up and light the path toward our vision of mutiracial feminist democracy. And, as creators of this future, we must tap into joy, possibility, art—and gosh darn it, FUN—to fuel that fire.
That’s why—after months of collaboration—PowerSwitch Action, our affiliate Detroit Action [[link removed]] , and our partners Rise-Home Stories Project and A Host of People presented the world premiere of Dot’s Home Live!
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The show is adapted from the Rise-Home Stories Project video game, Dot’s Home, which I co-created with a dozen other developers, artists, and organizers and was released in 2021.
For the stage adaptation, we wanted the audience to participate and engage with the emotional, sometimes challenging, subject matter in a way that was still playful and joyful.
With the support of a newly created game-show host character, 4D, the audience time-traveled with Dot through her family’s history and helped decide whether to buy their home under predatory conditions or keep renting. They cheered for Grandma Mavis, the matriarch of the family, and booed at the predatory real estate speculator. After the show, they engaged in a conversation with Detroit Action about how the story of Dot’s family is fictional, but rooted in the all-too-real experiences of Detroiters and the city’s fraught history with racist housing policy. Detroit Action members impacted by housing insecurity and neighborhood disinvestment shared their stories with the audience and invited them to join their efforts to call on city council and state legislators to work with Detroit Action and their partners on repairing the damage of past policies and predatory practices.
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Video games bring an individual player into a whole new world. Theater takes individuals and weaves them into a collective—which is also what good organizers do. Dot’s Home Live brought together hundreds of individuals across locations, industries, and interests, and made them into one connected group that is now tapped into Detroit Action’s vision and work. At the end of the day, creative projects like Dot’s Home Live show that even though the game might be rigged against us, everyday people are fighting for true housing justice—and winning!
The fight continues. May we always find joy, connection, and a little bit of fun in it.
Lauren Jacobs [[link removed]] In solidarity,
Christina Rosales
Housing and Land Justice Director
PowerSwitch Action
1305 Franklin St.
Suite 501
Oakland, CA 94612
United States
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