Performing Community 4: Short Essays on Community, Diversity, Inclusion and the Performing Arts

Cities play a powerful role as the sites of cultural invention, promoting community and artistic innovation. This collection of essays by Blair A. Ruble, Wilson Center Distinguished Fellow and Director of the Center’s Urban Sustainability Laboratory from 1991-2017, is the fourth in a series examining the role of diversity, inclusion and the performing arts in nurturing a sense of community. Ruble tells the stories of 24 pioneering cities across four continents and four centuries to explore the urban circumstances that sparked unique moments of innovation and new forms of performance, which in turn, generated new identities reflecting the drive toward broader political and social change.