A Disrupter and a Weaver: Finding Your Place in a Social Change Ecosystem with Karen Olivo

KAREN OLIVO (she/they) is a television, film, and stage actor who most recently played “Satine” in Moulin Rouge, The Musical on Broadway. Olivo is also recognized for her Tony Award winning performance as “Anita” in the acclaimed 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story, a role for which she also earned Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire Award nominations. Some of her Broadway theater credits include originating the role of “Vanessa” in the Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights (2008 Astaire Award); starring as “Faith” in the Broadway production of Brooklyn The Musical, and in Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning musical, Rent. Additional theatre credits include Murder Ballad at the Manhattan Theater Club; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage at Second Stage; and The Miracle Brothers directed by Tina Landau at the Vineyard Theatre. Olivo is also recognized for her many television appearances including a series regular, recurring & guest-starring roles on “ Harry’s Law”, “The Good Wife,” “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior,” “Chase,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Conviction,” and “Law & Order.”

Olivo is also an educator teaching at Northwestern University, NYU-Tisch, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as working as a visual artist and writer. In the Spring of 2020, Olivo co-founded the non-for-profit organization, AFECT, Artists for Economic Transparency, in the efforts to educate the industry and promote discussion regarding entertainment industry structures and how they can be altered to better serve marginalized communities. www.AFECTchange.org

Weekly Round-Up:

• Listen to this podcast episode of The Ezra Klein Show with Tressie McMillan Cottom and then buy Tressie’s book Thick and lastly, listen to her Hear To Slay podcast, co-hosted with Roxanne Gay.
• Review Deepa Iyer’s guide and framework, “Mapping Our Roles in Social Change Ecosystems”, originally introduced to Celia through The Broadway Advocacy Coalition. Attribution: Deepa Iyer, SolidarityIs and Building Movement Project.
• Read this New York Magazine article, “Art Doesn’t Need Tyrants” by Tavi Gevinson