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Nazis, KKK 'can fuck straight off': Huge Improv Theater issues statement on controversial landlord
Fallout continues from Tuesday's City Pages story about Clubhouse Jäger owner Julius Jaeger De Roma, the Minneapolis businessman who donated $500 to the U.S. Senate campaign of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
DJ Jake Rudh pulled his popular Transmission dance night from Clubhouse Jäger; some of the North Loop bar's 20ish employees are apparently quitting in protest (and a GoFundMe account was launched to support those who do); and Huge Improv Theater, which rents its Lyn-Lake space from De Roma, issued a statement distancing itself from its landlord.
Here's the full statement, courtesy of the Huge board of directors:
"As everyone else learned the news, we at HUGE Theater were made aware that our landlord made a $500 donation to David Duke in 2016.
HUGE is a nonprofit theater dedicated to building a healthy and diverse improv community. We are in year 3 of a 10-year lease on our building, which has housed our theater from the time we opened in December 2010 – in the middle of a snowstorm and during a recession. What held HUGE Theater together then, and now, is our incredibly supportive and expansive community.
From our first days we have worked to build an inclusive community and to illuminate the path from student to stage so we could share this art form we love. Improv is a deeply personal art form and a multitude of voices are needed to tell new and interesting stories. We are proud to host and give our ongoing support to the Tiny Funny Women Fest, the Black & Funny Festival, monthly POC jams, monthly Queer jams, monthly 40+ jams, and two Women-Trans-Femme classes. We have worked thoughtfully with other theaters nationally to form a Student Bill of Rights and Boundaries guidelines to make sure our classes and stage are inclusive and free of threat or intimidation of any kind.
For these reasons and more, we would like to formally tell Nazis and the KKK that they can fuck straight off."
HUGE is a nonprofit theater dedicated to building a healthy and diverse improv community. We are in year 3 of a 10-year lease on our building, which has housed our theater from the time we opened in December 2010 – in the middle of a snowstorm and during a recession. What held HUGE Theater together then, and now, is our incredibly supportive and expansive community.
From our first days we have worked to build an inclusive community and to illuminate the path from student to stage so we could share this art form we love. Improv is a deeply personal art form and a multitude of voices are needed to tell new and interesting stories. We are proud to host and give our ongoing support to the Tiny Funny Women Fest, the Black & Funny Festival, monthly POC jams, monthly Queer jams, monthly 40+ jams, and two Women-Trans-Femme classes. We have worked thoughtfully with other theaters nationally to form a Student Bill of Rights and Boundaries guidelines to make sure our classes and stage are inclusive and free of threat or intimidation of any kind.
For these reasons and more, we would like to formally tell Nazis and the KKK that they can fuck straight off."
Read more: http://www.citypages.com/news/nazis-kkk-can-fuck-straight-off-huge-improv-theater-issues-statement-on-controversial-landlord/442153343