The MFJS Reporter — Winter 2020 M-W

By Sophie Smrcka

Seated in a spinning arm chair, surrounded by the papers and pens strewn across her L shaped desk, Jeannene Bragg sat in her office typing quickly on her computer to finish a few things up. On her walls were social justice posters and calendars filled to the brim with important dates— all in fun colors though. 

Bragg has worked her way through several careers, but none felt quite as right as being the Community Engagement Organizer for Curious Theatre in Denver. As the Community Engagement Organizer, Bragg is responsible for the outreach and involvement within the theatrical productions put on at Curious Theatre. Bragg does a lot of work with the social justice communities in Denver, bringing in speakers for the controversial theatre to have an educated perspective. 

“I do a lot of grass roots work in the community, going out and connecting us with, in this case, social justice groups”, says Bragg. 

Because Bragg works at Curious Theatre, where the slogan is “unapologetically progressive”, a lot of her work revolves around getting knowledge and input from the community on whatever show they are working on at that point and time, as well as encouraging those groups to come and be involved in the work. 

In the past season, some of that work has included reaching out to racial justice communities, the Native American community, and gun rights activist groups. Bragg says that she has learned so much from reaching out to these groups, and that the work she does really helps her grow as a person.

According to Career Trend, community outreach is acting as a liaison between community programs and the community members that surround them. Although focuses might change depending on what institution you’re working for, as a community outreach worker you will be responsible for engaging the community with your place of work.

But Bragg’s job is not just fun community engagement— she also has to do a lot of work with sending out email lists and getting together the playbills for the season, and working a lot with social media, trying to make sure that the information about Curious’ season is out there and people are excited about it. Bragg says she has to learn a lot in her job so that she can be informed about the shows they’re doing. 

“I have to learn a lot, like when I first came here we did a show about physics, and so I had all these physics books on my desk, like I know zero about physics!”, says Bragg. 

This career path is not a straightforward one. Bragg says the pay changes every year, and that the education behind it is not set in stone. She says that anyone could pursue this career path with some sort of communications degree, some sort of theatre degree, or a combination of both. Social media experience is important, as are communications skills.

Bragg has done a lot of other work within community engagement prior to Curious Theatre, bouncing around from Lone Tree Arts Center, to Parker, being promoted to City Manager in Parker and getting to oversee the building and creation of the Parker Arts and Cultural Events Center, and then stepping down to run the PACE Center before moving on to Curious. 

“I got to do really interesting work in the community, and I got to be out and about a lot, but there was a lot of responsibility, and it was stressful. Like they say it’s lonely at the top, but it really truly is,” says Bragg about her work in Parker. 

Bragg says that her work at Curious Theatre has been fun, and engaging for her mind, and was definitely not what she expected. Bragg got degrees in journalism and theatre in her college years, and had always hoped she would end up running a theatre, but never expected to be at such a socially forward thinking space as Curious. 

According to Job Descriptions, a community outreach worker has to be invested in improving his/her community through their place of work. They should be passionate and believe in the work that they’re doing, and really want to make an impact on their community in a big way. They should also believe that the community has something to add to their work. 

Jeannene fits this description very well. She believes that the work at Curious and in the community has affected her greatly. With the challenging and thought evoking work that they do at Curious Theatre, Bragg says that she has really gotten to throw herself into social change and her political beliefs, and really take a step towards making change in her community, which is exciting and new for her. 

“I have learned a ton and still have a ton to learn about racial justice, my own white privilege, how that plays out, and what I can do to help stop the racism that is so systemic. That is the single biggest thing I’ve learned since I’ve been here,” says Bragg.