Leslie Ishii (Artistic Director, Perseverance Theatre), Yonsei, fourth generation Japanese American (JA), debuted as an actor in Northwest Asian American Theater’s Breaking The Silence that raised legal funds for, WWII US Concentration Camp Resister, Gordon Hirabayashi and his Supreme Court Case. This standing room-only event featured the first play to publicly reveal stories of JA WWII Concentration Camp survivors, resisters, and their descendants. It began the intergenerational healing of the Seattle JA community. Since experiencing her community’s tremendous emotional response as a teenager, Leslie has felt called to advocate for healing justice through storytelling that is essential to her collaboration and coalition building with Black/Indigenous/People of Color (BIPOC) artists and communities. 

As a theatre director, voice practitioner, activist, and community builder, Leslie is deeply grateful to have on-going relationships with legacy BIPOC theatres; Native Voices, El Teatro Campesino, East West Players, Penumbra Theatre, National Black Theatre, and Theatre Mu. These theatres have profoundly informed Leslie’s ability to work cross racially and cross culturally. Leslie is also a leader in decolonizing to re-indigenize, to liberate spaces in service of racial equity and justice throughout the arts and culture sector. Synergistically, she continues to collaborate on racial equity facilitation teams, continues to teach, serves in coalition on national committees, boards, and panels to dismantle white supremacy culture throughout the American Theatre. Grateful for the wisdom of her Elders and Ancestors, Leslie lives on the cutting edge to courageously advocate for the liberation of BIPOC artists in every initiative, justice campaign, space and creative process with which she curates and engages.