Register for PTO 2026
The 29th Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed (PTO) Conference
PTO Minneapolis 2026
Democracy in the Ashes: Voices of Resistance, Songs of Transformation
– Online Conference Day: July 19, 2026 (click here to register for the online conference)
– Pre-conference workshop Songs of Protest, Songs of Justice: July 23, 2026 (click here to register for this pre-conference workshop)
– Pre-conference workshop Introduction to Theatre of the Oppressed with PTO Board Member Mark Weinberg: July 23, 2026 (click here to register for this workshop)
– Conference: July 23-26, 2026 (click here to register for the in-person conference)
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Host Site: Augsburg University
– Post-Conference workshop with Julian Boal: July 26-28 (click here to register for this workshop)
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Host Site: Mixed Blood Theater
“My voice is in tune with a different language, another kind of music. It speaks of resistance, indignation, the just anger of those who are deceived and betrayed. It speaks, too, of their right to rebel against the ethical transgressions of which they are the long-suffering victims.” –Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage
Registration is now open for most PTO 2026 events:
Online conference registration / inscripción para la conferencia en línea
Please scroll down for conference cost information. / Desplácese hacia abajo para obtener información sobre el costo de la conferencia.
ABOUT THIS YEAR’S GATHERING
Democracy in the Ashes: Voices of Resistance, Songs of Transformation
La convocatoria de propuestas en español Convite para Submissão de Propostas – português
In a time when public education, democracy, community organizing, the arts, and critical pedagogy face extraordinary threats, this year’s conference invites educators, activists, artists, and community members to gather in solidarity. We recognize the ashes of programs dismantled, communities marginalized, and voices silenced. Yet, in these ashes, we also see the seeds of resistance and the songs of transformation. Across the world, oppressions continue to intensify on many fronts, but people continue to build mass struggles to survive and even (when at all possible) thrive.
The unique ways that Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal approached education and theatre provide inspiration and tools to resist the dehumanizing strategies employed in our current political moment and ways to transform the remnants of former structures into tactics to transform our world into a more just and equitable society. Join us in the L’Étoile du Nord, the Star of the North, Minnesota, to forge relationships of solidarity and to build something new from the ashes of what has been dismantled. Minneapolis, which sits on the stolen lands of the Dakota and Lakota peoples as well as the Anishinaabe people, claims the motto En Avant, or Forward and provides a space for us to remember what has been taken but more importantly to look forward to what can be, what must be.
This gathering provides opportunities for people to share and expand on their methods to create participatory justice in spite of our current material, economic, and political conditions. In these bleak times we offer not only hope, but real, practical ways to move toward a new society, regardless of who or what party is officially in power. We will amplify the voices of those resisting the consolidation of executive power in ways that trample human rights, including the current wave of kidnappings and deportations and violence against those who protest. We will explore work that attempts to offer liberating visions and methodologies, including restorative and transformative justice initiatives, abolitionist activism, healing practices, calls for reparations, organizing across the country, environmental justice and the fight against environmental racism, food sovereignty, housing rights, and other ways people are reckoning and grappling with the current moment. And we will sing songs that ask us to transform our current moments of despair, anger, and fear into practices of radical hope, love, and joy–joy is resistance!
This conference is a platform for sharing knowledge, experiences, and building new coalitions. We encourage attendees to not only address challenges but also celebrate innovative solutions and victories that bring joy and inspire change.
While our current moment revels in dehumanization and destruction, we call for people to gather in the radical idea that while we must let go of structures whose endings we cannot control, we can build something new to transform the world if we stay connected and remember why the fight is critically important. It is true that democracy seems to be burning, but we can lift our voices in resistance, and we can transform what is into what could be. “Democracy in Ashes: Voices of Resistance and Songs of Transformation” reflects our attempts to acknowledge what has been lost but more importantly to take action to transform what is into a just, equitable world.
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About PTO:
Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed (PTO) is an organization with international membership that supports people whose work challenges oppressive systems by promoting critical thinking and social justice through liberatory theatre and popular education. Our approaches stem from the theories and practices of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal. We foster collaborative connections to share, develop, promote, and document liberatory theatre, popular education, and other revolutionary actions. Our annual conference seeks to provide an accessible, inclusive, and educational space. We actively seek both introductory sessions for those new to Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed practices, as well as advanced sessions for long-time practitioners.
MORE QUESTIONS TO GET YOU THINKING ABOUT THIS YEAR’S THEME:
- How can TO and PO raise questions about the difficulty and risks of active resistance in the face of systemic oppression and the accompanying threats?
- Paulo Freire discusses the interplay of anger and joy, in particular of educational practices: “The kind of education that does not recognize the right to express appropriate anger against injustice, against disloyalty, against the negation of love, against exploitation, and against violence fails to see the educational role implicit in the expression of these feelings.” He also says that he “felt a sense of joy that [he] was able to be angry” (Pedagogy of Freedom 45). How can anger and/or joy be a motivating factor in work for transformation? How can we keep ourselves in a productive anger and not a debilitating anger that prevents action?
- What roles do community-based theatre and popular education play in ensuring that stories of activism and social change remain in the bloodstream of working-class communities? How does dialogue around those stories promote the development of radical imagination and lead to transformation?
- What ideas do you have for transformative acts that can be implemented in our current moment, both within the physical and economic constraints being forced on peoples (in your community/state/nation) and in ways that ignore or overcome those constraints?
- How can we remember/mourn/take care of structures that are being ripped out of our communities while not becoming fatalistic about the impossibility of change? How can we think of social hospicing as a practice of taking care of those things that we must let go of as best we can and also of building new structures and practices that work toward humanization and liberation?
- What role does radical imagination play in crafting new visions of justice, equity, and community empowerment amidst today’s crises?
- How do liberatory theatre and education techniques manifest themselves in different places and situations around the world? Should, and if so, how can we simultaneously support efforts to amplify the voices of groups facing and battling focused oppressions and unite those diverse voices in the pursuit of a just and equitable world?
- How might music, singing, and other artistic practices expand how we think of resistance, and how might they lead to transformation? Can you offer a workshop, a paper, or a world cafe topic to think through what Boal might have called the aesthetics of the oppressed?
- What is the role of safety in our current moment? How might it be possible to engage in transformative work without putting lives at risk? When is it important to take safety risks and what are the tactics of managing them to minimize risk as much as possible?
- What is the role of liberatory theology in resisting and transforming our current moment?
- What practical tools can you imagine to help focus joy as a radical act of resistance?
Registration Costs for PTO (español a continuación):
Please note that the registration for the main conference is SEPARATE and distinct from registration for any pre-conference workshop or post-conference workshop. Those workshops have separate costs.
Early Registration (from when registration opens in February through May 15, 2026)
Open Access Member Registration (Early): $85 (USD)
Regular Access Member Registration (Early): $185 (USD)
Organizational Member Registration (up to 5 attendees–Early): $675 (USD)
Non-Member Registration (Early): $255 (USD)
High School Student Registration (Early): $25 (USD)
Online Only Registration: $30 (USD)
Regular Registration (Starting May 16, 2026):
Open Access Member Registration: $100 (USD)
Regular Access Member Registration: $215 (USD)
Organizational Member Registration (up to 5 attendees): $760 (USD)
Non-Member Registration: $285 (USD)
High School Student Registration: $35 (USD)
Separate Registration for Post-Conference Workshop with Julian Boal (which will take place July 26-28, 2026): $200 (USD)
Costos de inscripción para la PTO:
Tenga en cuenta que la inscripción a la conferencia principal es independiente y distinta de la inscripción a cualquier taller previo o posterior a la conferencia. Esos talleres tienen costos separados.
Inscripción anticipada (desde que se abre la inscripción en febrero hasta el 15 de mayo de 2026)
Inscripción de miembros de acceso abierto (Anticipada): $85 (dólares estadounidenses)
Inscripción de miembros con acceso regular (Anticipada): $185 (dólares estadounidenses)
Inscripción de miembros de la organización (hasta 5 asistentes–Anticipada): $675 (dólares estadounidenses)
Inscripción de no miembros (Anticipada): $255 (dólares estadounidenses)
Inscripción de estudiantes de secundaria (Anticipada): $25 (dólares estadounidenses)
Inscripción solo en línea:$30 (dólares estadounidenses)
Inscripción Regular (A partir del 16 de mayo de 2026):
Inscripción de miembro de acceso abierto: $100 (USD)
Inscripción de miembro con acceso regular: $215 (USD)
Inscripción de miembros de la organización (hasta 5 asistentes): $760 (USD)
Inscripción para no miembros: $285 (USD)
Inscripción de estudiantes de secundaria: $35 (USD)
Inscripción por separado para el Taller Post-Conferencia con Julián Boal (el 26 al 28 de julio de 2026): $200 (dólares estadounidenses)
Registration is now open for most PTO 2026 events:
Online conference registration / inscripción para la conferencia en línea
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